Fill out our Daily Orange reader survey to make our paper better


Q and A with Cary Brothers

The Daily Orange: With your last name, do people often think you are two people?Cary Brothers: Everybody. Oh man, everybody. You have no idea how many times on this last tour I would pull up and it would say ‘The Cary Brothers.’ But, you know, listen, as long as people buy the music and listen, I could give a shit. I’m happy all of this is happening. In time, if I have a label deal, I’ll have a PR team to tell people I’m just one guy. And in the mean time, I can tell if that people care about what I’m doing if they know I’m just one guy.

D.O.: Tell me about ‘Garden State’ and your association with the movie.C.B.: I went to college with Zach Braff. And then I moved out to L.A. and he moved out there and was waiting tables trying to be an actor and I was working odd jobs trying to be a musician. And we kind of developed this group of friends that were all really supportive of each other. And I was introducing him to a certain scene of music and at the same time he introduced me to others, and we became total music nerds.

D.O.: So how did you become part of the soundtrack?C.B.: Well, when that movie happened, at the time it was a little indie movie that nobody really cared about, so there was free reign to do whatever we wanted with music. And after he made it he called me up and he said, ‘I would really like to use ‘Blue Eyes’ in this scene,’ and I said, ‘Sure.’

D.O.: How do you feel about being known for just that song?C.B.: It’s kind of the nature of the music industry these days; everyone has just one song. But, it’s a blessing and a curse. I can play that song and people are familiar with it, but at the same time it isn’t completely representative of everything I do. So one thing I really have done last year is get on the world and play and play and play to build a fan base based on my body of worked except for just the song … that song will always be part of the story, but the more opportunities I get, the more I am able to make it just another song in the collection.

D.O.: With your association with both music and movies, tell me what you think about Internet piracy?C.B.: I have the attitude that once I make a song, it’s not mine anymore. Obviously, I would like to make money doing this for a living. But if you make music now, somebody can get it for free. I don’t think it’s a bad thing at all. If I download a song and I like what they are doing, I will go and support the band financially. Music is meant to be shared. It happened with tapes years ago, and now it’s happening on computers. If somebody wants something for free, they are going to get it for free. But I have seen where kids come to show and say, ‘I downloaded all your stuff for free, but I bought your CDs tonight.’ So it works out in the end.



D.O.: So what do you think of ‘Garden State’ as a movie?C.B.: I thought it was a good movie. I thought there was a very cultish following of the film. And for some people there hadn’t been a movie that had spoken to them so directly, and that’s why it worked. Plus it helped sell a lot of CDs, wh





Top Stories