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10.05.04
We received his EP shortly before the gem called "Garden
State' hit the movie theaters. Since then, Cary Brothers
is enjoying success spawned from his track on the soundtrack.
But there's more than his hit folkster song, "Blue
Eyes." Read on for more.
 Tell
me a little about you and the music aspect of your life.
When did you start playing and singing, who helped make
your EP? What were your expectations when making this
EP?
I grew up in Nashville surrounded by music, and I got
my first guitar at thirteen. I've pretty much been writing
songs ever since. Although the persistent FM radio in
my head had my air-guitaring Zeppelin tunes when I was
four years old, my teenage musical heroes were mostly
British and European bands, like The Stone Roses, The
Cure, and U2. There was a mystery to the accents and
the reverb-laden moodiness that appealed to me growing
up in a pretty clean-cut, conservative environment.
I'm a big fan of more mystery in music which those bands
had in spades.
I've had a number of bands over the years, but I've
been playing and honing my chops as a solo artist for
the last couple years at The Hotel Cafe in Hollywood,
which has spawned a bunch of great singers like Gary
Jules, Alexi Murdoch, and Charlotte Martin. Gary saw
me at an open mic one night and asked me to start playing
there regularly. There's an amazing, supportive community
of musicians at the Cafe, which is rare, especially
in Los Angeles. It was a good place to grow.
While playing there, I had been working odd jobs and
saving up money to make a real record after recording
on an old eight-track player for years. This record
came about when I finally got in the studio with producer
Chad Fischer. I've wanted to work with Chad for a long
time, and we just clicked in the studio. I recorded
this EP so fast that I really had no expectations -
I just wanted to finally make a record on which the
songs sounded just like they did in my head.
Congrats on your film soundtrack fame! What else
has been happening as a result of blue eyes being featured
in "Garden State"? Is all this i-tunes promo
because of that?
I'm distributing this thing myself from my bedroom,
so mostly this success means that I have less time to
write while I'm shipping CDs all over the place. All
I wanted to do was play music, but these days you have
to become a businessman, too. I made sure the EP was
up on Amazon and iTunes because I was pretty sure the
soundtrack would sell there. A few companies told me
they wouldn't distribute my record on iTunes because
I wasn't on an established indie label - I was too indie
for them. A great company called Psychobaby in Austin
did my digital distribution and has been amazing. People
who've bought the soundtrack have been going back to
get my EP, so it turned out just as I had hoped. iTunes
gave me free ads because it was seliing well, and then
that brought more traffic and sales.
With the Garden State attention, I've started to get
some more exposure like an appearance on "The Late,
Late Show" on CBS and a quick appearance singing
on "Scrubs" on NBC. Since I don't have any
money at all for promotion or marketing, I'm just doing
everything I can to get some press on the web or on
TV every few days to keep things goin. A lot of the
grassroots part of this came from spending a few months
finding people who liked the music on online communities
like MySpace as well as hitting message boards like
a madman.
Sounds like that was a great step for you. Give
us some lyrical background on "Blue Eyes"...
The easy version is that "Blue Eyes" is a
song about an amazing girl I know, but it's also a song
about the South and about how an old-boy, alcohol-fueled
mentality has fucked up a lot of people down there.
The Tennessee Williams--like romantic notion of a family
desperately trying to hide their secrets and keep it
together entertains on the stage, but it ain't so much
fun to watch it happen to people you know. Sometimes,
I get tired of these clever and ironic tunes out there
and just wanted to write a straight-up honest love song
about helping someone get out of the dark place in their
own head.
Tell us a little bit about this song, "Honestly".
Honestly was me doing my best to stop staying up all
night and thinking about my ex-girlfriend... trying
to fool myself into believing that I was over it. You
can probably tell by the song that I wasn't.
Any plans for a full length album?
As soon as I can, I'd love to get back in the studio
with Chad - hopefully before the end of the year. I've
got more than enough material that I want to record.
The only reason the EP is only four songs is that that's
all I could afford to record at the time. Hopefully,
I can wrangle some money out of somebody.
Your style varies from the slow dreamy tunes to
the uptemp semi-alt rock tracks. Explain this diversity!
It bores me to hear a record that only does one thing.
It's great if someone has conquered one certain sound,
but I get bored with those records after a while. I
prefer to take people on a journey over the course of
a record and at live shows. The highest highs and lowest
lows. I can only go so far on a four song EP, but I
plan on further extremes on the full length.
Are you currently touring?
I'm stuck in Los Angeles for the moment working on
new songs with my amazing band (Jason Kanakis, Josh
Curtis, and Chris Steele). Just like recording, touring
costs money, so hopefully I'll be able to take whatever
I make on CD sales in the next couple months and turn
it into a touring fund so we can hit the road in the
New Year.
You've also been producing, tell us a little about
that.
I love working with new artists. I go crazy in a room
alone trying to finish some of my songs, but with someone
else it's more often than not a really exciting experience.
Half-songwriter/half-therapist. Recently, I worked a
lot with a very cool singer/songwriter and good friend
from New York, Joshua Radin, who came out to LA this
Spring to make a record that I co-produced with Chad
Fischer. I'm crazy with my own stuff these days, but
I'm co-writing and doing some demos with a phenomenal
singer named Jordan Seay (who sang back up for me when
I did "The Late, Late Show"). I'd love to
be producing a lot more down the road.
You're definitely on the right track. What's coming
next for you?
Right now, I'm meeting with a lot of record company
people and gearing up for a big show I'm doing at The
Knitting Factory in Hollywood on October 19th. The toughest
thing about doing all of this on my own is that I have
to be up early to run the label and distribution, and
I write all night, so there's not a lot of sleeping
these days. Hopefully, sleep is in the cards at some
point.
Ooh definitely get some sleep. What are you currently
rotating album wise?
I've re-discovered the Gersey "Storms Dressed
as Stars" record. They're an Australian band that
should be getting a lot more attention stateside very
soon. I find myself putting the Death Cab For Cutie
song "Transatlanticism" on repeat for long
periods of time. Still looking for a new band to impress
me like the last two Doves records. The more I write,
the more I am impressed by and regret the demise of
The Smashing Pumpkins. I come back to their "Gish"
album a lot. Sigur Ros is always my night music. And
there is Huge, an NYC band that just relocated to LA
which blew me away last week with their new stuff at
a live show. They have the moodiness of Interpol with
the sweep of U2. Dope.
Thanks so much for your time. Best of luck to you!
Interviewed by Kristen
Fischer
DiscoveringArtists.com
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