Videos
Isto posts his videos on three separate youtube accounts:
Photo by Ellen Oettinger
Lumberjackisto
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Photograph by Tyler White (2006)
Istothehalfabee
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Drawing by Emily New (emilyillustrated.com)
Istolive
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A Brief History of Isto on Youtube:
Isto first started posting videos to youtube during the Summer of 2006. He posted many original songs, and many standards. In 2007, the video of his “The Banana Song” was featured on Youtube’s home page. This led to many thousands of hits for that song and others. For a couple days, emails were flowing in at a rate of a thousand a day. By 2009, the total hits for all his videos on youtube was approaching 3,000,000. By that point, his “Banana Song” had been watched about 750,000 times, and his versions of “Over the Rainbow,” and “What a Wonderful World” were around 200,000. A few other videos of his were around 100,000. It was an exciting new world in which fame, fortune and glory had at last arrived and were here to stay. Or so it seemed.
In the Fall of 2009, Isto had to remove his covers from his youtube page, or risk having all his youtube videos deleted by music publishers. It was sad to see all the hits on his arrangements of jazz standards disappear. The one remaining video that showed any evidence of his once rampant youtube stardom was “The Banana Song,” which was never really representative of the sorts of things he usually posted to youtube.
At this point, Isto began posting his old videos to a new youtube account: lumberjackisto. He also started a third account, istolive, for posting videos from his shows. It was a slow process, but Isto’s old audience gradually started to discover his new pages. However, it seemed he would never again know the sort of fame that had once been his. But there was always hope.
Then, one day, Isto was playing through his new arrangement of Irving Berlin’s “Be Careful, It’s My Heart,” in the music room of his apartment. He happened to be filming himself. Just as he reached the climax of the instrumental segment of his performance, he heard a rumbling from overhead. He stopped playing and looked up in confusion. What were they doing upstairs? And then… more noise. This time from the living room! “What is going on here?” Isto thought to himself. He got up to investigate. It turned out that there was an earthquake. How exciting! It was a shame that it had to ruin a perfectly good take though. Or did it?
Isto quickly realized that this was a video that his friends online might be interested in. He posted it, and it went slightly viral - 150,000 hits within a day. It didn’t acquire nearly the number of hits of a “The Banana Song,” nor did it get him very many new followers. And, actually, the comments posted below the video were mostly mean-spirited rather than appreciative. But it was something. A minor triumph. And this time, Isto was wise enough to know how to take it.