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Songwriter embraces lyrical nerdiness

Jason Dean  —  5/01/2008 5:19 am

Jonathan Coulton is known as a "nerd folksinger" by fans.

The singer-songwriter's most popular song, "Still Alive," is a demented ballad performed by a computer in the video game Portal. "Code Monkey" is about a computer programmer who hates his job. In "Re Your Brains," zombies profess, "all we want to do is eat your brains."

Other songs revolve around robot overlords, DNA, monkeys, and an evil genius with a crush. Not exactly your standard subjects for songwriting, but Coulton has found an audience of fellow nerds and nerd-lovers for his offbeat songs.

"I've always been a math and science guy, so I think about robots and fractals all the time," said Coulton. "But on a deeper level, there's a thread running through my songs about how it feels to be a nerd -- this kind of alienation, a sense of not belonging, not being accepted. And it's not just limited to actual nerds -- I think we're all familiar with that feeling, no matter how popular we were in school."

When Coulton takes the stage at 7 p.m. Friday at the Majestic Theatre, 114 King St., it will be his second appearance in Madison in under a year. Tickets are $13 through www.majesticmadison.com or at the door, and fellow comedic singer-songwriters Paul and Storm open the show.

Although Coulton dreamed of being a singer since he was a child, for years he seemed destined for a life as a "code monkey." Ironically, it was technology -- and finding the courage to embrace his own nerdy obsessions -- that ended up opening the door for him to leave the cube farm and become a full-time musician.

"I always intended to become a musician," he said. "It's just one of those things that I never got around to it, then I was a little bit afraid of it. Before I knew it, I had accidentally fallen into a career as a software guy."

Coulton attended Yale, where he planned to major in chemistry. Eventually, his desire to become a musician triumphed, and he pursued a degree in music, but still took as many math and science classes as he could fit into his schedule.

After college, he bounced around from job to job before taking a position writing software in Manhattan. He put in his time for close to nine years, then left in September 2005 to focus on music.

He found his voice as a songwriter while working as the music director for the "Little Gray Book Lectures" a monthly compilation of readings, songs and discussions in Brooklyn, New York. The lectures were started by author and comedian John Hodgman, best known as "PC" in Apple's advertisements for Macintosh computers.

"I discovered what I really like to do is choose an unusual subject and treat it as seriously as possible while still being sort of funny," says Coulton.

To push himself to write songs, Coulton devised the "Thing a Week" project, posting a new song on his Web site every week for a year.

"It was a way to challenge myself," he said. "Produce music on a regular basis as if I was getting paid for it, even though I was not at that point.

"I imagined it would attract some attention, maybe lead to something else. I didn't really dare to imagine the music itself was going to support me."

But by week five of "The Thing Project," Coulton was out of ideas. He resorted to covering the Sir Mix-a-Lot hit "Baby Got Back." The response was phenomenal -- blogs linked to the song, radio stations played it, and people started paying attention.

"Before I knew it, I was able to pay the nanny that was taking care of my child during the day while I was playing guitar," he said.

Most musicians use the Internet to distribute and promote their music, but Coulton's success has come in part from his willingness to go beyond the usual band Web site offerings. Anyone can listen to his entire collection on www.jonathancoulton.com for free. A link allows fans to request a concert in their city. He maintains a blog where he discusses his songs, life, and posts pictures from shows.

Coulton uses Creative Commons licenses for his music, which allow the public to create new content using his songs, as long as they credit the source and don't profit from them. As further encouragement, he also posts guitar tablatures and information for each song.

"It doesn't end when I finish the song. There's still room for interpretation and other new things that people can create and enjoy," Coulton said. "It's such a beautiful thing when that happens."

Fans have responded by creating videos and images for many of his songs. Coulton posts most of the fan-based content on his Web site.

Some World of Warcraft gamers have used the online role-playing game to create their own videos for Coulton's songs and then put them up on YouTube. One fan's video for "Code Monkey" received over two million hits.

"It's one thing to have people appreciate your music, but then to have someone create something based on it is a whole other level of ego gratification," says Coulton. "I'm so happy to be a catalyst for additional creativity."

jdean@madison.com

Jason Dean  —  5/01/2008 5:19 am

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