How does an indie rock band from Brooklyn come to write a Civil War sci-fi musical that ends up getting produced at two of the nation’s most cutting-edge incubators for new work? By doing things their own way. When Americana-influenced rockers the Lisps bring their show, Futurity, to Minneapolis’s Walker Art Center April 26–28, it will be the triumphant culmination of an unlikely project that started as a bit of a goof.

Futurity—which tells the story of a Union soldier who teams up with famed mathematician Ada Lovelace (the real life daughter of Lord Byron) to create a steam-powered artificial intelligence—began its life as composer/lyricist and Lisps front man César Alvarez’s graduate school thesis, designed specifically to freak out his professors. As the band’s reputation grew around New York, they workshopped the show live in concert at high-profile venues such as Joe’s Pub and Ars Nova. Philip Bither, Walker’s curator of performing arts, caught the show early on, fell in love with it, and offered the Lisps a commission. Soon thereafter, the project became a co-production with American Repertory Theater in Cambridge, Mass., where it is now running through April 15.

Alvarez admits that the DIY ethos of the Lisps helped them leapfrog the traditional musical theatre development process. It was such ingenuity, mirrored in Futurity’s plot, that drew director Sarah Benson to the project. “I completely fell in love with the band telling this incredible story about the imagination,” she says. Molly Rice, who joined the project as Alvarez’s co-writer, agrees, calling the show “an amazing hybrid, like a concert electrified by a story.”