Matt Farley hasn’t ever stepped foot in Neenah, Wisconsin, or Cranberry Township, Pennsylvania.
However that doesn’t forestall the Massachusetts local from writing a tune about the ones cities or over 3,000 different puts around the nation. It’s a large mission he plans to complete up by means of someday in July when he information his fiftieth state album.
“It’s at all times simply been my intuition to create so much,” Farley informed HuffPost previous this month, “I typically really feel responsible if I’m now not being ingenious. I simply really feel like I’m losing time. I’m losing time if I’m now not in the course of a mission.”
Farley, who touts a catalog of 24,000-plus songs penned below over 80 names, hasn’t wasted time canvassing the rustic ― and the sector ― together with his track.
The musician has made tracks below his “The Man Who Sings About Towns & Cities” moniker for over a decade, and, lately, he’s rising a brand new target audience on TikTok, the place customers can’t get sufficient of his track.
“Maximum prolific songwriter of all time?” wrote consumer @projectatlanticmusic in a video with over 4 million perspectives that function Farley’s monitor “A Track About Asbury Park.”
“I want matt farleytok to turn into a factor,” consumer @erikaspondike captioned in a video with over 44,000 perspectives breaking down Farley’s profession.
Farley is aware of his national reputation because of his efficiency of “Used to Be a Pizza Hut” below the degree title Papa Razzi and the Photogs on “The This night Display” in 2016.
Now, just about seven years later, he’s embracing a rising Gen Z target audience in spite of his loss of task at the app.
“I peruse it from time to time, however I’ve by no means put out a video or the rest,” he stated.
“I believe it’s higher that means. Let the TikTokers do their factor, and I received’t mess it up.”
Take a look at right here, or consult with Spotify and Apple Tune to peer if Farley has written a tune about your fatherland.
Farley’s inspirations come with Bob Dylan and Tom Waits. He stated the extra he listens to track, the extra he reveals the comedy burrowed in it ― noting The Beatles’ “You Know My Identify (Glance Up the Quantity)” for instance of humor from a few of his favourite singer-songwriters.
“What’s humorous is I’ve taken the least in style and a hit a part of the most efficient bands, and I’ve utterly run with that taste,” he stated.
Farley crafts his albums beginning with a consult with to Wikipedia, the place he heads to a state’s municipalities pages, types puts by means of inhabitants from absolute best to lowest, and proceeds to get to paintings penning songs about no less than 50 other puts.
From there, he’ll improvise as he reads via info about a spot on its Wikipedia web page, however he might sway towards a line that rhymes that he wrote down upfront of the recording.
“Other folks will say, ‘No means he’s going to hide the forty eighth most-populated town in West Virginia,’ and I’m like, ‘Oh yeah? Get able.’”
Kayana Szymczak for HuffPost.
Listeners falling down the “Towns & Cities” rabbit hollow will slowly understand a commonplace theme to his songs, too: He has a tendency to concentrate on the sure portions of every group.
“I believe there’s a cumulative impact when you’re simply being attentive to one at a time. The place you’re similar to, ‘Oh my God, this man thinks each position is glorious. He’s out of his thoughts,’” Farley stated.
“I similar to the theory of anyone who’s so utterly supportive and glad. But in addition, when you reside in a the town, who needs to listen to anyone critiquing it?”
Farley isn’t the primary artist to take a shot at recording albums about all 50 states.
Within the early 2000s, Sufjan Stevens published his plan for a “Fifty States Venture” ahead of proudly owning as much as the mission as a “promotional gimmick” towards the last decade’s finish.
Farley, who has thus far tackled 46 states together with his mission, stated a part of his inspiration stems from listening to vintage odes to puts like “Theme from New York, New York” and “California Women.”
His track isn’t simply restricted to puts within the U.S., although. The singer has albums about spots in Australia, the U.Ok., France and Canada.
Farley admits it’s amusing to be informed new info about puts throughout The us, even if he stated he has a tendency to not cling onto his newfound wisdom.
“Frankly, the info are entering my head and leaving my head beautiful temporarily,” he stated.
Farley’s large ingenious output isn’t the rest new, both. Alternatively, he cites his songwriting together with his good friend Tom Scalzo within the 2000s as a testomony to his productiveness, including that the duo compelled themselves to document an album each day in 2006.
“Slightly below this trust that when you put this athletic way to creativity, when you simply pressure your self to create one thing ― battle during the unhealthy songs, end the unhealthy songs ― that can loose you as much as write the great songs,” Farley stated.
“Whilst you’re finished, you concentrate and you understand the unhealthy tune wasn’t unhealthy to start with.”
He stated he later spotted how his “bizarre” songs won a fair proportion of consideration and began enjoying to that music.
“Other folks would kind in the rest right into a track seek engine, so it turned into my purpose to have a tune to await what other people may well be looking and feature a tune for each chance,” he stated.
Kayana Szymczak for HuffPost
He admits he’s 100% won his proportion of complaint for his output and maintains that the critics haven’t any figuring out of what he’s faithful his existence to.
“Other folks fear about perfectionism such a lot it’s like they get frozen and they may be able to’t end a mission. They are saying, ‘I’ve labored in this tune for a yr,’ however in fact they labored on it for 2 hours in January, after which they labored on it for half-hour in December,” he stated.
“In order that they actually labored on it for two-and-a-half hours. So I simply keep away from the ones 11 months of procrastination.”
Farley, who has written about his ingenious procedure in his e-book, “The Motern Manner,” admits his paintings is “beautiful cool” and recognizes that it’s a “full-time task that can pay for itself day-to-day.”
Along with his newfound TikTok reputation in tow, the singer plans to deliver his maximal way to creativity to his nine-hour, 7th annual “Motern Extravaganza” match simply north of Boston on Saturday.
The singer, who spoke to HuffPost whilst on a 20-mile stroll, chalked up his taste to “over the top creativity.”
“Like at this time, it’s like, why do a stroll if it’s going to take not up to six hours? It’s loopy. It’s on logo, and it’s additionally simply true to myself,” Farley stated.
“I inform other people they’re allowed to go away. They are able to get dinner and are available again. I’ll nonetheless be entertaining. It’s exhausting to get other people to wait occasions, so you need to make it price their whilst.”