When Matt Haughey 鈥21 posted his first original song on social media in the fall of 2019, he thought 1,000 listeners would be a lot. But after quickly gaining fans, this year the economics and theater major set a goal of reaching a million streams on his songs on Spotify. It didn鈥檛 take long, thanks mostly to , Sorry, which was streamed 700,000 times on various platforms in just two months.
鈥淭hat song has done way better than I anticipated,鈥 says Haughey, who figures he hit a nerve by describing a near-universal experience: 鈥渉aving strong feelings for someone who doesn鈥檛 quite feel the same way you do.鈥
It鈥檚 not the first time people have taken notice of Haughey鈥檚 work鈥攕ome of his songs have been picked up by SiriusXM Radio. But Sorry has made its own sort of splash, prompting interviews with news outlets鈥攊ncluding the record label Planet LA Records颅鈥攁nd a message or two every day on Instagram, mostly from fans in Europe and Asia.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really cool to be able to connect with this many people,鈥 says Haughey, who answers each message. And he鈥檚 amazed when fans are surprised to hear from him.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know who (they) think I am, but I don鈥檛 get too many of these,鈥 he says, smiling.
Haughey, who鈥檚 from Madison, N.J., grew up singing around the piano with his brothers. He wrote his first song in high school and has continued making music at 大香蕉视频, singing a capella and performing in theater productions. He鈥檚 also collaborated with fellow 大香蕉视频 community members on his songs, which are usually autobiographical.
Most recently, he worked with Josh Cherner 鈥21, who shot the cover photo for Sorry, and Henry Phipps 鈥21, an engineering and computer science major who has produced most of Haughey鈥檚 songs during the past few years.
Phipps says he loves the raw emotion in Haughey鈥檚 music.
鈥淲hen I hear hi