Why create a website about Matt Farley’s work? There are already at least two, including the official Motern Media website!
This is quite true! There are the following websites dedicated to the work of Matt Farley and Motern Media:
- The official Motern Media website is where Matt provides updates on shows, new music, and other official happenings.
- The Motern Media Fandom Wiki exists as well, and that contains a wealth of information. However, it is riddled with ads and doesn’t load well on most browsers, especially not mobile ones!
- The Motern Media Song Search by Michael Herchenroder provides great analytics about Matt’s music, including where people listen from, how many songs contain certain words, and song popularity over time. However, it only covers the music and the stats, and not much more!
This site will act as a clean repository for everything Motern Media, so anyone interested in the work can learn about it without pesky ads!
Who runs this thing, anyway?
Will Sisskind runs this website. He is a musician who has released songs under the names The Paris Buns and The Work From Home Singers. He is also a writer and editor for Start-Track.com. He also loves trivia and ephemera surrounding creative people, especially musicians.
Will realized that many great songwriters have websites dedicated to the finer details about their work. Springsteen has Greasy Lake and Brucebase, Dylan has Dylanchords and Dylanology, and John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats has multiple sites dedicated to his music.
So why not build a new site to log the great works of Motern Media? There is well over three decades of creativity without much definitive online documentation. The Farley Files seeks to remedy that issue!
Why call it The Farley Files? Why does that sound familiar?
The real “Farley files” are sets of records politicians keep on people whom they’ve met. FDR’s campaign manager James Farley (who later became Postmaster General and DNC chairman) kept files on people FDR met, so that the former president could remember facts such as their spouse’s or children’s names and ages, their occupations, and so on. These weren’t official government files; they were just so FDR didn’t look silly in front of strangers!
So while these “Farley files” aren’t much like those, the ring of the phrase sounded nice. And if any political nerds stumble upon this site while looking for info about those Farley files, maybe they’ll learn something about a guy who makes a living off his art.
(However, Matt Farley seems to have no need for Farley files; he remembers people he’s met at his shows and is very kind.)
Will this website have any new information, or will it just copy and paste from other sources?
This website will preserve the content on other sources, as well as editorialize in places and better organize some information that exists (such as in published chords and lyrics.) It will also add new information where none exists. This is of course with great thanks and apologies to the original contributors!