While "organic" may not have its own section in music stores just yet, the members of Phoenix band Try Me Bicycle are committed to spreading environmental awareness through their music.
"We chose to define ourselves as organic because we're all naturalists," says singer and guitarist Andy Naylor. "We think that a lot of who we are speaks vicariously through the music."
The band, formed in 2005, is composed of former ASU students: singer and guitarist Andy Naylor, 29; pianist Jacob Koller, 27; and bassist Jay Novak, 29. Try Me Bicycle is a peaceful band striving to make a difference.
The band creates soothing and peaceful melodies incorporated with lyrics that promote environmental consciousness. The members of Try Me Bicycle describe their music as a mix of jazz and modern folk, which attracts a dynamic fan base of younger and older people.
"I love that about our music," Naylor says. "The audience can really be such a mix."
The band's name stems from the members' hope to one day see communities relying on either bicycles or walking for transportation.
"[Our hope is] to get people out of their cars as much as possible" Naylor says. "It not only promotes interaction within communities, but it gets people outdoors."
Try Me Bicycle's debut album "Voicings," released earlier this year, consists of quiet and graceful harmonies while encouraging the preservation of our surrounding world.
"We believe the best way for people to make an effort for environmental improvement, is first to get them to respect and appreciate it," Naylor says.
Although the members of the band are currently not affiliated with any environmental organizations, Naylor says they work more subtly for the environment awareness.
"With the widespread development of Metropolitan Phoenix, coupled with the current pollution sprawl, we felt inspired to become more involved in our respective communities and aid in promoting some hopeful changes," Naylor says.
Naylor adds that with the help of All Bikes, a bicycle junkyard near Payson, the band members started to build bikes from vintage bicycle parts and '60s bicycle frames. They first started building the bikes for themselves and then for others who requested them.
"We hope to see this little project expand with the time we have, while we're trying to hack it out as musicians," Naylor says. "We're peddling on."
The project even found its way into one of the band's songs, "Lessons on Love and Junk," which tells the story of being "led to a bicycle mirage." There, the members inevitably find various bicycle parts that allow them to construct the bikes they adore and embark upon on their environmentally friendly journeys.
The band says it's dedicated to salvaging the environment that surrounds them.
"No one wants to see something they love tarnished or polluted," Naylor says. "Everything starts small, and it usually takes inspiration, not instruction, to promote change."
