Keeping it real: All-natural soul rock

It's no secret these days that words like "organic" and "natural" fit nicely into our green-minded society, which prefers to reject such un-hip things as "synthetic" and "imitation." But organic and music? Not so well-received in an indie underground that's rediscovering Duran Duran-esque synthpop (we love you, Hot Chip) and loopy, drum machine-laden shoegaze a la My Bloody Valentine. Just ask Aryk Crowder, singer for the decidedly all-natural "soul-rock" outfit Lo/fi Pioneer.

"I'm a huge Jimi Hendrix fan," Crowder says. "Curtis Mayfield, Marvin Gaye; I love all those types of music, and that's basically what I wanted to create. I'm so sick of hearing R&B and soul music played today (when) there's all this synthesized, over-processed stuff, like you don't hear just raw talent."

And so it began in Crowder's studio apartment four years ago. He moved from Zion to Kenosha, Wis., and built a "dinky little setup" in his rented 400 square-foot space. That's where the beginnings of Lo/fi Pioneer's acoustic-based, funk-grounded soul core sprouted out of a four-track cassette recorder stuffed in the corner of the room.

"I wanted the real thing," he says now. "So no keyboards, nothing synthetic, everything is real. You know, people playing real instruments, doing real things."

It was easier said than done in Kenosha, where minimalist rock went out the door with beer than didn't rhyme with Miller Lite. So Crowder moved to Chicago in search of like-minded music lovers who felt as fed up with over-complicated, sample-packed songs as he did. Oh, and being a fan of Al Green didn't hurt, either. The current reincarnation of Lo/fi, which formed after the first drummer and bassist left the band late last year for school and family, consists of Will Nickson and A'drian Morris, whom Crowder describes as the group's Backbone and Bottom End, respectively.

Just like the first organic-minded duo, with whom Crowder recorded Lo/fi's beat-popping debut "Solid State" last year, Nickson and Morris weren't so easy to find. After months of searching the "network" via acoustic open mics, Southside jazz bars, Craigslist ads and asking around the scene, these two showed up embedded in the gospel circuit, with roots in jazz and blues.

"These guys are phenomenal," Crowder says, "they're extremely good players. We got together to listen to some music, and we sat down over some coffee and talked. And we're just all the same page: where we want to go creatively, where we want to go career-wise with this."

Crowder, who works as a Crunch Fitness personal trainer by day, says he gets the "goals" question a lot. People ask all the time; things like: Do you want to get a big "deal" out of this? Do you want to be signed? Is there even a market for this kind of thing? The answers, in order, are not really, nah and thankfully, the market's ears are wide open.

"We want to make a career out of this, basically (by) playing and recording music, and if we were able to make a good living doing this on our own and touring and releasing records, that would be great. The market for independent music is so huge right now."

But that doesn't mean it's easy. Crowder readily admits that "it's tough out there, especially with the way the record industry is going right now." So the plan now is to stick with Lo/fi roots: write (a ton of) new material, play (dozens of) shows per month and (constantly) cultivate new material for their next album, planned for release at the end of next year.

Crowder isn't kidding about the drum machine bit either ("Watching one guy on stage with a drum machine is really boring," he says. "I've seen it. It is not fun."). Lo/fi newcomers and fans alike can expect everything they hear on Lo/fi's album and MySpace page to sound all but identical to their upcoming sets at DC Cobbs in Woodstock and even at Deerfield's Festival of Fine Arts' open-air stage (psst: chocolate lovers will want to check out their performance Saturday at Chocolate Fest in Burlington, Wis.).

"You record a song how you're going to play it live, because, especially with me and the rest of the band, our key component is playing live. So we want to reproduce what we do live on the record. You go to a show; you're going to hear that song you know."

Crowder has since upgraded his four-track songwriting gear to ProTools and iPods, but his tactics remain the same. He takes weeks to pin down lyrics, and he prides himself in developing songs from conversations on trains and between lovers. Lo/fi's latest single, which they recently played live on Fearless Radio, tells the story of a woman who wants to get married when her boyfriend doesn't. For Nickson and Morris' part, they'll play newly written song structures for a half-hour straight until they get it right, get it sounding as natural and unfiltered as they can. And for the most part, the response has been positive, if not at least moving.

"People really pay attention to what we're doing and they're either a. really into what we've got going on or b. they're not. I have yet to see anybody that has a mediocre response, like 'Yeah, you guys are all right.'"

8 p.m. Thursday, Reggie's Rock Club, Chicago.

Tickets: $8 at the door