''Real Life'' is the second studio album by Evermore, released on 8 July 2006. It debuted on the

ARIA charts The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offic ...

at number five and on the

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charts at number two. It reached double-platinum certification in Australia. Four singles were released: "

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Light Surrounding You "Light Surrounding You" is the second single by alternative rock band, Evermore, taken from their second studio album, ''Real Life'' (June 2006). It was written by Dann Hume, the group's drummer. The record is co-produced by Jon Hume. The song ...

", "

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" and " Never Let You Go".

Production

The band wrote and recorded demos for the album at their Central Coast home studio in

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, Australia. This time around, all three brothers had an input on the songwriting with everyone working on their songs individually before bringing them together for the final polish. Jon and Dann were the most productive, collectively writing around 50 songs. All of the music was written on guitars and piano. After two months, the band flew to Easton, Maryland in the

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where they met up with engineer

John Alagía John Alagía is an American record producer, composer, mixer and co-founder of Drive Music. Alagia has worked with artists including Lukas Nelson, Paul Simon, Herbie Hancock, Dave Matthews, John Mayer, Jason Mraz, Serena Ryder, Brett Dennen, R ...

who the band worked with on ''

Dreams A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...

''. The band chose to work with John Alagía because they knew he would let them get on with the job. "To be honest, we did nearly all of it without him," says Jon. "We basically worked with him because we had to - the record company wouldn't allow us to do it all ourselves." After some preproduction work, the band headed to

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where in keeping true to their rural roots recorded at Longview Farm, the oldest recording studio still operating in the US and where artists such as Jimi Hendrix,

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and Aerosmith have recorded. The album was also recorded at The Village Recording Studios in

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and was mixed by

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

winning engineer Tom Lord-Alge in

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Reception

The Age ''The Age'' is a daily newspaper in Melbourne, Australia, that has been published since 1854. Owned and published by Nine Entertainment, ''The Age'' primarily serves Victoria, but copies also sell in Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory ...

'' reviewer Michael Dwyer described ''Real Life'' as "a roller-coaster of intense gestures and hollow sentiments", criticising the album's "overwrought drama" and lack of restraint.

Bernard Zuel Bernard Zuel is an Australian music journalist. Zuel wrote for Fairfax Media newspapers ''The Age'' and ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' since 1992. He became their senior music writer and reviewer. Zuel is a judge of the Australian Music Prize a ...

of the '' Sydney Morning Herald'' said the album showed a lack of ambition, and said the most disappointing thing about it was not that it failed, but that "you suspect this is exactly what it was meant to sound like". He complained about the lack of excitement on the album, compared to ''Dreams''.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

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Certifications

Personnel

Jon Hume Jon Hume is an Australian-born New Zealand musician, songwriter and record producer based between Los Angeles and Nashville who has written and produced songs for JP Cooper, Galantis, Bebe Rexha, Guy Sebastian, Sofi Tukker, Dean Lewis, Icona ...

– vocals, guitars, percussion * Peter Hume – vocals, bass, keyboards, piano, artwork *

Dann Hume Dann Hume (born 1 September 1987) is a New Zealand musician, music producer, mix engineer and songwriter. Hume began his career with his two brothers (with Peter Hume and Jon Hume) who make up the alternative rock band, Evermore since 1999. B ...

– vocals, drums, guitars, piano, percussion *

Julian Hamilton Julian Thomas Hamilton (born September 1976) is an Australian singer-songwriter and keyboardist, who, with bandmate Kim Moyes, formed the electronica duo, The Presets in 2003. They have issued four studio albums, '' Beams'' (September 2005), '' ...

- keyboards on "My Guiding Light"

Release history

References

External links

* {{Authority control Evermore (band) albums 2006 albums Albums produced by John Alagía