"Stay Home" is a song by American

pop rock Pop rock (also typeset as pop/rock) is a fusion genre and form of rock music characterized by a strong commercial appeal, with more emphasis on professional songwriting and recording craft, and less emphasis on attitude than standard rock musi ...

band

Self In philosophy, the self is an individual's own being, knowledge, and values, and the relationship between these attributes. The first-person perspective distinguishes selfhood from personal identity. Whereas "identity" is (literally) same ...

, released through

DreamWorks Records DreamWorks Records (often referred in copyright notices as SKG Music, LLC) was an American record label founded in 1996 by David Geffen, Mo Ostin, his son Michael Ostin and Lenny Waronker as a subsidiary of DreamWorks Pictures. The label opera ...

on May 15, 2001. It was written and performed by the band's lead member,

Matt Mahaffey Matt Mahaffey is an American multi-instrumentalist, record producer, composer, and recording engineer best known for his band Self (band), Self and his composer collective Cake in Space. Early and personal life Mahaffey grew up in Kingsport, T ...

, with mixing and

production Production may refer to: Economics and business * Production (economics) * Production, the act of manufacturing goods * Production, in the outline of industrial organization, the act of making products (goods and services) * Production as a stat ...

Eric Valentine Eric Dodd, known professionally as Eric Valentine, is an American record producer who began his career as drummer and producer in the heavy metal band T-Ride. He subsequently produced albums for artists such as Good Charlotte, Lostprophets ...

. The track was composed for the 2001 DreamWorks animated fairy tale comedy film ''

Shrek ''Shrek'' is a 2001 American animated fantasy comedy film directed by Andrew Adamson and Vicky Jenson, and written by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio, Joe Stillman, and Roger S. H. Schulman, loosely based on the 1990 children's picture boo ...

'', appearing in its end credits.

Background

In 1999,

band

released the album '' Breakfast with Girls'' through

as part of a

recording contract A recording contract (commonly called a record contract or record deal) is a legal agreement between a record label and a recording act (artist or group), where the act makes an audio recording (or series of recordings) for the label to sell and ...

. The band's lead member,

, continued to receive offers from the label following its release. The first of these was to write a song for the opening scene of the

DreamWorks Animation DreamWorks Animation LLC (DWA, also known as DreamWorks Animation Studios or simply DreamWorks) is an American animation studio, owned by Comcast's NBCUniversal as part of Universal Pictures, a division of Universal Studios, Inc, Universal Stud ...

film ''

''. Simultaneously, the studio was considering using

Smash Mouth Smash Mouth is an American Rock music, rock band from San Jose, California. The band was formed in 1994 and was originally composed of Steve Harwell (lead vocals), Kevin Coleman (drums), Greg Camp (guitar), and Paul De Lisle (bass). Harwell's ...

's " All Star" for the sequence, motivating Mahaffey to try topping it. He began writing and composing the song after watching a rough cut of the movie. He found

to be a "curmudgeon" from it, attempting to encapsulate his vibe in the song's lyrics and finishing it a month later as "Stay Home". Marylata Elton, the supervisor for Shrek's music, found the song to work perfectly. She tested the song in early movie screenings but discovered that audiences preferred "All Star" due to its pre-existing cultural impact. DreamWorks' founder

Jeffrey Katzenberg Jeffrey Katzenberg ( ; born December 21, 1950) is an American media proprietor and film producer. He served as chairman of Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios from 1984 to 1994, a position in which he oversaw production and busin ...

opted to license the latter, moving Self's song to the film's credits. Though initially disappointed, Mahaffey retrospectively supported the decision, describing it as "sonically gorgeous" and stating that Smash Mouth deserved the success in an interview with Syfy.

Release

"Stay Home" was released on May 15, 2001, as the first song of the

soundtrack album A soundtrack album is any album that incorporates music directly recorded from the soundtrack of a particular feature film or television show. The first such album to be commercially released was Walt Disney's ''Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ( ...

for the film, '' Shrek: Music from the Original Motion Picture''. It was individually released as a " for your consideration" single on January 12, 2002 solely under Mahaffey's name. The song additionally appeared in the

Universal Studios Hollywood Universal Studios Hollywood is a film studio and Amusement park, theme park located in Universal City, California, near Hollywood, Los Angeles. It is one of the oldest and most famous Hollywood film studios still in use. Its official marketin ...

and

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

ride ''

Shrek 4-D ''Shrek 4-D'' (also known as ''Shrek 3-D'' for the DVD release and ''The Ghost of Lord Farquaad'' for the ''Shrek's Thrilling Tales'' DVD release and ''DreamWorks Spooky Stories'' Blu-ray release, Netflix, and other streaming releases) is an ani ...

''. Mahaffey continued to compose music for the ''Shrek'' franchise following "Stay Home", including contributions to ''Shrek in the Swamp Karaoke Dance Party'' (2001), ''Far Far Away Idol'' (2004), ''

Shrek 2 ''Shrek 2'' is a 2004 American animated fantasy comedy film loosely based on the 1990 children's picture book '' Shrek!'' by William Steig. Directed by Andrew Adamson, Kelly Asbury, and Conrad Vernon from a screenplay by Adamson, Joe Sti ...

'' (2004), and '' Shrek Forever After'' (2010).

Track listing

Release history

Notes

References

{{authority control Self (band) songs 2001 songs 2002 singles Songs written by Matt Mahaffey