Sunfall Festival is absolutely splendid’, Deseret News
2/02/01

By Lucy Campbell
Deseret News staff writer

... It begins with a song, then the song becomes popular and before you know it, the band that wrote the song has won 250,000 smackers.

Of course, the Provo band Sunfall Festival's snowball began rolling a couple of years ago — as a miniscule flake.

The drummer/P.R. guy Chris Peterson had the grand idea of putting the band's song "I Walked Away" online. He didn't really tell anyone . . . although, he might have e-mailed the band. "We don't plan things together," Peterson said over his cell phone . . . the one that he says he hates because it cut out right when our conversation was getting good. The thing is, Chris acted independently. That is his job as media guy.

He put the song online at Garageband.com because it seemed like a good way to get Sunfall Festival's music out to the people. Amy Greetham— the lead singer and writer of the lyrics — said she checked it out a couple of times, voted on a song or two then put it out of her mind.

No one in the band had a clue that people all over the United States were visiting Sunfall Festival's Web site. Then guitarist Scott Wiley noticed that the Web site had suddenly become the meeting place for Garageband.com fans worldwide.

Ohhhh, stop the horses, Nelly; I'm growin' faint!

Before the group knew what hit them, a huge golden egg had plopped in their laps. Sunfall Festival had won a $250,000 recording contract with Garageband.com, whose CEO is former Talking Head Jerry Harrison. And the chairman of the board is Sir George Martin, who was the Beatles' producer.

COULD YOU JUST DIE!?!

So, let me tell you that the members of Sunfall Festival are completely humble. The girl is busy, busy, busy writing lyrics to songs that she says no one understands anyway because that's just her style. She did take a few voice lessons once, but Amy says that the woman didn't want to deal with her at all. That's OK. I've had plenty of piano teachers who have felt the same way.

The band is trying to finish up its third release, which it's been working on for almost two years. Scott says that "Monday 23" should be out in a month because they're putting the finishing touches on it.

I'm quite excited because, after listening to many of the band's songs via MP3.com, I've decided that, yes, these guys are truly the real thing. I think Sunfall Festival sounds like a hybrid of Ani Difranco and Radiohead.

Someone online compared Amy's voice to Jewel, and I had to stop myself from slitting my new sweater to shreds. Amy's better.

The best way to find the previous CDs, "Absolutely Splendid" and "On The Verge," is to visit the band's site, www.sunfallfestival.com. It's also a great way to see Amy's watercolor, which she completed in a class last semester.

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