When you hear this sound a-coming ... it just might be the eco-movement joining together with the band.

Dorian Wright of L Records laughs when asked if people can hear the "green-ness" in music made in his solar- and wind-powered offices on the North Shore.

"That would be cool if they did, but unfortunately, not," said Wright.

Still, Wright and eco-musician Jack Johnson share more than a love of the environment and the North Shore. Both are forging a new vision for their industry that requires less reliance on fossil fuel. Don't paint these guys in the same brushstroke, however, when it comes to the sounds they make. Johnson may sound green, but Wright definitely does not.

"If I had to pick as green music, I'd say the natural genre people would think of would be Jack Johnson's kind of folk," Wright said. "Green music can be anything. ... People would associate with it with folk/hippie, but we're doing house, the kind of music big in Europe. House is a modern form of what disco was in '70s."

Kim Johnson, wife of Jack Johnson and executive director of the Kokua Hawai'i Foundation, said not only can you hear the influence of protecting the 'aina in some of the Hawai'i singer's lyrics, but in the case of "Banana Pancakes," the sound of the rain outside the studio was recorded and incorporated into the song.

Johnson's home studio is pretty much off the grid.

"The studio here at our Kokua offices, which is also our house, runs on 100 percent solar," said Kim Johnson. "We probably have 22 panels on the roof — enough to power everything. ... Jack's last record was recorded on 100 percent solar power."

Kokua means help, and it's apparent both the musicmaker and his wife, a former teacher, do just that. It's kokua for the 'aina that infuses his sound.

"Jack's not writing the cliche," said Kim Johnson. "We love the Earth. ... It has an underlying awareness, a sense of kuleana. He's not a preachy type person. (The green message) is very subtle and low-key. Maybe because it's not stamped out front ... The words come to him, it's what he's thinking about."

Wright, whose studio lies between the Velzyland surf spot and Turtle Bay, has what one might call a balanced energy portfolio.

"The windmill can generate up to 400 watts per hour," said Wright, who calls his "a kind of hybrid system — when it's rainy and cold, the wind kicks up and when it's sunny, you don't need the wind."

Perhaps the most intriguing item in their green inventory is a music card that the studio hands out at events instead of promotional CDs. Once the music is downloaded from the card, the card itself can be planted in the dirt. The seeds that are embedded in the card then sprout into wildflowers, Wright explained.

"It's biodegradable, and you get flowers out of that, too," he said. ... "Women tend to get more excited about this."

Wright comes by his interest in green music honestly: through his father, Gary Wright, the musician who wrote and performed the song "Dreamweaver" in 1976.

As a youngster, his dad took him to the Colorado home of the late actor-environmentalist Dennis Weaver, who lived in a completely sustainable home in the foothills near Ridgeway.

"It was called Earthship," he recalled, and its design incorporated used tires and had a water catchment system.

"It's what inspired me," said Wright. "When I saw his house, ... that got it into my head."

Musicians and others in the music industry have a voice to get the green message across, Wright said.

"Music is such a great way to do it," he said. "Hey, listen to my music and know we're green. If we can do it, you can do it."

People may think it's a movement, as Arlo Guthrie said in "Alice's Restaurant."