Real Estate contributed this cover of The Strokes ‘Barely Legal’ to Stereogum’s Stroked: A Tribute To Is This It compilation.

Matt, Alex and I – as well as all of our friends – were pretty much obsessed with this band when we were 15. We formed a Strokes cover band and played at Cassie (Ramone)’s sweet 16. When Alex got his first electric guitar, he opted for the white Stratocaster like Albert Hammond Jr. He even had the red lightning bolt strap. The approach to doing this cover was to not make it sound like the original, pretty simple. However, these songs are all arranged too well already that it’s pretty hard to come up with something new. We did a half-time drum beat thing, and then the rest of it just kind of fell into place. // Martin Courtenay

Real Estate - Barely Legal (The Strokes cover)