With songs influenced by everything from 1980s British
new wave music to 1970s
folk music, Brothers achieved early critical and commercial success with his independent EPs
All the Rage (2004) and
Waiting for Your Letter (2005), both of which reached the top of the
iTunes Singer-Songwriter charts. While many artists focus their efforts on
radio exposure, Brothers went a slightly different route and pushed to get songs out to the public through film and television shows as part of a generation of similar-minded indie artists in the United States. Brothers' songs have appeared on the medical dramas ''
Grey's Anatomy, Private Practice,
ER and Scrubs, the ABC sitcom Cougar Town, the Fox mystery Bones, The CW shows Smallville, One Tree Hill
and The Vampire Diaries, USA Network comedy Psych'',
ABC Family's show
Kyle XY, and the movies
Easy A (2010) and ''
Where We're Meant to Be'' (2016). The original version of Brothers' song "
Ride" appeared on the soundtrack to the feature film
The Last Kiss (2006) alongside
Coldplay and
Ray Lamontagne. Brothers has also performed on
The Late Late Show,
Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Direct TV's
CD USA. In 2005, he made a guest appearance with the London artist
Aqualung on the
Late Show with David Letterman and
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Brothers plays regularly as part of the musical community at the
Hotel Café in Los Angeles, and he has since toured across
America and Canada with such acts as
Greg Laswell,
Sara Bareilles,
Liz Phair,
KT Tunstall,
Aqualung,
Ben Lee,
Matt Nathanson,
Imogen Heap, and
The Fray. In addition to his career as a musician, he co-created The Hotel Cafe Tour, which ran for 4 years in both the U.S. and Europe. Brothers also co-produced
Joshua Radin's first EP and the song "Winter" from Radin's record
We Were Here. In 2007, Cary Brothers signed a record deal with indie label Bluhammock Music for the release of his first full-length album,
Who You Are, on May 29, 2007, which made the
Billboard Heatseekers Chart. Produced by
Chad Fischer (Alexi Murdoch) and mixed by
Greg Collins (Grammy Winner – U2), the record features guest musicians Matt Hales from
Aqualung and
Priscilla Ahn. The video for the single "Ride" starring
Brittany Snow was added to the rotation on
VH1 in the U.S. In addition, the record won "Best Rock Album of 2007" by the Indie Acoustic Project. Brothers' track 'Ride' has also been mixed by
Tiësto and was a success on the dancefloors of Europe in 2008. He helped close Friday night at Bonnaroo in the summer of 2008 by making a guest appearance with Tiësto and repeated this musical pairing a few months later at the O2 arena in London. In 2009, Brothers went into the studio to work on his second full-length record. In addition, that year he had an original track called "Here on Earth" on the Tiësto record
Kaleidescope alongside
Sigur Rós,
Tegan and Sara,
Kele Okereke,
Priscilla Ahn and
Emily Haines.
Under Control was released on April 6, 2010, through Brothers' own Procrastination Music label and premiered at No. 1 on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter charts and No. 10 on the Billboard Heatseekers Chart. Cary toured extensively in the United States in support of the record in 2010 and 2011 as both headliner and as an opening act for the
Sara Bareilles tour. Staying active in social media, Brothers was named No. 14 on
Paste Magazine's "50 Musicians Worth Following on
Twitter" in August 2011. In May 2012, Brothers released a DIY collection of five cover songs entitled
Covers Volume One, featuring songs by
Yeah Yeah Yeahs,
David Bowie,
Duran Duran,
INXS, and
Matt & Kim. The EP also features guest vocals by
Rachael Yamagata,
Butterfly Boucher, and
Priscilla Ahn. It premiered in the Top Ten on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter Chart. In addition, Brothers released the EPs "Let Me Be" in 2014 and "Lovin' On You" in 2015. After touring the US and Europe in 2015 and 2017, Brothers third full-length record
Bruises was released on April 27, 2018. The single “Crush" went Top 5 on KCRW's influential Morning Becomes Eclectic radio show. In spring 2023, Brothers appeared in the film
A Good Person, performing his single "Stardust" for the main character Allison (
Florence Pugh). That summer, his song "Back to the Start" was featured in the
Jennifer Lawrence comedy
No Hard Feelings. ==Personal life==