Bio

BIOGRAPHY

Nearly twenty years since the formation of his Tennessee-based project sElf, Matt Mahaffey is releasing a new SElf EP – Super Fake Nice – on July 29th inked deal with El Camino Media.

The six-song collection will feature original tracks – “Gonna Rock,” “Subconscious,” “Hey Hipster,” “Looks And Money,” “Splitting Atoms” and the lead single “Runaway.” Super Fake Nice was written, produced, recorded, performed and arranged by Matt Mahaffey at his Fresh Imperial studio in Franklin, Tennessee.This is the first new body of SElf material to be released since his 2005 album Porno, Mint, & Grime and the band will headline a rare Los Angeles show at the El Rey Theatre on August 1st SElf is the brainchild of Matt Mahaffey, a multi-instrumentalist studio wizard. He began writing songs at the age of four and spent a large part of his high school and college upbringing mastering studio techniques. In 1995 he released his debut SElf album, Subliminal Plastic Motives followed by tours with Garbage, 311 and Cracker. An early review of the debut from People Magazine described Mahaffey as a “virtual one-man rhythm nation” and stated the album proves “…that alternative rock can be more than atonal, angst-ridden prattle.” Following Subliminal…, came releases on Dreamworks and Spongebath including 1999’s Breakfast With Girls and 2000’s Gizmodgery (made completely with toy instruments). Since then, Mahaffey further crafted his unique blend of funk, hip-hop and alt-pop and in the early 2000’s his focus started to shift into film and television, scoring music for CSI Miami, Entourage and Weeds. He also started playing and producing for other artists including Beck, Pink, Liz Phair, Keith Urban, The Sounds, Lupe Fiacsco, HelloGoodbye and Tenacious D. In 2001, Mahaffey wrote and composed “Stay Home” for the Motion Picture Shrek. In 2005, Mahaffey joined up with Beck when he released Guero as part of his touring band, playing multiple instruments on stage every night. He contributed a cover of They Might Be Giants “Ana Ng” in 2008 to the Bar None Hello Radio compilation. In 2010, he began writing songs for SElf again and released a pair of singles, 2010’s “Could You Love Me Now?” and 2011’s “Looks and Money.” While he continued to work with other artists, Matt’s desire to record and release music of his own was growing and he set to working on new music for 2014. He kicked the year off with a vinyl reissue on Fat Possum Records of his 1995 debut Subliminal Plastic Motives in January followed by the first SElf live shows in nearly a decade including sold-out dates at The Gramercy Theatre in NYC, Exit/In in Nashville and the El Rey in Los Angeles.

Tracks

FEATURED TRACKS