Cary Brothers (born April 2, 1974) is an American singer-songwriter, producer, and occasional actor from Nashville, Tennessee. Based in Los Angeles since the early 2000s, he became associated with the city's Hotel Cafe singer-songwriter community and developed a career built around intimate indie rock, atmospheric pop, and emotionally direct songwriting. His work has also become widely known through film and television placements.
Brothers began writing songs as a teenager after buying his first guitar at age 13. Although he grew up in Nashville, his early musical interests leaned toward British alternative and new wave artists as much as American folk and rock. After attending Northwestern University, he moved to Los Angeles and became a regular performer at the Hotel Cafe, a small venue that served as an important gathering place for emerging singer-songwriters. He later helped create the Hotel Cafe Tour, a traveling series that brought many of the venue's performers to audiences across the United States and Europe.
His first significant release was the independent EP All the Rage in 2004, followed by Waiting for Your Letter in 2005. These releases established the restrained, carefully arranged sound that would remain central to his work. Brothers gained broader attention when his song "Blue Eyes" appeared on the soundtrack to Zach Braff's film Garden State (2004). The soundtrack became a major commercial and cultural success, placing Brothers in front of a much larger audience. His connection with Braff, a former college acquaintance, also led to the inclusion of "Ride" on the soundtrack for The Last Kiss (2006).
Brothers expanded his profile with his debut full-length album, Who You Are, released in 2007. Produced by Chad Fischer, the album combined acoustic songwriting with piano, strings, electronic textures, and polished alternative-rock production. Songs such as "Honestly," "Ride," and "The Last One" helped define his reputation as a songwriter whose music could function both as personal confession and cinematic atmosphere. The album reached the Billboard Heatseekers chart, while its single "Ride" later received a successful club remix by Tiesto.
His second album, Under Control, appeared in 2010 through his own Procrastination Music label. The record debuted at number one on the iTunes Singer-Songwriter chart and continued his emphasis on melodic, studio-shaped songs. Brothers also moved further into electronic music, contributing vocals and songwriting to Tiesto's Kaleidoscope and co-writing and singing the title tracks for Cosmic Gate's Wake Your Mind and Start to Feel.
During the following years, he released the cover collection Covers Volume One, along with the EPs Let Me Be, Lovin' on You, and Covers Volume Two. His third full-length album, Bruises, arrived in 2018 and included the single "Crush," which received strong support from Los Angeles radio station KCRW.
Brothers has licensed music to numerous television series and films, including Grey's Anatomy, Scrubs, Smallville, The Vampire Diaries, Easy A, and No Hard Feelings. In 2023, he made a screen appearance in A Good Person, performing "Stardust" opposite Florence Pugh. The song, co-written with Scott Effman, was subsequently recognized by the Hollywood Music in Media Awards. Through his recordings, collaborations, and extensive synchronization work, Brothers has maintained a distinctive place between the independent singer-songwriter scene and the wider world of film and television music.