And on this 7^th day, after a cross-country tour and killin it at the El Rey Theatre in LA, Cary Brothers is not resting, but still enthusiastically posting on the Gaia Online entertainment forum. Today, he’s in the forum chatting with fellow Gaians as a video collage of his life on the road plays in the Gaia Cinema. The video gives viewers a brief glimpse of this indie rocker’s life on tour, in concert, and behind closed doors. MoU’s very own Biz Dev Director, Jeff Freedman, conducted part of Cary’s interview in the video (rock on Jeff!). I sheepishly called it a “rockumentary” before, but now, feeling a bit more brazen with my cornyness, I will stand by my original description. It’s a rockumentary and it’s great.

Cary in the forum:

User: “Even if I didn’t like your music I would still support you solely based on the fact that you’re toughing it out trying to do the independent thing, which I imagine is a lot more complicated and tricky than most people understand/appreciate.

I’m generally not a huge fan of the sort of alternativey rock sound or whatever they call it these days, but listening to your sample I actually liked it. A lot of people pursuing a similar style to yours come off as a little on the contrived side, but I get a more sincere feel with your music. Still isn’t exactly my style of choice, but that’s more a matter of my taste, so this is my way of saying that I like your music even though it’s not exactly my style. ”

Cary: “thanks for the support. it’s a tough road doing it indie, but it’s more than worth it at the end of the day. i love the fact that so many people on gaia have been honest about not listening to my kind of music but still digging it. that was the point of all this - to throw the music out there and hope people give it a chance no matter what their music tastes are. i couldn’t ask for anything more.”

User: “Wowwww… so your sound is like… ear candy. (Which sounds a little icky, but I hope you’ll take it the way it’s intended.)

So out of curiosity, what was it like being involved in Garden State? It’s probably one of the craziest movies I’ve ever seen (Rocky Horror being the exception), though the craziness distracted me from the soundtrack. And who are some of your favorite musicians?

Thank you for taking the time to get involved here, whether or not you find time to answer all of our questions- honestly, I would never have expected half the posts you’ve found the time to make. Thanks so much! (And welcome to Gaia!)”

Cary: “garden state was such a crazy experience. i got involved when it was just this tiny independent film, and no one really believed that zach (who they saw as just a tv actor) would be such an amazing director. then it sold at a film festival, and the next thing i knew the soundtrack had sold a million copies and won a grammy. it worked because zach basically made a mix tape of his favorite songs - there was no one telling him what to do. he just followed his instincts, and it worked. i’m so proud to be a part of something that successful mostly because it was so organic how it all came together.

a pleasure to be your ear candy… um, that sounded weird”

Also available today are two new virtual items Cary’s giving away. Gaians can grab the virtual cd of Cary’s latest album “Who You Are” in the cinema and a Cary Bros. t-shirt (designed with subtle irony for Gaians wanting to show off their hipster fashion-savvy) in the forum.

This campaign has been an absolute joy to work on. Bluhammock’s laid-back, chillaxed attitude combined with Cary’s uber-cool approach and style has made my job a Producer’s dream. I’d like to thank them for embarking on this experiment with us, which by all measures, has proved to be successful.

Special thanks to David Wei and Joe Hyrkin at Gaia Online for executing this campaign fast and furiously.

Final thought - hope this campaign will serve as an example of how simple it can be for artists to connect to their audience. Being talented and having a great personality is important, but investing the time to directly engage fans and have them understand “Who You Are” as an artist is a big step in the right direction.

Tags: BluHammock Music, Cary Brothers, Gaia Online, indie music, music distribution

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 20th, 2007 at 4:16 pm and is filed under Eliana's Thoughts, Gaia, Gaia Online, Virtual Whirls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.