SEO Speedwagon

Jumping on the phone with New York Times Magazine photo editor Coralie Kraft, the first thing she said was, “When I saw that this story was about a guy who has written hundreds of songs about poop, I knew that we had to call you!”

It’s said that people will tell you what they think of you, you just have to listen.

Despite the scatological nature of his best-known works, Matt Farley’s story was an interesting and complex one. Here’s a guy who has churned out over 24,000 songs, all of them available on Spotify. His creative modus operandi has reached a point of conceptual art; where the sheer volume of output overshadows traditional notions of quality.

Brett Martin said in The Times article:

For the past 20 years he’s been releasing album after album of songs with the object of producing a result to match nearly anything anybody could think to search for. He has many, many songs about going to the bathroom. If you have a child under 10, it is likely you know some part of this body of work, which is mostly released under two names: “The Toilet Bowl Cleaners” and “The Odd Man Who Sings About Poop, Puke and Pee.”

As someone with a love of oddball props, guardrails are important so that the final photo remains grounded. One of my rules is to only use one prop at a time, or at least make all of our props/ wardrobe/ environment align into a unified concept.

In this instance, the aim was to overwhelm Matt's senses, symbolized by a miniature guitar nestled in his ear and a dog affectionately licking his face. However, the dog's docile demeanor failed to deliver the expected chaos, resulting in a surreal tableau—a gleeful man flanked by a pensive dog and a guitar about to enter his ear.

While I was pleasantly surprised by the magazine's selection of this picture, I couldn't shake the concern over the dog's lack of relevance. Then I remembered that one of the first songs I heard from Farley was “I Poop With My Dog,” and everything clicked into place.