Guitarist Julian Lynch is newest member of Real Estate

Connections. Even in indie rock, it’s all about connections.

Julian Lynch needed a job. It was a little more than a year ago and Lynch, like a lot of Ph.D. candidates, had living expenses to cover. He had just returned to Madison, Wisconsin, after a long research trip to India. One night, fellow guitarist Martin Courtney, a friend since their Ridgewood High School days, came to town to play a show.

Lynch played on Courtney’s solo album and so was invited to join him onstage for a song. Later, they got to talking. Courtney, the primary vocalist and songwriter for the acclaimed indie group Real Estate, caught Lynch up on recent developments. Matt Mondanile, yet another mutual Ridgewood friend, was departing the band to focus on his own solo group. Real Estate had a vacancy for a lead guitarist.

Fast-forward a few weeks: After ironing out some details, Lynch had his new job. The announcement was made last May.

“The timing just sort of worked out really well,” Lynch said.

Real Estate, back as a fully restored five piece with its Ridgewood roots stronger than ever, released its fourth album, “In Mind,” on March 17. There are months of touring to come, including a pair of shows in Brooklyn on May 17 and 21.

“He’s somebody that we’ve known for a long time,” Courtney said of the new hire. “We know his musical style. We respect him as a musician, incredibly.”

Lynch, currently finishing up his own solo record (his fifth since 2009), came aboard at a critical juncture for Real Estate. “In Mind” is the band’s first release since 2014’s “Atlas.” Mondanile’s exit forced Courtney to consider how Real Estate should move forward.

One option was to record the new songs as a foursome. Bass player Alex Bleeker, another founding member from the Ridgewood days, was still around to help shape the material, joining Courtney, drummer Jackson Pollis and Matt Kallman on keyboards. Later, they could bring in a guitar player just for the live shows. It didn’t take Courtney long to abandon that idea.

“We never really wanted to have like a hired-gun kind of situation,” he said. “We wanted somebody that was going to join and be a solid member of the band. We just didn’t know who.”

Things remained up in the air when Courtney and Lynch met up in Madison, where the latter was working on his third postgraduate degree at the University of Wisconsin. As it turned out, Courtney’s solo concert was a critical moment in resolving a period of uncertainty for Real Estate.

“We were talking later and he said there’s a vacancy in the band,” Lynch said. “Half-jokingly, I was like, well if you ever need a temporary guitarist let me know. Because I was sort of underemployed at that point.”

Courtney certainly seemed like he wanted it to happen. “As I’m talking to him, I was like, ‘Wait, you should join the band. It should be you.’ It makes so much sense. But also he’s working on his Ph.D. I didn’t expect that he’d want to do it, or could spare the time.”

A day or two later, Courtney ran the idea through Bleeker in a text. The bass player, Courtney said, was quickly on board. Once upon a time, the trio was three-quarters of an indie startup band in Ridgewood called The Enormous Radio (the name lifted from a John Cheever short story). Now, they are three-fifths of Real Estate.

Lynch has certainly grown accustomed to juggling several projects at once. He spoke just a few days after returning from several months in India on yet another research trip. He’s also finished most of the recording for his next solo album, his first since 2013’s Lines. “I don’t have a title yet,” he said. “I had an idea for a title today. I won’t say it yet.” There were band rehearsals in New York for the Real Estate tour, which kicked off on March 13 at the South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas. And, of course, there’s that doctorate to finish.

“I’m what they call ABD, which is all but dissertation,” Lynch said. “So now I just need to write. … Whenever I have time off from Real Estate stuff I’ll just write. Furiously.”

Hardly the stuff of on-the-road rock star exploits, but Lynch is nothing if not serious about his academic pursuits. He already owns two master’s degrees, one in anthropology and the other in ethnomusicology, which is also the subject of his Ph.D. His dissertation will trace inter-related conflicts over loud sound in public spaces in Indian cities. The graduate degrees, Lynch said, could eventually lead to teaching and perhaps more research, but that’s a question he’ll ponder later.

Details 'In Mind'

Right now, there’s the Real Estate tour and the highly anticipated album release.

Courtney spoke excitedly of “In Mind,” which was recorded in Los Angeles with producer Cole M.G.N. The new 11-song collection (Bleeker wrote and sang lead on one track) retains what Pitchforkmedia.com once called an “idyllic” tone, and Courtney’s lyrics take his listeners to places that clearly conjure images of bucolic Beacon, N.Y., where he and his wife are now raising two small children.

Musically, the record follows “Atlas” as less layered and echoed than Real Estate’s first two records. But skillful guitar interplay has always been a hallmark of Real Estate’s sound and “In Mind” stays true to that blueprint. Lynch contributes precise, at times soaring moments on guitar. His lead lines on “Darling” and “Serve the Song” punctuate gentle lyrics, but “Stained Glass” and “Time” allow him a bit more room to flex his muscles. “Saturday” is a lengthy and meaty rocker that features more sterling moments for Lynch and closes the album with one final flourish.

As a whole, Courtney said he realized his main goal with “In Mind,” which was keeping the new material fresh.

“I kind of made a decision to not be as precious about the songs and let in more influences from other people and more ideas from the band,” he said. “Not having a lead guitar player just kind of opened up a lot of space for every member of the band to feel freer to throw more ideas out there. When I listen to this album, I don’t just hear a bunch of songs that I wrote. It just feels more like this thing that is greater than myself.”

It’s anyone’s guess when Lynch’s solo record will come out, what with the artist’s busy calendar. But it’s fair to assume it won’t sound much like a Real Estate record.

It’s hard to lump Lynch’s own singer-songwriter music into a single category. In its 2013 review of “Lines,” Pitchfork spoke of “pristine arrangements, indecipherable lyrics, and swiftly curtailed genre explorations.” There is an undeniably interesting mix of guitar styles in his recorded work and he indulges in sonic experiments that feature a lush conglomerate of instruments, all of which Lynch plays himself.

“With my solo stuff I’m a lot more inclined to throw stuff against the wall and see how it sticks,” Lynch said. “Or not fully compose stuff before I start recording.”