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One of the banes of the Nashville songwriter's existence is taking that guitar/banjo/drum kit on the road. Those instruments are expensive, bulky, and fragile. And trying to write somewhere with crowdslike in an airport during a flight delaycan be equally frustrating.
Leave it to a Nashvillian to solve the problem. In 2011, musician Mike Butera, an adjunct sociology professor at Belmont University who also has a PhD in sound studies, founded Artiphon, a company that has developed what he calls a 'multi-instrument.” (Indicative of his academic leanings, the name Artiphon is a blend of Latin and Greek, meaning 'the art of sound.”)
Artiphon's Instrument 1
At less than two feet long, Artiphon's Instrument 1 is a high-tech, ergonomic, ambidextrous piece of equipment. Instead of an onboard sound-generator, it seamlessly connects to your iPhone, iPad or computer. In place of strings or drum pads, there are touch pads that allow musicians to create music in whatever way they are accustomed, whether it is strumming on a guitar or bowing a violin. It is neither a toy nor a teaching tool, Butera stresses, but a thing no one knew they wanted before because it didn't exist.
'Music is a fundamental human desire,” he says, and Artiphon is 'not trying to dictate any musical style but to really translate your musical intention into sound. We are universalists.”
To demonstrate what the Instrument 1 can do, the Artiphon team gave it to people who weren't involved in the launch and filmed them making music with it for the first time. The result was joyful and inspiring, and that footage became part of the company's Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign this spring. The video hit exactly the right chords. In four weeks, Artiphon raised more than $1.3 million. The goal had been just $75,000, which it exceeded in six hours. Crowdfunding isn't everything, of course, but that kind of response established consumer demand.
From their offices in Marathon Village, the staff of six is now faced with moving from the beta launch stagewhich took four years to get tointo the big leagues. The 3,300 Kickstarter backers are scheduled to receive their $399 instruments next January; Artiphon soon will take additional general public pre-orders.
'We are making a consumer electronic device; this is not a Gibson guitar, and it is going to take to different skills to make it,” Butera says of the next steps. While the company is based in Nashville, sourcing the components will be a global endeavor.
And though Butera is no longer a working musician, his quest to show people what his product can do has gotten him back on stage. He recently backed Humming House, an Americana band he helped found, on the Instrument 1. He also played backup for his brother, a songwriter, who scored one of the Third Man Records Record Store Day recording sessions.
'[In] the moments like that, where I get to sit in with people and listen to the instrument, I am learning a lot,” Butera says. 'Now we know that the multi-instrument is an idea the world will respond to.”