DANVERS, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Matt Farley has made a living writing thousands and thousands of songs from his basement studio—in fact, he's written over 20,000 tunes.
But it's understandable if you haven't heard of him. He writes goofy, silly songs under dozens of aliases. You can find him on Spotify under names like The Toilet Bowl Cleaners, Papa Razzi and The Photogs, The Very Nice Interesting Singer Man, The Passionate & Objective Jokerfan, and others.
He used to release serious music along with a few humorous tracks. When serious music wasn't working out, he told WBZ NewsRadio's Carl Stevens, he changed his tune.
"I noticed about 15 years ago, the serious songs were not making me any money," Farley said. "The silly songs were making me like $2 a year. Most people would look at those stats and quit, but I looked at them and I said, what if I wrote 20,000 weird, silly, unusual songs, and they all earned me a couple dollars a year? So, I spent the next ten or fifteen years doing that, and now it's my full-time job."
His catalog includes nonsense songs about cities and towns, tributes to celebrities, an album of songs apologizing for various offenses, and even a ballad about roast beef:
"I've got a song called 'All About Highlighters,' and it's on an album with 93 tracks about office supplies," he said. "It's very silly, but the highlighters song is really groovy and fun."
Farley has his music on services like Spotify, iTunes, and more. He said he gets about half a penny each time someone listens to a jam like "Plow Guy Hit My Garage," which is based on a true story.
He's written a song about just about anything you can think of. Check out his Song Search, where you can search any term and see if it is in the title of a Matt Farley song.
"My motto has always been, never question anything, just go with whatever idea you have," Farley said. "If you're in the midst of a song and you think it's bad, finish it anyway and release it, even if it's embarrassing. Just put it out there. Who knows? I've written songs that I hated, and then people have said 'I really like that song,' and I say wow, I'm really glad I put it out there."
Danvers musician Matt Farley. (Carl Stevens/WBZ NewsRadio)
He not only sells songs in cyberspace, but also writes custom songs people order from him directly for $65 a tune.
"People come to me with some pretty wild requests, and I say yes every time," he said. "I've done songs for weddings, the birth of a child, camping trips, family outings, you name it."
You can check out his work on his website, moternmedia.com.
WBZ NewsRadio's Carl Stevens (@carlwbz) reports
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