Cary Brothers from EP to CD

Who You Are Shows a natural Progression from his earlier Music

Jun 20, 2007

In part 3 of our interview, Cary Brothers tells Suite101 how his EPs often struggled to be recognised, as well as how his songwriting has evolved from the early days.

Genre: Alternative / indie / rock
Cary Brothers (vocals / acoustic), Jason Kanakis (guitar), Marco Meneghin (drums), Matt DelVecchio (bass)
Sounds like: Pete Yorn, Badly Drawn Boy
Home: Los Angeles, California
Cary Brothers

An EP Is A Proper Record

Although Who You Are is Cary Brothers' first full-length album, he has also released 2 well-received EPs, 2004's All The Rage and Waiting For Your Letters, which came out the following year. However, that's not always the be all and end all of releasing music...

Here, in part 3 of our interview with Cary, we sit down and discuss how America has problems with proper records, and the songwriting process that Cary works to.

Special thanks go to Cary for being such a wonderful and genial interviewee, and to Jenna LoMonaco at Girlie Action Media for arranging everything.

Cary Brothers Interview Part Three: A Question Of EPs

Suite: You've mentioned on your website that you'll soon be pulling your EPs from distribution, so you can concentrate on the new album. Is there a chance that these will appear at a later date, or as newer versions on future albums?

Cary: I'd like to think so. See, this full-length album is a big thing for me – I would have loved to have brought 1 out sooner than this, but I've just never had the means or the time. I'd be in the studio recording 4 songs, and then I'd have to leave to go on tour. Then I'd get to the stage where I'd want to give fans another CD, so I'd make another EP while touring, then it'd be back on the road again. One thing I have found, though, is that people in the States generally don't understand the concept of an EP at all.

Suite: Really? (Laughs). That must be pretty hard for indie artists like yourself.

Cary: Oh, like you would not believe! I mean, I grew up with indie bands, and I'd be in my local music store getting their EPs or vinyl singles, whereas in the US, you bring out an EP and people are like "Well, it's not really a record" (laughs). I had people saying to me they couldn't wait to buy my music when it comes out, and I'd email them back and say I had music out there, and they'd respond with "No, no, no – the record", which I just thought was hilarious. I guess the music buyers in the US just don't understand the concept. So yeah, having said that, I just want to push everyone towards the record right now and focus on that, which means having to pull the EPs. Someday, though, hopefully I can put these back up, or put the 2 of them together as a full record with some additional material, maybe even at the end of the year.

Suite: How do you approach the songwriting process? Is it melody first then lyrics, or vice versa, or would you say it's a mix of both?

Cary: I'm pretty much a melody guy. I'm not the kind of guy that goes around with a paper and pen, journaling my life (laughs). A song will usually come into my head, so I'll switch my tape recorder on, or fire up my laptop and start playing around with ideas. It might be that I get a melodic guitar line here, a vocal line there, and then once I have that structured to some degree, I'll start working on the lyrics. Then at that time, I'll just go with whatever comes out of my mouth – I literally vomit lyrics (laughs).

Suite: Vomits Lyrics – you should trademark that for an album title (laughs).

Cary: For sure – Vomiting Lyrics by Cary Brothers (laughs). So yeah, for me, it's all about getting the music right. I've done a lot of writing in my life, and that's not the hard part. I'm trained well enough to be able to turn a phrase – yet writing lyrics also reminds me of having to write papers in college, and I didn't like that at all. So for me, creating the melody is definitely the thing. Plus, I feel that lyrics are often just another note in the song, and it's everything together that makes the song whole. That's why I was never a crazy lyrics fan. I mean, I have the utmost respect for Bob Dylan, but I couldn't write that way. If I can just write something that connects emotionally with someone, whether lyrically or musically, I'll be happy. It's like Sigur Ros – I have no idea what they're even saying, but their music just grabs hold of you so much.

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