Spotlight: Alex Bleeker
Alex Bleeker wrapped up his latest solo record in the early days of 2020, before the world came crashing down. And he’s releasing it in March 2021, as the global pandemic inches into its second year in North America. But Heaven on the Faultline actually speaks surprisingly well to the year in between: The album was born in isolation in Bleeker’s Bay Area home, featuring songs that unfurl slowly and gently and grooves that bubble up and blur previous conceptions of time. It’s a soundtrack for those warm, comforting quarantine naps that have made the last year bearable.
Bleeker—best known as Real Estate’s bassist, co-founder and occasional lead singer—couldn’t have known that when he created these songs, of course. But the hazy looseness of Heaven on the Faultline was influenced by another type of “stuck”: the feeling of dashed expectations. Back in 2015, Bleeker and his folk-rock collective The Freaks released Country Agenda, a gorgeously arranged classic-rock album that many hailed as a stylistic ode to the Grateful Dead. Though Bleeker had been playing under The Freaks banner for years with a rotating cast of friends— including his Real Estate bandmates—and even tried out some Freaks songs with his other outfit early on, the LP featured a more solidified lineup and forward[1]thinking approach.
Five years later, Bleeker reflects, “We made a polished, full-band studio record, and we had really high hopes for what might happen. That’s the name of the game—that record is trying to impress you. And as much as I don’t want to admit that we worried about it, we felt a little disappointed.”
After Country Agenda, Bleeker turned his attention back to Real Estate—the band released albums in 2017 and 2020—while slowly, organically, laying down tracks alone in his bedroom when he wasn’t out touring the world. They were just for him, and very much just for fun: playful, sweet and simple melodies, and slyly grinning lyrics.
“If you call me the sunlight then I’ll start to glow/ If you call me a snowflake, let it snow,” he sings on the elastic, Phish-like folk tune “Twang.”
“I wasn’t trying to impress anyone with these songs,” he says. “This is the sound of me just doing my thing at home and, whoever is stoked on it, that’s good enough. It’s devoid of pretense—and that mindset can lead to great music.”
So when Bleeker took his collection of “homespun, homemade, lo-fi psychedelia,” as he calls it, to Tropico Beauty Sound Recording Studio in Los Angeles, the idea was just to give these songs a bit of shine— to add what Bleeker couldn’t quite achieve at home using GarageBand. But over a two[1]week session, with the help of co-producer Phil Hartunian and a handful of local musician friends, Bleeker ended up rerecording most parts, he says, with the simplicity of the bedroom recordings as a guide.
“We had the pencil drawings of these songs, and just inked over them, you could say,” he explains. “We replaced everything just so that it sounded better while still keeping the same style and vibe. So it’s a homemade record, remade in the studio.”
Across Heaven on the Faultline’s 13 tracks, Bleeker colors in those pencil sketches in with echoing piano, slow[1]grooving bass and jangling guitar. He looks at the world through a detached, isolated lens—and what he sees is more comforting than terrifying. If the record feels like a warm blanket musically, then lyrically it’s like an encouraging note from a friend.
Bleeker originally wrote the cascading riff of “D Plus” while watching Donald Trump’s inauguration, “that weird, fucked-up, terrible parade.” He felt the fear of the moment crystalize, but a sense of calm was overriding.
“The universe has existed and will exist for so much longer than our tiny blip on the radar. The song was a message to myself—we’re plugged into something a lot deeper,” he remembers. “This feels so scary and huge, but there are bigger things at play than this asshole.”
The words tumbled out of him: “It’s all part of the show, the river ebbs and it flows/ And the pendulum slows: It’s coming back now/ Nature’s greatest defense is indifference; come and lay your head beside the water.”
Bleeker actually completed Heaven on the Faultline in January 2020, but mostly kept it a secret for months. He didn’t feel the need to force its release; the realization that it felt like a quarantine record was only in hindsight.
In the meantime, Real Estate’s fifth album, The Main Thing, hit the public on Feb. 28, 2020—precisely as the world became inundated with panic and uncertainty.
“The critical response to the album was solid, but also, by March 1, it was like, ‘OK, we’re worrying about other shit now. Cool Real Estate record, guys!’” Bleeker says with a laugh.
Still, the band took advantage of 2020’s limitations: While they couldn’t tour, Real Estate explored how to connect with their audience. They released handmade tie-dye T-shirts, held online chats with fans and welcomed a new drummer Sammi Niss, who made her debut during a virtual performance. Bleeker also began recording by-request covers—including the Dead’s “Box of Rain” and “Dire Wolf.” The model they followed was the best in the business.
“It’s no secret that I’m a Phish fan,” Bleeker says. “And one thing I respect about them is how they create a whole universe. It’s so fun to be a Phish fan because you’re part of it. That’s our ultimate goal. We hope that Real Estate fans feel like they are part of something—that they know that we see them and know that we’re all in this together.”
