Apple Entrepreneur Camp participants break barriers on their coding journeys – Apple Newsroom
When ShapeShifter Lab founder and accomplished Jazz musician Matt Garrison first dreamt of a completely new, collaborative digital music experience, he reached out to friends and fellow musicians who could code. Their time was limited as they were focused on their own projects, but Garrison persisted. He knew it was essential for him to understand the fundamentals of programming to jumpstart his app’s development.
“I said, teach me to code, and I’ll build it myself,” says Garrison. “Just show me how it’s done. Because I think as an artist today when you’re faced with a challenge in technology you’ve got to break it and push it.”
Working initially in Objective-C and later in Swift, Garrison and his team have been collaborating on an app called TuneBend, a new way for musicians to jam together, record, and eventually sell their music in a musical entrepreneur ecosystem. TuneBend combines Garrison’s passions for music, technology, and entrepreneurship; Garrison runs his own business, ShapeShifter Lab, a music venue and performance space in Brooklyn, New York.
“I’ve always been fascinated with computers and technology,” says Garrison. “Now I understand how to get inside them to really develop a digital texture to the ways of presenting music. I think we’re one of the few music venues that actually builds code on site.”
