Orion Independent Music Festival to coincide with Sundance

Steffon Olsen has been an independent local musician for years.

He started off in rock bands and then went down to singer/songwriter mode. In the past few years, he's been known as a jazz singer and music producer with his label Crooner Records.

Throughout his career, he has wanted to help independent musicians. So he decided to organize the Orion Independent Music Festival.

The festival debuts Jan. 14-20 in Park City and Salt Lake venues. Olsen, who lives in Park City, made sure his festival didn't conflict with the Sundance Film Festival, even though both events have similar goals.

"(The Orion Independent Music Festival) uses the exact same model that Robert Redford invented many years ago for the Sundance Film Festival," Olsen said during an interview with the Deseret News. "While he's helping filmmakers, we're helping independent artists.

"The number one purpose and the heart of our festival is to help these artists to make a bridge to their audience."

To accomplish this goal, Olsen and his staff invited an array of artists — from singer/songwriters to rock musicians to country and reggae artists to perform and mingle with representatives of record labels, Web sites, radio stations, Internet radio stations and movie producers.

"These insiders are not those guys with the big cigar, but people that can give hands-on help right now.

"We're not focusing on the major labels, because they are not viable right now," said Olsen, who studied the rise and fall of the major label structure in the music business.

"We're focusing on the market that exists at this time, which is the Internet and touring and music placement in movies.

"We're hoping to see at least one distribution deal come out of this year's festival," he said.

While locally based artists such as the Mana Poly All-Stars, Joshua James and the Band of Annuals, to name a few, will be performing during the festival, Olsen said they are also bringing in some international artists from Chile (Muza) and Sweden (Christine Owman).

One such international artist, Ali Milner, hails from Canada.

Milner has sung for more than 60,000 people in China during a cultural festival while accompanying Canadian Premier Gordon Campbell. She has also performed all over Canada and has sung at the Toronto Film Festival and many Olympic and Paralympic pre-game ceremonies.

On top of that, she owns her own record label called Purple House Productions.

Her styles of jazz singing and songwriting have won her accolades from established artists such as Sarah McLachlan and Michael Buble.

Not bad for, as she says, a little redhead from Whistler, Canada."

Her motivation, she said, was music in general.

"I listen to absolutely everything," Milner said during a phone interview from her home in Canada. "I don't have any sort of genre or artist that I blacklist."

Milner, a classically trained pianist and vocalist, found jazz piano and vocals were more for her.

"I've always had a soft spot for people like Ray Charles and Sam Cook, and songwriters like Dolly Parton and Bob Dylan."

Milner never let the fact that she was from a small town get in the way of her dreams.

"It is pretty tough being from a small town like Whistler," she said. "It is a really international town with a lot of focus in the world right now because of the Olympics. But for a long time, it's been tough to get out of there. It's expensive to go on tour because of the long distances."

However, Milner agreed with Olsen and said that her online presence has helped expose her to potential fans.

"With he Internet and all the social networking stuff like MySpace and Facebook, it is definitely becoming a smaller world. It's becoming easier to reach fans."

It was through the Internet that Milner was contacted to participate in the Orion Independent Music Festival.

"I received an e-mail, and we looked it up and saw that it was right beside the Sundance Film Festival. I have a friend who spends a lot of time down there, and he said it would be bumping that time of the year and it would be fun."

Milner is bringing her bassist and drummer, Erik P.H. Nielsen and Dom Coletta, respectively.

"I've been working with them for a few months," she said. "They've become really great friends of mine."

"I'd love to gain some new fans," she said. "I'd just be really pleased if people enjoyed my show. It would be great to have a fan base to be able to go back and play more shows there and in the surrounding area, and meet new people and make contacts and see the other acts and have a great couple of days."

If you go

What: Orion Independent Music Festival

Where: Various venues

When: Jan. 14-20

How much: $40 for an all-access pass

Phone: 435-649-7717

Web: www.orionmusicfestival.com

e-mail: scott@desnews.com