I was excited to receive a phone call from Gary Braun, all-around badass and unofficial front man for the band (that’s my title for him and one I’m sure he’s not at all comfortable with), for a short interview.  We would have had more time but he got "stuck in traffic."  Just teasing, Gary.  Our conversation was filled with laughter and we had so much good material that the write-up had to be cut way down (I kept in the bit about the secret code between the Braun boys.).  I’ve provided a few LOLs to help you along (think sitcom audience being instructed to laugh by the flashing "laugh now" sign!).  Enjoy!"And we’re off…{mosimage}Gary and his younger brother, Micky Braun, grew up in Idaho, playing in a family band lead by their father, Muzzie Braun, and accompanied by their older brothers, Cody and Willy (both of Reckless Kelly).  After high school, lead singer and guitarist, Micky, drummer, Travis Hardy, and Micky-taught bassist, Mark McCoy, moved to Arizona and played casually for a short time, until deciding to move back to Idaho where Gary was working at a local ranch.  Gary then joined the band as a guitarist (harmonica player, harmony vocalist, mandolin player… see, badass), and they landed their first gig as Micky & The Motorcars (MMC to their biggest fans!) at a Salmon, Idaho, wedding in early 2001.  That fall, Ken Smith joined the band as lead guitarist and, in January 2002, the band moved to Austin, Texas.  Their first record, Which Way From Here, was released in 2002 after relocating to Austin.  "We had the songs pretty much that we knew we wanted to record, and we just didn’t really get it together until we got down here."  Their second, and most recent record, Ain’t in it for the Money, was released in 2004.  Between records, some of the original Motorcars decided to head on down the road; Travis was replaced by Shane Vannerson and Ken was replaced by Joseph Deeb.  Before Joseph joined MMC, he used to be a solo artist, and around the time he joined the band, he finished cutting his first record.  Because Ken was looking to get back to his family in Idaho but didn’t want to leave the rest of the band hanging, it was perfect when Joseph came along.  "We met Joseph [in Austin] when we were doing these Monday night jams with Reckless Kelly down at a club called Momo’s…  We were all getting together and it just was kind of a free-for-all.  A lot of musicians have Mondays off down here so it kind of got to be a pretty good jam.  Joseph was coming in every week and jamming with us…  As soon as Joseph showed up we snagged him…  It worked out good."{mospagebreak}Because I hadn’t previously understood that Joseph’s solo record was pre-MMC, I had been worried that he was thinking about leaving the band.  Thankfully, my concern was for not and Gary confirmed that the current band members have a great fit, which is pretty obvious if you’re fortunate enough to see them live.  "I think we’ve got a good chemistry going on stage.   We’re pretty open with each other so we can get along and tell each other where to go, too, and still be friends the next day."  Both of MMC’s records feature a track written by the legendary Pinto Bennett.  "The thing with Pinto is, he’s a good friend of ours for one, but he’s got a million great songs…  He’s got so many great tunes and nobody else is gonna do them so it’s like, I hate to see them just go away, you know?"  So what inspired the guys to use Pinto’s Ain’t in it for the Money as the title track on their second record?  It wasn’t that they were opposed to the money; it was just that they didn’t have any yet…  "I guess it was probably just where were at in our lives down here, you know?  We were broke but we were having a good time!" he laughed. Another great song they covered on their second release was July, You’re a Woman.  This song gets a lot of fan press and I wondered what prompted them to include it.  "That’s a John Stewart song that my Dad used to play in his band….  And then another friend of ours did it; kind of a bluegrass band did it.  So… Micky actually kind of came up with the version on that.  We always liked the tune and it went over real good live.  So that’s kind of how we pick tunes, too."  Knowing that positive public opinion was an indicator of potential sales, I wanted to know how often they played Million Miles, one of my favorite songs on the record, live before they decided to record it.  "We really didn’t even start playing it a whole lot live until after we recorded it.  That’s a song Willy wrote probably ten years ago [insert untold story here]…  I asked Willy ‘Hey, you guys ever gonna do that tune?’ and he said ‘No…’ I guess it’s kind of like the Pinto Bennett theory.  It’s a good song; somebody might as well do it."   So there’s a million great songs out there, both by MMC members and outsiders.  When do we get our next fix?  With their first release in 02’, and their second release in 04’, it seems only reasonable that they would follow suit and release their third record some time in 06’, right?  "Yeah, I would hope so by then.  We haven’t set any times yet; we’re still working on tunes.  We’ve got a lot of it written, I think.  Were working some of it into the show, but we don’t want to play all of them in the show before it comes out.  It’s really just a matter of us having the time to get in the studio and cut the record…  It’s been a good year."So what songs have the lucky folks been hearing live (since I’ve only seen them perform four times L) that might show up on the next record?  "I would say for sure Winter of 72′ which is a Kip Attaway song, a cover song that the crowd has just been asking us to record.  We’ve been doing that one for three years now and people are starting to want it on the record. So we’ll probably do that.  And then, let’s see… the one I’m singing, Lost and Found, right now is pretty new; we’ve only been doing that for a couple months.  And I think that will probably go on the record if everybody still likes it."  If everybody still likes it?!  I couldn’t believe that the crowd would dig a song for a while and then lose interest…  How is that?  "It’s hard to say…  We’ve done that in the past with a couple of tunes.  We play them for a while and then you just … end up replacing them with something else.  Other than that I really don’t know; we’re just going to have to wait and see."{mospagebreak}Now that we had a list of potential songs out of the way, I could get to my real question about the number 19.  Being a woman, I have taken my fair share of responsibility for reading into things.  My conversation with Gary was no different when we discussed the hotel room number on the cover to their second record.  I noted that the room number, 19, was the same number that was circled on the cover of one of Reckless Kelly’s records, The Day, and knew that it was probably part of a secret code between the four brothers.  "No, it’s not.  You guys… [LOL]  That’s hilarious."  And here I thought I had been so clever to make the connection…  Ah well, we laughed and quickly moved on to the next subject.  Incidentally, Gary, we all know you’re lying…With the writing for their third record underway, I wanted to talk a little bit about how the songs and credits are divvied up.  "[Micky] was the main songwriter on Which Way From Here, and then Joseph wrote quite a bit on the last record…  We all write.  It just kind of depends.  When we pick our tunes fo
r the record we do what we think is best for the band, you know, not really caring who wrote it as long as everybody’s comfortable with it. "{mosimage}When songs are written collectively by two of the four brothers (say, Willy and Micky, as in Holdin’ On, Long Gone or Nobody’s Girl), I figured there was some protocol for deciding which band would take ownership of the song (i.e., record it and play it live).  Although Gary didn’t think he was the best person to ask about the arrangement, he gave me the sense that generally the co-written songs are up for grabs by whichever band needs a new number.  "Micky and Willy have written quite a bit together…  Willy kind of just did Nobody’s Girl and we kind of just did Holdin’ On, Long Gone.  We play Nobody’s Girl, too, when we’re not playing with them.  A lot of times both bands will do the song, we just both don’t record it…  There’s no real laws there, I guess."On their latest record, Cody and Willy were brought in to help with harmony vocals and drums/percussion.  "Yeah… our drummer, Travis, had just quit and moved back to Idaho…  We actually didn’t have Shane yet, I think, when we recorded with Willy.  Willy was filling in gigs with us and stuff and we were really actually cutting a demo when we first went in and did three tunes.  So Cody and Willy were around and they were kind of helping us with that and then the tunes ended up going on the record because they came out as good as we thought we could do them.  We just went ahead and threw them on instead of re-recording them…"After all this talk about Reckless Kelly, writing songs together, and recording together, I wanted to know from Gary how it feels to be labeled as the ‘little brothers’ and compared to Reckless Kelly.  I wanted to know if the MMC guys are inspired by them or if they’re tired of being the sequel set of Brauns.  "I’m a little brother and I’m a big brother so I kind of know both sides of it, you know?  We don’t really give a shit; we’re bothers.  People can compare us all they want but as far as I’m concerned we grew up playing together and singing together and we’re gonna sound a little bit alike.  We all just play what we like and love and it turns out how it turns out…  People can take it or leave it…"{mospagebreak}In the same vein, MMC has been touring a lot with Reckless Kelly and I think it’s fantastic that the four boys got to play together as youngsters and now get to play together as adults.  "Yeah, we play with them as much as we can because we have fun on the road together, we can share gear, it works out real good for both bands. In a lot of towns that we haven’t played that they’ve played, it gives us an opportunity to get in front of some new audiences.  Then when we’re on our own in a couple weeks or months we can go back and play those towns by ourselves.  Really, it’s helped us more than it’s hurt us.  Actually, I don’t think it’s hurt us at all.  It’s been really actually pretty good."{mosimage}Recently, on a New Year’s tour with Reckless Kelly, Gary jumped in and rode the crowd at a Boise show ("We had a pretty wild night…  it was fun").  He has a steady presence on the band’s website (www.mickyandthemotorcars.com) message board, and he obviously takes interviews – i.e., front man.  With the role of front man generally defaulting to the lead singer, I wondered if this was a role that Gary sees himself playing, or if it’s a role he’s comfortable with or prefers.  "No, not really.  I do the message board thing and the internet thing because the other guys are taking care of other business…  I kind of do a lot of the little stuff, like I go to the post office [LOL]; they sign the contracts…  We’re all pretty involved.  We all just have our own little chores that we take care of…  The message board stuff… somebody I just think should do it and communicate with those people that are on it, so I do."  I bet everyone reading this article appreciates Gary’s availability on the website.  Some would even argue that there’s a telepathic connection between him and his biggest fans…Speaking of the website and fans, I asked Gary about a recent post from an unsatisfied concert attendee.  His response on the website was very diplomatic and I asked him to elaborate on how it feels playing to a rough crowd.  "We play over 200 shows a year and you’re gonna have few nights when you’re more tired or don’t give as much as you should…We try to put on the best show we can every night with what we’ve got and if the crowd’s really not feeding back to you it’s hard to get into it some nights.  And that guy could have caught us on a night when the crowd wasn’t giving us anything…  We try to have a good time and do our job.  If you walk out and they’re all lined up at the front ready to roll, you’re gonna get a better show that night; that’s just the way it is…  If the crowds into it, the band will get into it.  It’s a two way street…  Sometimes… you get some guy calling you on it and it’s like ‘Well, where were you?  You weren’t doing your job as a fan!’" he chided.{mospagebreak}Because fans are such an integral part of the performance, how does the band feel about taking on-the-spot requests?  They’re fine coming up with their own selections, but it sounds like we can request if we promise not to be too heartbroken or disgruntled if the band cannot (or does not) oblige.  "It’s cool if they’re requesting your tunes [LOL!].  If you know the song and it fits into your set, you’re happy to take a request and do it.  If… people are requesting… a genre of music that you don’t play, and they just keep after you, it’s a little overbearing."  I know this sort of drunken behavior shouldn’t surprise me, but being a fan of MMC, a non-cover band, I couldn’t see it happening.  Who would make outlandish requests to a band that has such great original music (with a few choice covers)?  Gary set me straight.  "You’ll occasionally get that guy that wants to hear some Skynyrd." Hey, guy, for future reference, please do us all a favor and attend a different gig.  The rest of us came to see MMC! I thought it would be fun to ask Gary one of the same wrap-up questions I asked his older brother, Willy, when interviewing Reckless Kelly, and compare their answers.  What would he be doing with his time if he wasn’t making music?  Like Willy, he said "I’d probably go back up to Idaho and build houses.  I’d probably get out of the city if I wasn’t doing this; be in the mountains."  I let him know that Willy gave me the same answer and he said "Well I guess that’s because we’re not really good at anything [LOL]…  I don’t know why you’d want to go build houses when you can play guitar."  Mountains, Gary.  Only for the mountains. And last but not even remotely resembling least, I concluded by asking Gary a random question about one of their songs.  I have wanted to know for a while why Wasted Time is written as Cha Cha Cha on their setlists.  Who would have guessed that the only thing I could come up with was, in fact, the real reason?  "[We call it Cha Cha Cha] because it ends with [insert vocal imitation of the guitar ending to the song here – I don't know how to spell that!]."  Then he went on to sing through his laugh "Cha Cha Cha, Cha Cha Cha, Cha Cha Cha" and clarify "It’s actually a triple Cha Cha Cha."  I told him that it all made sense and he remarked "Right.  It’s brilliant."Visit Micky and the Motorcars website at http://www.mickyandthemotorcars.com/Purchase the latest CD f
rom MMC entitled "Ain’t In It For The Money"Thanks to Gary for the wonderful interview and insight, and great success to all of you with your current tour and next release!