These 12 tracks are a rallying cry inspired by the voices and movements of yesteryear, vintage folk anthems not just painting a portrait of the woman’s voice in a man’s world, but slashing through the customary canvasses to reveal the welcomed colours of change underneath.
To think, this band never wanted to dive into the deep end of the political pool but the headlines they read in the papers, the reports on the nightly news, made it impossible to remain silent. This album would move away from the “Good Clean Fun” of their prior release and into an overdue feminist soundtrack for the now.
“Gritty”? “Sultry”? “Daring”? You betcha!
Spin a cut like “I Wanna Be King” or “Gotta Get Paid” and you’ll see what direction they are driving in now. That train stops tonight at the Black Sheep Inn for one of the band’s unforgettable live shows filled with honeyed harmonies and syrupy sweet swinging sass. If you have toes, they’re going to be tappin’.
Pull up a chair with the band’s Allyson Reigh and I as we learn more about the trio’s epic song writing binge inside a prairie cabin, how they discovered their inspirational namesake and their thoughts on a maturing sound that offers afterlives to those decked out dudes in plaid.
Andre Gagne: Your band name was inspired by the feminist cultural icon of World War II who symbolized women workers. Most, I believe, learn of Rosie from the famous “We Can Do It!” poster by Howard Miller. Can you share how your learned of her and what she means to you?
Allyson Reigh: What’s really interesting about Rosie the Riveter is that she was actually used as a tool of propaganda for the US government to mobilize women and move them into the workforce during WWII. When the men returned from war and women began to fight for their right to work outside of the home, that’s when her likeness and message was adopted as a symbol in the second wave of feminism. Personally, I’ve heard about Rosie the Riveter since I was a kid. My dad is a huge history buff so I learned about her from him. I joined the band a few years after Farideh had the idea for the group, so she gets full credit for the great name! She learned about Rosie in a class in university.
You all met to form the band back in 2011 and, I imagine, discovered quickly that the three of you are pretty strong-willed, independent personalities. Was it planned at the outset to become a band strongly pushing the message of empowerment in your music or did that develop naturally?
We love music and we think it’s important for girls and young women to see alternatives to dudes in plaid shirts.
Once firmly set on that trajectory, what would you say you were most trying to convey when setting down the songs that would eventually become Ms. Behave?
When we were writing the songs for Ms. Behave, we just set out to write music that we wanted to listen to but weren’t hearing on the radio.
Now, onto those songs. You actually hashed out 40 of ‘em in a cabin up in Northern Saskatchewan? Why do you feel three albums of material poured out of you all during that very creative stay?
Most artists write more songs than they put on an album anyway, so that’s not really an anomaly. Actually, 40 songs isn’t that much, when you consider that not all of them will ever see the light of day. Our goal was to write 4 complete songs a day, they didn’t all have to be good they just had to be complete songs. We just stuck to our plan – no magic formula, just hard work and commitment.
Outside of becoming a threesome, what would you say most changed about the band heading into the new release as opposed to working on Good Clean Fun!?
Every artist grows and changes over the course of an album cycle moving into the creation of a new record. We made a decision to write the songs together, so that was the biggest – and most fun – change for us.
Would you agree that your sound has matured when it comes to the music on this new album? I mean, Good Clean Fun! seems like a release to uplift and, perhaps, get a few chuckles whereas Ms. Behave is one to really make people stop and think with deeper themes.
Yes, our sound has definitely matured. We’ve been touring solidly and performing more than ever before and there are some major cultural changes happening right now that we wanted to talk about. We were cognizant of the way we wanted and needed to approach some of the more challenging things we talk about on Ms. Behave.
How do you feel working with Joshua Van Tassel helped shape this new album?
We loved the work that Josh was doing with other artists. When you pick a producer, you want to make sure to look at their body of work and see if that’s the lens you want to filter your art through. Josh did a lot of wonderful things with this record and we really loved working with him.
Recently, I’ve chatted with a few artists who have said how much Saskatoon has grown into an eclectic mix of melodic delights. What are your views of the hometown scene?
Saskatoon has a thriving music scene. This is largely due to the great venues around the city, the artistic nature of the population and their support for the arts, and the strength of our local music association, SaskMusic. It’s a really great environment to live and work in and so many great opportunities for musicians.
Judging from the album covers, one might assume vintage clothing remains an interest. I could be off the mark, there, though. That aside, what, outside of music, do you find yourself passing the time away with?
We used to wear more vintage clothes when performing, but not anymore. Our band is full time, so the other 90% of our job when not performing is admin work, bookings, management, finances, etc. We do enjoy a good meal (and Saskatoon has a lot of great restaurants!), and we recently went out for a fancy group dinner at Hearth Restaurant – our new local fave.
The band donates 20% of their merch profits to women’s projects and businesses around the world. Amazing! I imagine that had to be a unanimous decision but wonder what went into the conversations to decide that?
We decided we wanted to be a band that not only talked about doing good, but does good, both in our home community and in the global community. So far, we’ve contributed to over 325 projects and invested over $13k.
What are you most looking forward too when it comes to touring this new music?
We love touring and are always excited to hit the road and bring our show to different places. Each audience is unique and each night is a different show so it’s really exciting for us.
* * *
