and the immutable string band

Meet the Musicians

A message from Justin:

What constitutes... mutability? In a band?

Every time I take the stage (or at least, at each new stop on a tour); every time I put on cans in the studio, I feel a process of instantiation - a new instance of Band. Our setlist is unique each night; our arrangements and effects are often chosen (and signaled to one another) in the moment.

In my journey to write logic that is the internet I want to see - from hacking together a viable battlestation for myself to play games with my kiddo, to legacy enterprise web apps, to custom dapps for this production, I have had many notions in my head (sometimes literally in my dreams) about mutability and its role in mapping the metaphor of the mind into a codebase, and particularly object orientation.

Some of the most important friends I've made along the way are those who have chosen to play (and sometimes write) music with me.

And their contributions don't seem to me to be a small part of some persistent monolith that belongs to me; instead, they feel each like their own distinct and complete creation.

I hope you have enjoyed the shows and records that these folks have made with me as much as I've enjoyed their company, and I especially hope that you see fit to visit us again and contribute your ears and energies to the instantiation of new setlists and sounds.

Jakub Vysoky

A long-time contributor to several open-source crypto codebases, and serial Ethereum Foundation fixer, Jakub and I have been jammin' together since PyCon 2011. Jakub is a multi-instrumentalist - previously he mostly played Cajon and Ukelele in our casual jams. But at DevConnect Amsterdam in 2022, I told him of my desire to get more serious about our music, and to learn the ways of bluegrass, and he agreed to switch to mandolin. 0xwhatever
Jakub and Fibonacci during the Vowel Sounds session.

Cory Walker

Cory (right) with me and Skyler in St. Pete.
I had of course heard of Cory Walker from his tours with Sierra Hull and The Steeldrivers, as well as his work with David Grier, but I remember the exact moment it dawned on me that he was a generational oddity on the banjo: he took the stage with Billy Strings in St. Augustine, and played John Hardy with Billy and the boys. I've never seen, before or since, someone steal the show like that It remains one of my favorite Billy Strings moments.
A couple of weeks later, I saw Cory play with this brothers and Billy Gilmore in a band they called 'The Suwannee Mountain Boys', and I noticed that he was making some truly bizarre sounds come out of that banjo, without even using an effects rig. That was when I knew he was my banjo guy, and I asked Andy Lytle to introduce us. Since then, Cory has appeared on two studio sessions with me (with another upcoming), as well a video session and a few live shows. He's busy these days with East Nash Grass and sometimes Sierra Ferrell, but we still get together whenever we can. 0xwhatever

Pepa Lopera

When I found out I was going to play two nights at devcon VI, the search was on to find the best fiddler in Bogotá. And when I put feelers out as to whom that might be, I got one answer back from multiple friends who were in the know: Colombian country sensation Pepa Lopera. Pepa nailed almost every song we played; I think many of y'all remember her epic solo on Nanny State Fiddler. For me, her vocals on our cover of Manu Chao's 'Clandestino' will always be a source of pride. We've been trying to play again soon, but it's been a challenge to get Pepa cleared to come to the US to play for y'all. Soon. 0xwhatever
Pepa and Jakub at night 2 of our Ethereum devcon VI show in Bogotá, Colombia.

David Grier

Grier and I after his show in St. Pete in 2022.
Grier is, I think we all agree, one of the very best acoustic guitarists playing today - a true musicians' musician. I lobbied him for over a year to cut a session together. Flatpicking next to him... you feel the steel sharpening steel. 0xwhatever

Skyler Golden

Y'all probably know Skyler more from his involvement in my production and engineering (and being the disembodied voice behind the screen for a lot of our tech talk sessions). But he has also been playing bass and dobro on stage with us more and more, and he'll appear on bass on my upcoming record as well. I met Sky in May of 2022 after Andy Lytle introduced us. He has been a near-daily ally in my quest to become musician first, programmer second. 0xwhatever
Skyler (right) with Fibonacci, myself, and our friend Andy Lytle.

Harry Clark

Harry with Fibonacci at a music store in Nashville.
When we were putting together the ensemble for Vowel Sounds, Cory Walker was quick and adament in suggesting we bring his East Nash Grass colleague Harry Clark on the mandolin. I knew of Harry from his work with The Wooks and The Dan Tyminski Band, but I forgot that we had personally met at IBMA in 2022. It still embarasses me; Harry is now a friend for sure. He'll be on the next record also. 0xwhatever

Bios to come: