Katlyn Conroy and Matt Pryor write made-to-order love songs for Valentine’s Day

Flowers die. Lingerie fades. But songs — songs last forever.

La Guerre’s Katlyn Conroy and the Get Up Kids’ Matt Pryor are each offering your love romantic immortality through their songwriting and singing talents with custom, made-to-order songs.

For Conroy, it’s a Valentine’s Day tradition, and she says Cupid’s day fits with her natural songwriting approach.

“Primarily, I usually end up writing love songs — or something close to love songs — and I’ve always gotten comments like, ‘Oh, man. I wish somebody would write a song like that for me!'” she says. “As a musician, you’re always looking for a way to earn some extra income, and I’m always trying to get really creative with it. I stopped trying to get Craigslist gigs, and I thought that there had to be a better way. I love Valentine’s Day, and there’s never anything creative or new for gift ideas, and maybe it would be really personal if I could just do what I do best, which is write love songs for people.”

Pryor’s history with bespoke songwriting goes back further.

“I’d been interested in doing it for a while, but was too scared to put myself out there,” he says. He adds that he felt really exposed by the idea of doing it on his own. However, with the launch of Downwrite, a website on which artists offer their musical talents, the songwriter went all in.

“This way, if it fails, it’s not my fault,” he says with a laugh. “But it’s gone really good ever since.”

Pryor and Conroy say the song requests aren’t always typical couples material.

“I wrote a song for a guy and his brofriend,” Conroy says as she cracks a smile. “About them listening to Kesha together and all these things their girlfriends didn’t know they did, because they were, like, real bros. A bromance.”

“The weirdest one I ever got was a guy who needed help getting a girl back,” Pryor says. “‘She thinks I’m moving too fast.’ And sometimes, you get somebody who wants one about an octopus falling in love with a robot. That’s a true story.”

Conroy offers the option of a cover ($25) or an original song ($40) — in whatever genre you like — as well as a Valentine’s Day package ($60).

“That’s where I write an original song, draw a picture, and you get a four-song EP that’s not going to be released other than with that,” Conroy says. “I love drawing, too, and it’s just really fun for me. I’m not the best artist in the world, but people really liked it last year.”

Pryor’s songs cost anywhere from $100 (single vocal and guitar) to $500 (full band). For those who want more than a digital file, Pryor offers handwritten lyrics or a Skype performance of the song.

Before penning love songs, Conroy and Pryor each have a list of questions they ask the people for whom they’re composing. In addition to the basics like names — as well as how to pronounce them, a lesson Pryor says he learned the hard way after having to re-record songs — there are also relationship questions, such as where the couple met, how someone proposed and other details.

“The best ones are pet names that only you call each other, or things that you say to each other exclusively,” Pryor says. With those details, he says, the song almost writes itself.

Conroy and Pryor agree that taking Valentine’s Day requests works different songwriting muscles. Ultimately, Conroy says it’s a way to make money at your art without having to work a day job.

“It helped me as a songwriter,” Conroy says. “I make a little bit of money, and people are stoked about it. ‘I was crying, my husband was crying, my parents were crying!’ Which is kind of what I want to do — to make people feel things.”