Robert T Warburton, Staff WriterPublished 8:24 a.m. ET Aug. 25, 2017 | Updated 12:03 p.m. ET Aug. 25, 2017
Guitarist Matt Mondanile knew that finally, it was time to leave Los Angeles.
It was early February. Work on the new Ducktails album, his sixth, had stalled. The Ridgewood native had been toiling for months on the project. In 2016, Mondanile left Real Estate, the successful indie band he helped start after college, to channel all his creative resources into the side project turned primary occupation. But not enough was getting done.
It was also obvious that L.A. had become part of the problem. Mondanile was tired of having to drive everywhere. Tired of sharing a house with five roommates. Tired of the rented rehearsal space turned DIY recording studio. Even the incessantly nice weather was getting on his nerves. “I got tired of the sun, to be honest,” he said. “I felt like a total foreigner in California.”
After four years on the Coast, it was time, Mondanile knew, to go home. He moved back to Ridgewood.