Joe Sepi adopted the nickname in 1992 when his close friend started referring to him as such. Shortly after which, he released his first cassette with his first band (produced by the amazing, Doug Martsch, from Built to Spill). Once the name was in print, it took hold and didn't let go. For many years, that was the only name known to most people who didn't know better.

Initially expecting that music would take care of him and pay the bills, Sepi worked shitty jobs and lived in basements or slept on couches to facilitate his obsession with writing, recording and performing music. This approach to living took him on many journeys and to many places, but it wasn't until one magical afternoon in 1998 that he would stumble into his other passion, writing code.

Sepi's roommate and bandmate, Joel Braun, got a decent job that gave him a laptop. After only moments of fiddling on this thing called the internet, Sepi was hooked and just had to know how it all worked. Within a short time, he was building websites for their record label and his many bands; as well as: friends, local artists and other people who really couldn't pay him much. But when he finally met his wife, things really started to get serious. With her encouragement to be more awesome, Sepi set out on the path to master his craft. Before he knew it, he had worked for The New York Times, Adobe (Behance), Credit Suisse, IAC/InterActiveCorp, Ogilvy and Mather, Sears and a few startups. He's been at IBM for a few years and is currently Program Director of Open Tech. Additionally, he helps lead the OpenJS Foundation and works to maintain and grow the Node.js platform.

You can read more about 🎶 the music half of the story 🎶.

A lot of this story is captured in a talk at a tech conference called Node Interactive in Vancouver 2017: