Matt Mahaffey

Matt Mahaffey was influenced to music at a very young age. At age 4 he started writing songs, and playing the drums. At age 9 he was in bands with people twice his age. Matt was very into hip-hop in his teen years, he enjoyed the Beastie Boys, Run DMC, and other classic hip-hop artists. When Matt went to college he started producing demos for upcoming rap artists. Matt got kicked out of college for skipping class because he spent to much time with his new band Self. When fellow friend Rick Williams started Spongebath Records in the early 90's Matt signed on and released Self's debut "Subliminal Plastic Motives" on October 24, 1995 and was immediately picked up by Zoo Entertainment (now Volcano Records). The singles "So Low" and "Cannon" got little play on MTV.In 1996 Self released the small-run album "The Half-Baked Serenade" through the Spongebath Catalogue. "The Half-Baked Serenade" is now out of print and occasionally runs up to $80 on eBay! In 1999 Self got signed to Dreamworks Records and released "Breakfast With Girls" in July 1999. The single "Meg Ryan" got very little airplay and the album did not get much promotion. In 2001 Matt went on to producing the Shrek soundtrack and included the Self song "Stay Home". Self, in 2001, released one of their most unique album "Gizmodgery" The album was recorded using only toy instruments. Today, like The Half-Baked Srenade, Gizmodgery is out of print and is very hard to find. Self started recording "Ornament & Crime" in 2002. The album was to be released in late 2003-early 2004. Unfortunately Dreamworks Records was bought out and is now run by Universal Music. Universal Music dropped some artists and were very hesitant about releasing "Ornament & Crime" afraid it would flop. The album is still yet to be released and will probably never see the light of day. In 2005 Matt Mahaffey played a part in Beck's band on his European tour and is currently apart of a production company. Self plans to release the "sElf - Live at Spaceland Acoustic" DVD soon.