iBand Video Is a Hit on YouTub

Many people who own the iPhone speak with a sort of evangelical fervor about the product and the things it can do. E-mail! Music! Internet! Phone calls! It takes pictures!

Three art students from Austria have pushed the envelope a bit further, hacking into their iPhones -- a big no-no, from Apple's perspective -- and loading them with music-playing software, which they have used to record songs. The videos they put on YouTube last month of what they call the first iBand have been drawing heavy traffic from technophiles and curiosity-seekers.

Their debut video, posted Feb. 17 and briefly the top-featured video on the site, is fairly rudimentary, from a musical perspective at least: In what the band describes as a "jam session," one iPhone plays keyboard software, another plays a virtual guitar program and a Nintendo DS video game player plays percussion. The result is more songlike noise than melody.

But the fascination was instant: The three were immediately deluged with requests for interviews, for copies of the song and for information about the software and equipment they had used.

They acknowledge being somewhat startled, and said by e-mail that they were trying to figure out how to "deal with the situation."

"We did our first video as an example of what could be done with the new music applications that are used, and to present our idea of an iBand," wrote one of the band members, Seb, in response to e- mailed questions.

Seb, who is 24, said that the other band members were Marina, 26, and Roger, 25, and that they preferred not to give their surnames to preserve their privacy. "We are all students of different fields of art, and share our interest in making music as well as modern media," Seb wrote.

The original video had been viewed more than two million times by Sunday, and more than 13,000 viewers had left comments. Some people reviewed the music itself ("Needs some iDrums" "ALL of them have tempo problems") but others just effused at the novelty ("OMG AWESOME.").

Enough viewers found the video so mesmerizing that the band was prompted to post a message on its Web site, at www.iband.at: "Some of you requested an MP3 version of the jam session. Unfortunately, the quality is too bad so we really can't release it. I mean, honestly we still need some practice guys and we're also still lacking a third iPhone. We'll release an MP3 when we have a real song.

That happened last Wednesday, when the students, who are from Vienna, put up their second video, this one more sophisticated. Using two iPhones and an iPod Touch (but no Nintendo), the trio, wearing fingerless gloves, plays an original composition called "Life Is Greater Than the Internet," with vocals, in accented English, by Marina.

While the jam session took just an hour to record, the second opus required a lot more work, Seb said: The band spent two sleepless days and nights composing, practicing and recording the video, taking considerably more time to light the scene, set up the camera and mix the tracks.

The viewers who left comments were mostly impressed, though there was a smattering of snide quips ("What if you would have got a phone call???").

Two more videos quickly followed, both showing an iPhone playing virtual drums. In one, the song is indeed interrupted by a phone call, on purpose.

"To use the iPhone as a musical instrument isn't about getting a technically perfect song together," Seb wrote. "It has very innovative input methods, but we could also use any sort of synthesizer and full band equipment; with today's technology there are no limitations. But we think that exactly the limitation is what creates a spirit. Of all possible things you can do with a mobile phone, what could be more meaningful than to create music?"

The group's goal, he said, is to work with other people who are developing music applications for the iPhone. The band is offering Marina's first song free on its Web site and accepting donations from those who download it.

For those who cannot wait to try this at home, a word of caution: To install these programs on an iPhone or iPod Touch requires the user to "jailbreak" the devices, modifying the software to allow the phone to accept third-party applications. This voids the product's warranty. "We don't support unlocked iPhones," an Apple spokeswoman said.

Although Apple discourages it, jailbreaking is quite simple; instructions are posted on various Web sites.

Kouji: looks like in the near future, artist will do their recordings via their mobile phone at the comfort of their own home.. how nice..

o[ x_x"]o