It’s every college band’s dream – one week, they’re playing in high schools and basements; the next week, they find themselves on stage downtown at the Metro (3730 N. Clark). Weinberg junior Ryan Brady and his band Real Lunch will live this dream Sunday, Jan. 21. Whether fans are drawn to the artistic fliers they hang up before shows, their stuck-in-your head melodies or the quirky name, Real Lunch is poised to make their big-stage debut this weekend.
PLAY: Real Lunch is playing at the Metro Sunday – how’d that happen?
Ryan Brady: Well we had played at a venue called the Clearwater Theater (96 W. Main St.). And the booking agent – or the owner, I’m not exactly sure – he liked us. He was like, “Bring in a certain number of people and we’ll talk about the Metro show.” He had been talking to our bassist, Jake, and they had formed this sort of friendship. Just through communication, I guess, just playing shows and bringing people out, we got this Metro deal. [The booking agent] got in touch with us – it might have been through MySpace – and just sort of said, “So you want to play the Metro?” And we were like “Uh, yes!” I was like, “I don’t even care who it’s with, we want to play!”
PLAY: How do you feel about such a big show?
RB: I mean, to put it in a word, “good.” You know how you felt when your mom told you the Easter Bunny or, you know, Santa Claus, wasn’t real? It’s pretty much the exact opposite of that. You’ve seen your own heroes up on that stage, and I’m playing this game in my mind, picturing myself up on that stage that the Smashing Pumpkins have played on. Ben Folds has played there. It’s just an honor, really.
PLAY: What kind of music do you play?
RB: Well, we started off playing something that was akin to the Beatles. It was kind of that pop-y, piano-y, melodic rock. But lately we’ve been doing a lot of different things. Each of the four of us brings something different to the table. There’s a little David Bowie, and a little Killers in there now, primarily because I bought a lot of synthesizers. The synthesizer is one of the greatest things of all time. So there’s a little Arcade Fire in there, and a little Franz Ferdinand. I hate to drop band names, because the stock answer is, you know, “we sound like a little bit of everything.” There’s just a lot of different cool things going on.
PLAY:How did you guys all come together to form the band?
RB: I knew Jake (Serek) from high school, but the way the band came together is that at the end of my senior year, I got together with Max (Perenchio), in a very heterosexual way, of course, and he loved John Lennon, but I was a big fan of McCartney. So there was kind of this ego thing between us. We both wrote songs, I mean, bad songs, the bad songs you write in high school, not the bad songs we write now. We got together, wrote a couple tunes, formed a band with the other guys. I played bass in high school, and Max knew the drummer. Max and Brian (Selke) are roommates at ISU (Illinois State University) now. Jake goes to DePaul (University) and I go here. Now we have to get together every weekend or so to practice.
PLAY: So, Real Lunch. What’s the name about?
RB: You know, when I do get asked questions about the band, that’s always the popular one. Max and I – and Jake, too – were trying to think of band names. We had a list of hundreds or thousands, I don’t remember the number. But Max was like, “Let’s just name our band Naked Lunch,” because he was reading this book by William S. Burroughs, called Naked Lunch. I was like, “Why don’t we call it Real Lunch?” Because there’s this song by John Lennon “Real Love,” that the Beatles finished posthumously after he died in 1995. And it was just kind of, you know, lunch is my favorite meal of the day – I don’t know about you. Real Lunch? What does that even mean? Is it metaphysical, is it a pun, is it a joke? Is it like, not “free lunch,” like in economics? If anything, it’s a really stupid name that gets people thinking. I mean, is The Red Hot Chili Peppers a good name? No, but they play great music.
PLAY: Do you get cheesy jokes about the name?
RB: Actually, Max used to be in a band called Toast Face, so people say. “Max, oh, I get it. It’s like ‘Toast Face,’ that’s breakfast, and now there’s ‘Real Lunch’, so what’s next – like, ‘Fake Dinner’? ‘Fake Brunch’? And I just think, “No, you’re an idiot.” I actually kind of like the jokes now. So if we ever do something bad, it’s like they’ll say, “Real Lunch serves up a real stinker.” “Real Lunch lost the secret recipe.” Any of those, I think they’re funny.
– Kate Bernot
