From Writing Code to Writing Songs -- Programmers who became Song Writers

Is it unusual for a computer programmer to become a song-writer and singer?  It would seem that the two endeavors are of different areas of the brain.  Computer programming is logic and mathematical.  Singing is artistic.  

Well, I am aware of two cases where a computer programmer went from writing code to writing songs: Vienna Teng and Jonathan Coulton

I'm sure there are more; it is just that I'm not aware of them.  

Are there singer/songwriters that become programmers?  I'm sure there are.  But they are not as easily recognized because this transition means that the went from popular media to inside cubicles in offices where we don't hear about them.

Whereas, we hear more about programmers who become singer because they move into the public spotlight as their music become more well-known.

Vienna Teng was from California where she got a degree in computer science from prestigious Stanford University.

After graduation, she went to work for Cisco System in California for a couple of years.

She later quit Cisco and moved to New York as she focused on her music career.

As a song-writer, she feels that lyrics should tell a story.

Her album includes...

• Inland Territories - 2009
• Dreaming Through the Noise - 2006
  
• Warm Strangers - 2004
  
• Waking Hour - 2001

Watch a video of her.

Jonathan Coulton had been a programmer writing database software. When asked in an interview whether he thought that writing software was that bad, he mentioned "No". In fact, "Coding is awesome. I still like to write code." he says.

Perhaps the song that he is most well known for in the tech community is "Code Monkey" which is about a programmer (Code Monkey) and his boring manager Rob and about Code Monkey liking the front-desk girl.

Here is a video where he sings the song "Code Monkey". He also has a joke about quitting his programming job.

As listed in the article "Jonathan Coulton's Techie Songs", many of his song has a tech flavor in its lyrics. 

So far, he has one album titled "Best Concert Ever".  It is a CD/DVD set with two discs containing 20 songs.

Article written in 2009. Author may receive Amazon and Google revenues via display ads and links in this article.