The Look Book

Lou, Jay, and Mickey Smart, Members of the Smart Brothers

"We sold our cars, quit our jobs, and turned in the keys to our apartments."

By Emma Rosenblum
Published Sep 21, 2008

(Photo: Spencer Heyfron)

Can you sing me your favorite song?
JAY: Sure, sure. Wait. Right now?

Yes.
Well, okay. This is “Lullaby.” It always reminds me of getting home after a long time away. [Sings] “Girl, go to sleep / You are safe in my arms / I’ll be waiting till morning co-o-omes. / Girl, close your eyes / You are safe in my home / I’ll be waiting till morning co-o-omes.”

Nice. So you three are really brothers?
Yes. I’m 23, my brother Lou is 21, and my half-brother Mickey is 21. He’s my father’s son. I’m kind of the spokesperson for the band.

What are you guys doing here?
We’re from San Diego, and we’ve been on the road since January. We sold our cars, quit our jobs, and turned in the keys to our apartments.

Have you been singing together since you were kids?
Pretty much. My brother Lou, he met a girl in school and wrote maybe twenty songs in ten days.

He wrote them all in this romantic frenzy?
Yep. He sat down with a guitar, and every single day he’d call up at seven in the morning and say, “Guess what? I got another song.”

Do you fight a lot when you’re on the road?
We have a conflict-resolution method. If we’re just fighting and fighting, one of us will say, “All right, I’m going to write you a letter about that.” And sure enough, a couple days later one of us will get an e-mail. It allows us to fix the problem and not tear each other apart.