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Not everyone would see an instrument when looking at an IBM Selectric typewriter. But that's exactly what Invisible's Mark Dixon saw when he was listening to his friend, Jodi Staley, a professional typist, work on her typewriter.

"I thought she already had the chops that any talented musician has," said Dixon, who plays bass and drum machine. "She's just on a different machine."

Dixon ran with that idea and spent three months creating the "Selectric Piano" with his friend Fred Snider. The apparatus links every key on the typewriter to a key on the piano, so when Staley presses a typewriter key, a piano key plays with it.

A video camera on the typewriter allows audiences to see the text being typed as the piano plays. A video on Invisible's MySpace page even features the band doing a round of 20 Questions on the Selectric Piano.

"I thought Mark was crazy," Staley said. "I was really excited and nervous and scared, but it wound up being a great growing experience for me, and I found out I did have rhythm."

The Selectric Piano fits perfectly with Invisible's experimental sound. Dixon said the band's sound is based in trying new things, and the result is rock music blended with different noises and musical devices of their own creation. It's hard for the band to pin down their exact sound.

"It's like a helicopter made out of cooked linguini," said Jonathan Henderson, who plays guitar, percussion and keyboards.

Invisible's love of all kinds of music contributes to its sound, from folk to "kraut rock," a genre of German rock from the early 1970s, and from rap to trains, diesel engines and rain on the roof.

Invisible has had three different incarnations since the group formed almost two years ago, and the band said it will probably have more and revisit others in the future.

Invisible first began when Bart Trotman (drums, keyboards, electronics, guitar and bass) met Henderson through Cakalak Thunder, a drum corps working with activism and social justice causes, and approached him about starting a band. They played together once before adding Cakalak's Dixon and Dan Kaufman, who recently moved to Chicago.

"We're a really different band every project we do," Dixon said. "And with Jodi on the piano it's almost like a new project."

Every member of Invisible grew up surrounded by some kind of artform. Staley's grandparents played bluegrass music and performed in traveling minstrel shows. She said prior to the Selectric Piano she only played a little banjo but always felt a connection to music through her family. Henderson has recently been looking back at his heritage and exploring his musical roots.

"There's a path music has woven through the generations, and it's found its way to me," Henderson said.

Trotman and Dixon come from art backgrounds. Trotman's dad was a wood sculptor, but his older brother introduced him to rock music. Dixon and his parents all went to art school, but Dixon was drawn to the collaborative aspect of music.

"I was in an arranged marriage with art, and I eloped with music," Dixon said.

Invisible has performed throughout the Triad and the Triangle, and it plans to play at the Weatherspoon Art Museum at Halloween.

"After that we'll probably reinvent ourselves again," Trotman said. "Jodi's having a baby so we'll have a space to fill."

No matter what the incarnation, Invisible will be defined by its experimental sound.

"It never gets old," Trotman said. "And if it does get old, you just try something new."

Contact Alexa Milan at 373-7081 or Alexandra.Milan@news-record.com.