by SARAH ROWLAND

It’s a term that’s been bandied about so much by the media, industry execs and misguided teens that it’s almost lost all meaning. But that didn’t stop Montreal filmmaker Dave Cool (real name) from trying to define it in his debut documentary What Is INDIE? And for a while, as we see in the film, he was pretty much committed to the traditional DIY definition—i.e. any artist or label that operates outside the major label system... by choice.

“For about six months of production I thought I knew what the word meant,” says Cool, who also runs his own label, Stand Alone Records. “That is until I interviewed Derek Sivers, the founder of a company called CD Baby.”

Sivers, who runs his hugely successful online record store out of Portland, Oregon, basically says that you can be “indie” and still be signed to a major label, as long as you have control. And of course, he’s right. With hundreds of mom ’n’ pop labels distributing through either EMI, Warner, Sony or Universal, the lines of independence have been blurred.

“I remember leaving the interview just sort of thinking, ‘Okay, I guess it’s back to the drawing board now because what he said absolutely floored me,” says Cool. “I honestly hadn’t thought of it in that sense before so I was very surprised.”

The film, which features a collection of Montreal scenesters (Paul Cargnello, Bloodshot Bill, Johnson Cummins etc.) also spends a lot of time exploring the pros and cons of owning your own masters, a debate that invariably boils down to cash or control.

For some artists, like Ember Swift, the answer is clear. In between her ultra-indie rants, we see her happily strumming her acoustic to what looks like a crowd of two. It’s safe to say that if put to the test, the young singer-songwriter would stand by her Ani DiFranco ethos even if it meant playing lesbian bar mitzvahs for the rest of her life.

“She would never sign any type of deal under any circumstances,” confirms Cool. “She’s living her life and sustaining herself with her art. She’s probably sold close to 50,000 records. People in Europe don’t know who she is but hey, I’m sure she’s okay with that.”

Other musicians featured in the film aren’t quite so convincing. One gets the impression that for them the term “indie artist” is nothing more than a euphemism for “I blew my Canadian Idol audition and David Foster hasn’t discovered me yet.” Yet they still champion the term.

“Would some of the artists in the movie sell out?” asks Cool, treading very carefully. “Maybe, and if they did, I wouldn’t judge them. I mean everyone has to make a living and if they’re comfortable doing that, then that’s fine by me. Whether I would do it is a totally different story.”

Does that mean Cool considers himself a control freak?

“No doubt about it,” says Cool. “It’s actually something I’m trying to work on because at the end of the day, you can’t possibly do everything yourself and you have to learn how to delegate. It’s something most indie artists probably need to work on.”

Several artists featured in What Is Indie? will perform as part of the Canadian premiere at La Sala Rossa on Saturday, May 6. For more info, visit www.whatisindiemovie.com

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