Indie artists shooting for moon

It's all about the weasel," she says.

He nods his head in agreement over a burgundy-colored cocktail.

It's a bit past three on the kind of sunny Tuesday afternoon that was made for playing hooky, and singer-songwriter Shauna Burns and her drummer/producer James Clark are talking about what it takes to get on the airwaves these days, which, for independent artists such as those two who run their own label, is a task akin to lugging a Buick up the face of Mount Charleston.

And yet, the two slowly have found success. Garnering more than 700 spins a week in cities from Phoenix to Tampa, Fla., Burns has cracked the top 10 of the FMQB Adult Contemporary chart with her latest single, "Around You."

Compiled by radio programming executives, the chart is a good bellwether of national exposure.

"The best things for the small guy to do is attack the smaller markets, and then you try and get the attention of the larger markets," Clark says over a drink at King's Fish House, noting that one of the first cities that Burns found an audience in was a medium-size town in Hawaii. "For the big markets, it just takes charting, like we're doing, and just slowly weaseling your way into markets."

"Around You" comes from Burns' recently released third full-length disc, "The Moon and the Fire Circle," a spare yet symphonic album driven by Burns' breathy, dramatic singing and spry, dusky piano playing.

As its title suggests, it's an album with plenty of allusions to the elements, largely posited upon a fascination with nature and humankind's relation to it that's indebted to Burns' studies at the University of Utah, where she was an anthropology major.

"I loved this idea of cultural identity and what makes us tick," Burns says, eyes brightening behind a pair of black-rimmed glasses. "When we study other peoples' culture, we're really studying ourselves. We're comparing ourselves to other peoples' ideologies or religions, and it's sort of a songwriter's dream to do that."

But dreams were made to be dashed when you're an indie musician, trying to get a foothold in an industry that, until recently, has inherently been tilted in favor of the major label oligarchy.

But all that's starting to change, and artists such as Burns are benefiting. With Clark overseeing the day-to-day affairs of their label, Red Rock Records, and Burns managing her Web sites and corresponding with fans, the two have begun to make headway for themselves nationally.

Meaning Burns isn't just singing about the moon, she's aiming for it.

"There are a lot of things that can make an independent artist spin their wheels, and so we kind of had to maneuver around what's productive and what isn't," she explains. "With MySpace and Facebook and places like CDBaby, it's completely obtainable for independent artists to reach listeners where it wasn't before. The playing field is more even now."

Jason Bracelin's "Sounding Off" column appears on Tuesdays. Contact him at 383-0476 or e-mail him at jbracelin@ reviewjournal.com.