{{Short description|American musician, filmmaker and podcaster}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2021}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Matt Farley | image = Matt Farley.jpg | alt = | caption = Farley in 2025 | image_size = | birth_name = | alias = | birth_date = {{birth date and age|1978|6|3}} | birth_place = Massachusetts, U.S. | home_town = | death_date = {{Death date and age|YYYY|MM|DD|YYYY|MM|DD}} | death_place = | origin = Danvers, Massachusetts, U.S. | instrument = Vocals, piano, keyboards, guitar | genre = Alternative rock, rock music, folk, novelty songs | occupation = Musician, filmmaker, podcaster, author | discography = | years_active = 1996–present | label = Motern Media | spouse = {{marriage|Elizabeth Peterson|2012}} | website = {{official URL|https://moternmedia.com}} }}
'''Matt Farley''' (born June 3, 1978)<ref name="cjrooney">{{Cite web |url=http://cjrooney.com/matt-farley/ |title=Quest for a Million Listeners: Matt Farley on Songwriting, Philosophy and His Creative Life |last=CJ Rooney |date=December 21, 2017 |website=CJRooney.com |access-date=May 20, 2019}}</ref> is an American singer-songwriter, musician, filmmaker, author and podcaster who has released more than 26,000 songs {{as of|2025|April|lc=y|1|df=US}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/MoternMedia/photos/this-is-not-an-april-fools-joke-congrats-to-matt-farley-who-recorded-his-26000th/1328586598380223/|title=This is not an April fools joke. Congrats to Matt Farley, who recorded his 26,000th song last night!|publisher=Motern Media|access-date=April 16, 2025}}</ref> Farley's creative output is released under his label Motern Media, and he usually presents his musical work under a variety of pseudonyms and band names, including the Toilet Bowl Cleaners, Papa Razzi and the Photogs, the Hungry Food Band, the Guy Who Sings Songs About Cities & Towns, and the Odd Man Who Sings About Poop, Puke and Pee.
Farley has starred in, co-written, co-produced and released over 15 amateur feature-length movies with his friend Charlie Roxburgh including ''Don't Let the Riverbeast Get You!'' (2012); he also hosts two podcasts.
==Life and musical career== Farley grew up in Peabody, Massachusetts, and graduated from Bishop Fenwick High School in 1996. He majored in English at Providence College in Rhode Island.<ref name="nytimes2024">{{cite news |last=Martin |first=Brett |date=March 31, 2024 |title=Why Did Matt Farley Put a Song About Me on Spotify? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/31/magazine/spotify-matt-farley.html |access-date=March 31, 2024 |work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref name="providencemagazine">{{cite news|url=https://news.providence.edu/matt-farley-songwriter/|title=Why Matt Farley '00 wrote 25,000 songs for Spotify|work=providence college Magazine |first=Liz F.|last=Kay|date=Fall 2024|access-date=August 3, 2025}}</ref> There he met guitarist Tom Scalzo, and they started musical duo Moes Haven. Farley says he wrote many songs with Scalzo before they graduated in 2000, including writing an entire half-hour album every day for a college year. Farley continued to release music with Moes Haven, including making a 30 minute album a day in 2006, releasing the best songs from each month. Farley then moved to Manchester, New Hampshire, specifically because he knew no-one who lived there. He left CDs of the band's work in public places across the city, and drove people to his local airport so he could get them to listen to the band's music. Moes Haven was strongly influenced by Bob Dylan, Van Morrison and Pink Floyd.<ref name="nytimes2024" /><ref name="providencemagazine"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://krui.fm/2024/08/17/interview-matt-farley-on-the-freedom-of-being-prolific/|title=Interview: Matt Farley on the freedom of being prolific|publisher=KRUI-FM|date=August 17, 2024|first=Harry|last=Westergaard|access-date=August 3, 2025}}</ref> Farley also worked a 40-hour-week day job for three days a week at a group home for teenagers,<ref name="nytimes2024" /><ref name="wired2015">{{Cite magazine |last=Klinkenerg |first=Brendan |date=January 8, 2015 |title=The Musician Who's Gaming Search Engines To Actually Make Money |url=https://www.wired.com/2015/01/matt-farley/ |magazine=Wired}}</ref> and continued to do so until 2017.<ref name="nytimes2024" />
Farley states that in 2004, the pair learned they could upload music to CD Baby. A few years later,<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |last=Perry |first=Kevin EG |date=2014-01-29 |title=This Guy Made $23,000 by Releasing 14,000 Songs on iTunes and Spotify |url=https://www.vice.com/da/article/youneedtohearthisthis-guy-made-23000-by-releasing-14000-songs-on-itunes-and-spotify/ |access-date=2024-12-05 |website=Vice }}</ref> he discovered that "Shut Up Your Monkey", a comical song by the band, had become its only song to be downloaded in large numbers,<ref name="nytimes2024" /> and that their songs with silly titles were the only ones to generate revenue. He soon began writing and recording songs about common terms he thought people might type into a search bar.<ref name="nytimes2024" /><ref name="wired2015" /> He said in 2014 that "people were searching for unique words – words that aren't usually in song titles."<ref name="guardian1">{{Cite news |last=McConnell |first=Fred |date=January 29, 2014 |title=Spotify: how a busy songwriter you've never heard of makes it work for him |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/media-blog/2014/jan/29/spotify-how-a-busy-songwriter-youve-never-heard-of-makes-it-work-for-him |access-date=May 20, 2019 |work=The Guardian}}</ref> He later uploaded Moes Haven's catalogue to iTunes, and then Spotify.<ref name="nytimes2024" /> Farley created the umbrella name for all of his works, Motern Media, after misspelling the word "intern" in a work-in-progress 10,000-page novel.<ref name="nytimes2024" />
By January 2014, he had released over 14,000 songs in 200 albums under 65 different band names, at an average pace of around 20 per day, or 100 per day maximum.<ref name="guardian1" /> In January 2015, Farley said he was recording 200 songs per month, having written over 16,000 songs at that point, including a 92-song album about office supplies. He had set a goal to quit his day job so he could make music seven days a week.<ref name="wired2015" />
thumb|upright|Farley in 2019|left In 2016, he performed "Used to Be a Pizza Hut", a song topic derived from internet traffic about how re-purposed locations of the American chain restaurant still retain their distinctive roof style, on ''The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon''.<ref name="substream1">{{Cite news |last=Mastrogiacomo |first=Angela |date=July 9, 2018 |title=Matt Farley continues to exist: How one man is bringing quantity and quality to Spotify |url=https://substreammagazine.com/2018/07/matt-farley-continues-to-exist-how-one-man-is-bringing-quantity-and-quality-to-spotify/ |access-date=May 20, 2019 |work=Substream Magazine}}</ref> The ''Reply All'' podcast has featured Farley multiple times and used his custom songs.<ref name="replyall">{{cite podcast | date=November 17, 2016 | url=https://gimletmedia.com/shows/reply-all/llhezj/82-hello | title=#82 Hell? | number=82 | work=Reply All | via=Gimlet Media }}</ref> By 2017, his musical career was so lucrative that he was able to focus on it full-time, leaving behind his day-job at a group home for teenagers.<ref name="njsongs">{{Cite news |last=Remo |first=Jessica |date=September 2018 |title=This guy wrote 88 terribly awesome songs about N.J. towns. Have a listen |url=https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2018/09/this_guy_made_90_something_songs_about_different_n.html |access-date=August 8, 2021 |work=NJ.com |publisher=Advance Publications}}</ref>
Jonathan Eig of ''The Wall Street Journal'' wrote about his experience writing a song for his children, "Armpit Farts, A Love Song," with Farley in 2020.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Eig |first=Jonathan |author-link=Jonathan Eig |date=2020-01-04 |title=The Family Delights of Silly Poop Songs |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-family-delights-of-silly-poop-songs-11578114060 |access-date=2024-12-05 |work=The Wall Street Journal}}</ref> In 2021, Farley self-published a 136-page manifesto on creativity titled "The Motern Method".<ref name="nytimes2024" /> In 2024, ''New York Times'' journalist Brett Martin found that Farley had written a song about him specifically, 11 years prior.<ref name="nytimes2024" /> Farley has now slowed down to producing one 50-song album per month,<ref name="nytimes2024" /> and he performs an annual five-and-a-half-hour concert "extravaganza" in Danvers, Massachusetts, where he now lives.<ref name="aussiealbum">{{Cite news |last=Bennett |first=Emily |date=February 6, 2019 |title=Matt Farley of Motern Media puts Highlands towns on the map in Australian-themed album |url=https://www.southernhighlandnews.com.au/story/5891905/american-singer-songwriter-puts-highlands-towns-on-the-map/ |access-date=May 20, 2019 |work=Southern Highland News}}</ref> His songs received attention on TikTok in October 2024 when users of the site discovered they could find their own personalized "poop song".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Marcin |first=Tim |date=2024-10-17 |title=TikTok is discovering nearly every name has a 'poop song' |url=https://mashable.com/article/tiktok-poop-song-trend |access-date=2024-12-03 |website=Mashable |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2024-10-21 |title=How to find your personalized poop song on TikTok, YouTube & Spotify |url=https://www.dexerto.com/tiktok/how-to-find-your-personalized-poop-song-on-tiktok-youtube-spotify-2956028/ |access-date=2024-12-03 |website=Dexerto |language=en}}</ref>
== Musical artistry == [[File:MattFarleyMay2021 (cropped).png|thumb|upright|Farley reading a zine about his music in 2021]] Much of Farley's output consists of piano-and-vocals compositions.<ref name="vice1">{{cite news |last=Brawley |first=Eddie |date=September 4, 2014 |title=This Genius Lunatic Has Recorded 16,000 Songs About Everything from Poop to Ellen Degeneres |url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/this-genius-lunatic-has-recorded-16000-songs-about-everything-from-poop-to-ellen-degeneres-57a20695e161b8df3e7c0dae/ |access-date=May 20, 2019 |work=Vice}}</ref> His albums can be up to 100 songs in length.<ref name="inside1">{{cite news |last=D'Onfro |first=Jillian |date=January 23, 2014 |title=This Man Makes $23,000 Posting Music Spam On Spotify And iTunes |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/matt-farley-makes-23k-posting-music-spam-on-spotify-2014-1 |access-date=May 20, 2019 |work=Business Insider}}</ref><ref name="statepress1">{{cite news |last=Heltzel |first=Zachary |date=October 17, 2014 |title=A glimpse inside the mind of the world's most prolific musician |url=https://www.statepress.com/article/2014/10/a-glimpse-inside-the-mind-of-the-worlds-most-prolific-musician |access-date=May 20, 2014 |work=The State Press}}</ref> Farley's pseudonyms, which {{As of|2024|lc=y}} number about 80, often correlate to the subject of their songs; he releases albums about celebrities as Papa Razzi and the Photogs, releases songs about food as the Hungry Food Band, has performed 70 different versions of “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” as the Motern Media Holiday Singers, and sings songs about cities and towns as the Guy Who Sings Songs About Cities & Towns.<ref name="nytimes2024" /> As part of the latter, his lyrics are largely derived from reading Wikipedia articles on each town.<ref name="njsongs" /> Thousands of his songs under the name the Best Birthday Song Band Ever celebrate birthdays,<ref name="nytimes2024" /> each sung about a different name.{{Citation needed|date=November 2024}} {{As of|2024}}, 600 of his songs invite different feminine names to the prom, and 500 of them are marriage proposals. The Sorry Apology Person is another of his pseudonyms,<ref name="guardian1" /> with songs for specific apologies.<ref name="nytimes2024" /> Other albums consist of topics such as sports teams, animals, jobs, weather, and furniture. His other band names include the Guy Who Sings Your Name Over and Over, the New Orleans Sports Band, the Chicago Sports Band, the Singing Film Critic, the Great Weather Song Person, the Paranormal Song Warrior,<ref name="nytimes2024" /> the Passionate & Objective Jokerfan and the Birthday Band For Old People.<ref name="guardian1" />
Farley has two pseudonyms dedicated to songs about fecal matter; The Toilet Bowl Cleaners, which he describes as "making statements with their albums", and The Odd Man Who Sings About Poop, Puke and Pee, which he says is "more shameless".<ref name="nytimes2024" /> According to Farley, one song that contains only the word "poop" repeated over and over generated $500 in streaming revenue every month {{as of|2018|lc=y|post=,}} likely in part because children requested it from Alexa or other devices.<ref name="aussiealbum" /><ref name="rtm1">{{Cite AV media |url=http://www.rightthisminute.com/video/rtmtv-musician-brilliantly-capitalizes-promposal-season-joins-rtm |title=Musician Brilliantly Capitalizes on Promposal Season |date=March 21, 2019 |access-date=May 20, 2019 |work=Right This Minute}}</ref> "Poop in My Fingernails" by the Toilet Bowl Cleaners is one of his most popular songs, with over 4.4 million streams on Spotify {{As of|March 2024|lc=y}}.<ref name="nytimes2024" />
Some of his albums, even from a band such as the Toilet Bowl Cleaners, contain more serious output; that band's 11th album is titled ''Mature Love Songs'', none of which are about fecal matter.<ref name="wnpr1">{{cite news |last=Dunavin |first=Davis |date=January 5, 2017 |title=Digital Savvy Earns Money For New England Musician |url=https://www.wnpr.org/post/digital-savvy-earns-money-new-england-musician |access-date=May 20, 2019 |work=Connecticut Public Radio}}</ref><ref name="filmtrap">Decloux, Justin (June 11, 2018). [https://www.filmtrap.com/the-best-music-of-matt-farley/ The Best Music of Matt Farley (in Five Albums)], ''Film Trap''</ref> Farley refers to these more serious and less lucrative albums as "no jokes" albums.<ref name="nytimes2024" />
Farley often includes his personal phone number in his lyrics, which often yields calls and texts from fans surprised to find the number is real.<ref name="vice1" /><ref name="globe1">{{Cite news |last=Reed |first=James |date=February 7, 2014 |title=Danvers man becomes a click-bait music star |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/arts/music/2014/02/07/matt-farley-danvers-becomes-click-bait-star-writing-thouands-songs/gh7ycIFpS3vIEHyXadPoMN/story.html |url-access=limited |access-date=May 20, 2019 |work=The Boston Globe}}</ref> He has stated that director Dennis Dugan once called him after hearing his song “Dennis Dugan, I Like Your Movies Very A Lot,” but that he did not realize who Dugan was until it was too late.<ref name="nytimes2024" />
== Earnings == Farley has spoken frequently about his earnings from his music over time. Farley earned $3,000 from his music in 2008, and this had increased to $24,000 in 2012.<ref name="nytimes2024" /> He earned over $23,000 in 2013 from his song catalog, with 60% of this money coming from MP3 downloads and the rest from streaming.<ref name="guardian1" /><ref>{{Cite news |last=Perry |first=Kevin EG |date=January 29, 2014 |title=This Guy Made $23,000 by Releasing 14,000 Songs on iTunes and Spotify |url=https://www.vice.com/da/article/youneedtohearthisthis-guy-made-23000-by-releasing-14000-songs-on-itunes-and-spotify/ |access-date=May 20, 2019 |website=Vice}}</ref> He earned over $27,000 in 2014,<ref name="wired2015" /> around $65,000 per year by 2018,<ref>{{cite news |last=Murphy |first=Bill |date=22 September 2018 |title=This Guy Works From Home and Makes Big Money on iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon. (Here's His Brilliant Trick) |url=https://www.inc.com/bill-murphy-jr/work-from-home-spotify-itunes-amazon-music-alexa.html |access-date=August 8, 2021 |work=Inc}}</ref> and almost $200,000 per year by 2023.<ref name="nytimes2024" /> Until 2021, Farley generated $2,000 or more in revenue per month from writing custom songs.<ref name="substream1" /><ref name="jan2014vogt">{{cite podcast |last=Vogt |first=PJ |first2=Alex |last2=Goldman |date=January 22, 2014 |url=https://www.wnyc.org/story/tldr-hundred-songs/ |title=One Hundred Songs In A Day |work=On the Media |number=10 |via=WNYC |access-date=May 20, 2019}}</ref>
{{As of|2024}}, Farley has earned approximately $469,000 from his pseudonyms the Toilet Bowl Cleaners and the Odd Man Who Sings About Poop, Puke and Pee collectively. Additionally, he has earned $41,000 from Papa Razzi and the Photogs, $38,000 from the Best Birthday Song Band Ever, and $80,000 from the Guy Who Sings Your Name Over and Over. Many of his other pseudonyms have earned between two and four digits.<ref name="nytimes2024" />
==Filmmaking==
Alongside his musical output, Farley has also made more than a dozen independently financed low-budget films, almost all as collaborations with director Charles Roxburgh, which star their family and friends, with titles such as ''Freaky Farley'' (2007) and ''Slingshot Cops'' (2016).<ref name="globe1" /><ref name="paste1">{{Cite news |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2018/07/bad-movie-diaries-dont-let-the-riverbeast-get-you.html |title=Bad Movie Diaries: Don't Let the Riverbeast Get You (2012) |last1=Vogel |first1=Jim |date=July 4, 2018 |work=Paste |access-date=May 20, 2019 |last2=Lowe |first2=Kenneth}}</ref> ''Don't Let the Riverbeast Get You!'' (2012) is his most popular work, about a cryptid threatening a small New England town, featuring his father as big-game hunter.<ref name="nytimes2024" />
Their early films were mostly comedy-horrors, but their more recent films have broadened in their genre. As an example, in ''Magic Spot'' (2022), fan-favorite recurring actor Kevin McGee stars as the deceased Uncle Dan Port, who as a ghost visits his young nephews and nieces to teach them a poem; when his nephews Walter (Farley) and Poopy (Chris Peterson) reflect on the poem as adults, they find that it reveals the secret to both time travel and their uncle's mysterious death. From 2021 through 2025, Farley and Roxburgh are attempting to release two films per year.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Zigler |first1=Brianna |title=The Mad Genius of Magic Spot, Motern Media, and Matt Farley |url=https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/matt-farley/matt-farley-motern-media-magic-spot |access-date=2023-06-21 |work=Paste Magazine |date=2022-06-03}}</ref>
His working method, primarily relating to his music, is the subject of a 2018 Australian documentary, ''Lessons from a Middle Class Artist''.<ref name="aussiealbum" /> He wrote and directed two fictionalized self-portraits on his life and career, 2013's ''Local Legends'' and 2024's ''Local Legends: Bloodbath!'', the only films Farley has made where Roxburgh is not credited as director and co-writer.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Farley/Roxburgh's Heard She Got Married |url=https://www.screenslate.com/articles/farleyroxburghs-heard-she-got-married |access-date=2023-08-10 |website=Screen Slate |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://filmmakermagazine.com/127618-ive-got-my-finger-on-the-zeitgeist-matt-farley-on-local-legends-bloodbath/|title='I've Got My Finger on the Zeitgeist': Matt Farley on Local Legends: Bloodbath|work=Filmmaker Magazine|date=October 15, 2024|access-date=June 1, 2025}}</ref>
Farley's film work has been chronicled in the book of interviews ''Motern on Motern: Conversations with Matt Farley and Charles Roxburgh'' by Will Sloan and Justin Decloux,<ref>{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=December 15, 2020|title=Motern on Motern: Conversations with Matt Farley and Charles Roxburgh|url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08KHRR4WR|access-date=|website=Amazon.com}}</ref> whose podcast ''The Important Cinema Club'' helped spur the films to notoriety.<ref name="mania">{{Cite web |title=Motern Mania |url=https://www.spectacletheater.com/motern-mania/ |access-date=2025-06-01 |website=Spectacle Theater |language=en}}</ref> In 2020, Spectacle Theatre and Laserblast Film Society presented an online retrospective of Motern's film work;<ref name="mania"/> Spectacle also hosted an in-person retrospective in Brooklyn in 2024.<ref name="mania"/>
== Other works == Farley also hosts two podcasts,<ref name="nytimes2024" /> ''The Motern Media Infomercial Podcast'', on which he describes his life in the music/arts industry, and ''The Motern Media Celtics Podcast'', a fortnightly basketball podcast focusing on the Boston Celtics and the NBA, that he co-hosts with bandmate and friend Doug "Froggy" Brennan.
Farley released his first book, ''The Motern Method'', in December 2021. He describes it is a self help book about his creative process. He has also released three other books: ''The 50'', ''Magic Spot; the original screenplay'', and ''The Selected Works of The Toilet Bowl Cleaners''.
== Personal life == Farley has two children with his wife Elizabeth, and lives in Danvers, Massachusetts. He owns a cockapoo named Pippi.<ref name="nytimes2024" />
== References == {{reflist}}
==External links== {{commons category}} * {{Official}} * {{IMDb name}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farley, Matt}} Category:1978 births Category:Living people Category:Songwriters from Massachusetts Category:Songwriters from New Hampshire Category:People from Danvers, Massachusetts Category:People from Peabody, Massachusetts Category:People from Manchester, New Hampshire Category:Providence College alumni Category:Bishop Fenwick High School (Peabody, Massachusetts) alumni Category:21st-century American musicians