The Vision
Most bands - and ours is no exception - rely pretty heavily on fossil fuels. As much as we try in our individual daily lives to live sustainably, the fact is that to grow as a band we need to tour, and to tour we use plenty of gasoline -- even when we plan our trips with fuel economy in mind. Our local shows also seem to require plenty o' gas, to transport all our gear from the studio to the gig and back again late at night. And what about when we get there? We plug our amps in and sing through PA systems all drawing big juice from a grid that in California is mostly electricity generated from coal.
All this adds up to a pretty fat ecological footprint that no amount of songs about respecting Mama Nature can remedy.
Thanks to brilliant innovations by fellow humans, there is another way!
OUR MISSION:
<< Reduce Antioquia's ecological footprint
<< Inspire diverse audiences about sustainable living using music, rhythm & play!
<< Form networks and grow the green music movement
OUR WISHLIST...
Equipment:
<< Waste Veggie Oil Bus (01/01/2010: we're aiming to have the bus converted to run on WVO in time for our album release tour in mid-February! DONATE to help us out!)
<< 6 XtraCycles (Band members + 2 roadies)
<< Pedal Powered Sound System
<< Compact Bike-tourable Drumkit
<< Direct Box for Adley's guitar
Help:
<< Bicycle Mechanic to tour
<< Sound Engineer to tour
<< Funding to purchase needed equipment
OUR DREAM!
<< Bicycle tour as a band, playing pedal-powered shows on street corners, in schoolyards and neighborhood parks, at festivals and street fairs, even music venues and night clubs!
<< Veggie Oil Bus becomes a hub for bicycle touring further afield... Eastern US, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, beyond!
<< Use our music as a conduit to demonstrate the playful elegance of pedal power and the graceful resourcefulness of veggie fueled transport!
<< Create a school show to teach youth about bicycles, pedal power, rhythm & dance -- and tour this show as far and wide as we are able to!
<< Record a pedal-powered album!
<< Create a Network... Beyond our more immediate goal of weaning our music off fossil fuels, we want to team with others to form a sustainable music "resource hub" -- a collaborative entity that can help musicians, venues, promoters, and manufacturers to network, research and choose green alternatives to standard music industry practices, as well as share equipment resources such as pedal-power PA systems!
PROJECT PHASES
Phase Zero: Fundraising & Planning [Develop website for fundraising efforts. Hunt for veggie bus / bus for conversion.]
Phase One: Touring with Veggie Oil Bus
[Tour on recycled veggie oil rather than gasoline. Commission construction of a pedal-powered sound system & tourable drumkit. DOCUMENT!]
Phase Two: Bike-Tourable Pedal Power
[The next step is to become proficient at using and transporting our pedal-powered sound system and make it available for our shows and our community. DOCUMENT!]
Phase Three: Develop School Show
[Develop school show focusing on human power & rhythm. Test school show. Promote & book school shows. Develop relationships with local area schools and schools in need. DOCUMENT!]
Phase Four: Pedal-Powered Recording
[Explore the feasibility of recording a pedal-powered album. Record said album. DOCUMENT!]
Phase Five: Long Distance Bike/Bus Tour
[Embark upon our first long distance journey in the veggie bus with our bikes strapped to the top - doing pedal-powered school, street, venue & festival shows. DOCUMENT!]
Beyond: Green Music Foundation
[Eventually, we envision creating a foundation dedicated to furthering the green music movement, funding band and venue greening efforts, and networking. The documentation of our entire process will form a part of the website connected to this larger project.]
A BIT ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY...
Cargo Carrying Bicycles
With a longer wheel base, optimized center of gravity and back end designed for carrying gear, Xtracycles make it possibly to carry 150 lbs of gear comfortably. Unlike a bike with a loaded bike trailer attached, they ride just as smoothly when full-loaded, and they take corners easily.
Kipchoge Spencer of The Ginger Ninjas helped to found Xtracycle in 1998, and this band is now on their 2nd very successful bicycle tour to Mexico, playing on a pedal-powered sound system everywhere they ride.
Mundos are another great example of a cargo bike. They're a bit more beefy than the XtraCycles, and are rated to carry up to 450lbs (!) in exchange for a bit more weight and a more rigid frame.
Find out more online: MUNDO XTRACYCLE
Pedal Powered Sound
Imagine you're sitting on a bench in your neighborhood park, enjoying the sun and people-watching.
All of a sudden, a hoard of cyclists arrive at the park. You watch them get busy as they unpack things from various trailers and gear-hauling bicycles, and before you know it there's a full stage set up on the grass just yards away from you, complete with PA system, drumkit, guitars and microphones.
You turn your attention elsewhere, until you hear amplified music coming from the impromptu stage. You look, listen and sniff for a diesel generator or for where they may have plugged in, until you realize something different about this stage: There are 4 or 5 bicycles lining the edge of the stage, with their back wheels up in the air, being feircely pedalled by some very happy-looking people. This is enough to get you up off the bench to go take a closer look.
Three minutes later you're sitting on one of those bicycles, having traded off with someone ready for a break, and you're enjoying the music as you proudly contribute your pedalling motion to the electricity that's amplifying it!
This was the scene at Precita Park in San Francisco on June 21st, 2008 when the 2nd annual San Francisco Bicycle Music Festival arrived. The Ginger Ninjas, recently returned from their bike tour to Mexico, lent their pedal-powered sound system built by Rock the Bike for the occasion.
The 3rd annual BMF took place on June 20th, 2009.
Stay tuned for the next one and get involved: www.bicyclemusicfestival.com.
Learn more about pedal powered sound at ROCK THE BIKE.
Straight Veggie Oil
There's a lot of confusion out there about the difference between Biodiesel and Straight Veggie Oil (SVO) fuel. They are both made from vegetable oil, but while Biodiesel has been chemically altered and is ready to be pumped into any diesel fuel tank, Veggie Oil requires a second tank to store the veggie oil and the main fuel tank remains an essential part of the system.
Biodiesel takes time and resources to make, but once it's made it's ready to put in your tank with very few adjustments needing to be made to your engine.
SVO only needs to be collected from restaurants where it is a waste product and this takes time and energy. However, once it's collected it needs only to be put into the filtering system on board to be used by the tank... again, there's no chemical alteration of the recycled veggie oil before it hits the tank, only filtering and heating. The engine still needs to be started on diesel (or biodiesel) until the engine warms up, at which point you make the switch over to draw from the veggie oil tank.
SVO is more suitable to Antioquia's budget and lifestyle than making our own biodiesel or finding stations that pump it everywhere we're going. With a bit of luck, a bit of charm, and a bit of time we should be able to source veggie oil to get us where we need to go without the help of fossil fuels.
The bus pictured at the Top Left is named Millie. This 26' 1974 Ford Gillig Bus belongs to bike touring band The Ginger Ninjas and was converted to run on waste veggie oil several years ago. We're currently negotiating a potential part-ownership of this bus. We had a fantastic time touring with these guys and Millie from May 14-19, and hopefully we can come up with a deal that will be workable for both parties.
Common Vision (bus pictured Bottom Left) is another crew doing great work who have inspired us. They travel to schoolyards and communities across the country planting fruit trees and using music and rhythm to bring people together.
Visit this link to learn more about Waste Veggie Oil.