Self

Matt Mahaffey functions as the central figure in Self, the outfit he operates from his Murfreesboro, Tennessee home base as a singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist. He started composing songs at four and landed professional drumming work by twelve. Home-recording skills sharpened during high school and college, leading him to build a basement studio and lay down demos that later surfaced on his debut full-length, the 1995 album Subliminal Plastic Motives. That eclectic set merged power pop, hip-hop, and samples, building a dedicated following that translated into tour support slots with Garbage, 311, and Cracker.

Once road dates wrapped with guitarist/vocalist Mike Mahaffey, keyboardist/vocalist Chris James, drummer Jason Rawlings, and bassist/vocalist Mac Burrus, Mahaffey marked his return to the studio by issuing the limited-edition Half-Baked Serenade on Spongebath, the local label he co-founded. Self resurfaced in 1999 with the tonally varied Breakfast with Girls, co-released by Spongebath and Dreamworks. Gizmodgery arrived the following year, recorded entirely on toy instruments, and was promptly succeeded by the free digital releases Selfafornia and Self Goes Shopping.

Mahaffey moved to Los Angeles in the early 2000s and established himself as a sought-after producer, working with artists such as Beck, P!nk, Keith Urban, Butch Walker, and Tenacious D. He finished a major-label sequel to Breakfast with Girls in 2004 titled Ornament & Crime, yet Dreamworks shelved the project and it stayed unreleased. Several of its songs later appeared in demo form on the self-issued 2005 collection Porno Mint & Grime. That same year, Mahaffey’s brother and Self bandmate Mike Mahaffey died.

Self remained largely dormant over the next decade while Mahaffey and the other members focused on separate projects, aside from a few reunion shows. New recordings stayed minimal until the 2010 single “Could You Love Me Now?,” followed in 2011 by “Looks and Money.” A fuller statement arrived in 2014 with the six-song EP Super Fake Nice, after which the band kept up occasional live performances in the years that followed.