Known for his creation of a 23-string banjo, Paul Metzger is a tinkerer first and self-taught musician second. Metzger uses finger-picking, strum patterns, and bow technique to create asymmetrical pieces rooted in classic Indian traditions. Metzger believes music is an exercise of the soul and less of the brain with his sounds challenging many common conceptions of music.

“If you have something in you to express, it’s like a poet that doesn’t have a big vocabulary, but it has a big soul, it doesn’t matter, because it’ll come through,” Metzger says.