Lee Oskar, Versaly Games

Ringtones are the new rock and roll. Exhibit A: The beginning of this year saw the arrival of “Ringtones,” an album-length collection of 99 original mobile phone melodies created by a who's who of hip electronic acts. But no one's exploring this new musical medium with quite the same fervor as harmonica virtuoso Lee Oskar.

A founding member of War, the pioneering funk rock band famed for the hits “Spill the Wine,” “Why Can't We Be Friends?” and “Low Rider,” Oskar signed with Seattle-based interactive mobile entertainment distributor Versaly Games in early 2002 to author a series of exclusive ringtones for next-generation handsets.

“Wherever there's sound, I want to translate it to music,” said the Danish-born Oskar. “Sound should always be music. But the ringtones that people use now are not music. They're terrible and annoying. A ringtone should be so soothing that it doesn't distract anyone else, and yet it gets your attention. That's the ticket.”

To that end, Oskar is only composing ringtones for next-gen phones, such as Microsoft's Stinger smartphone, that offer full-fidelity, polytonal playback. “You need that technology to get the right sound,” he said.

Despite differences in length and approach, Oskar said the jazz-influenced epic jams of his War days and the relative musical snippets that compose ringtones are merely different points on the same creative continuum. “I'm a melody writer. Give me three notes, and I'll give you the best melody you've ever heard. You don't need a long stretch of time to create a melody. If you've got the right tone and tempo and a great, catchy riff, you've got the game.”

So what's the ringtone on Oskar's own mobile phone? “Embarrassingly enough, it's the standard stuff,” he said. “I can't be bothered to change it. But it sounds like crap.”