Before technology made starting a business so much less expensive, one of the only ways a few young peers could get together and make something that they might, maybe, possibly, make some money on one day was starting a band. Art, meaning and expression aside, bands are businesses, too.
So it’s no surprise that bands and startups are fellow travelers in these parts.
To that end, a list of bands that feature local technologists is something we’ve wanted to do for a while now.
Here’s who we found:
1. Bishop Allen
- OkCupid founder and Greenpoint denizen Christian Rudder slings guitar in the band that’s now three albums in.
- Travis Morrison is the lead singer and also a cofounder of Park Slope’s Shoutabl, a social network/CMS built for music communities.
- Featuring Noah Stitleman, who is also on community and technical support at Dumbo’s Etsy. The project is new but it’s playing Shea Stadium May 6. Stitleman formerly ran a band called Neighbors.
- A Washington, D.C.-based band that includes Gowanus-based Farmigo’s data analyst, Sho Fujiwara, on keys and guitar. He just recently relocated here from D.C.
- Bushwick’s Livestream has a lead software engineer, Alex Hornbake, who plays bass and sings vocals with this band, which went up at the Acheron recently. Shout-out to our sister site, Technical.ly Philly: the band has an EP called Helladelphia.
- When he’s not helping Genius set up its new site in Gowanus, the company’s facility manager, Max Kotelchuck, is one-third of this trio, which had an album release in February at Baby’s All Right.
7. This is Carl Sagan and Feathers
- Etsy Security Engineer Destiny Montague also runs this musical project. She’s a part of another band from Texas called Feathers. Montague says she should be playing out this summer with Carl Sagan, once she finishes up her album.
- The band’s saxophonist is also Farmigo’s New York Regional Field Director, Jack Cashion. Look for them at Arlene’s Grocery on June 20 and then get ready for their second EP late this summer.
9. The Hints
- The Hints feature James Ellis on drums, who’s a partner at Williamsburg creative agency Athletics. The band played at Alphaville last month.
- The dev-driven band is also on GitHub, FWIW. The band includes Williamsburg’s Rob Spectre of Twilio and James Dennis of Dumbo’s VHX. Spectre’s in Brooklyn but Dennis is in Astoria. Put them together and we have one band with a Brooklyn resident, working at a Brooklyn startup (just not the same person).
11. Happy You
- A seven-person band including a member of Farmigo’s community support team, Peter Walters.
12. Banana Kiss
- Punk rock featuring Nicole Disser, a reporter at Brooklyn Magazine, which is part of Downtown’s Northside Media.
13. Phonoscenes
- On vocals and guitar, a Tinybop dev, Cameron Erdogan.
14. KINGS
- Etsy’s office hacker, Eric Beug, pitches in with steel guitar and mandolin alongside this folk duo.
15. Bound & Buried and Lugosi
- Both bands feature Chris Huban, a senior art director at Dumbo’s Huge.
16. Base Case
- This band features three software engineers at Etsy: David Leibovic (guitar and vocals), Kiron Roy (bass) and Ryan Bateman (drums).
- Jeffrey Manian is part of this Gowanus-based band. By day, he’s a dev at Manhattan’s Cover.
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We have definitely missed a bunch, so let us know who your band is and what company you work for in the comments, or shoot us an email. Thanks.
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