Rosie and the Riveters are inspired by the strong women who came before them. Allyson says, "We take a lot of inspiration, not only from the women who fought for the right to vote and who were in the workplace when the men were off at war, but also from strong female musicians in the folk world and the gospel tradition."
She adds, "When we started to sing together we loved the positive, uplifting message of gospel music but we also started to sound a little bit like the Andrews Sisters in our harmonies. We decided to roll with it and see where it went. We have taken influences from women who have paved the way for us, adding our own musical touches and charm and coming up with something unique."
One of the band's main goals is sending a message to the world about how women are treated in the culture. Allyson points out, "When you see how we speak about women in our culture, it's significantly different than the way in which we speak about men. It's so easy and so common to tear women down. We wanted to counter the ways in which women are represented in the media.”
She elaborates, “We are four women coming together as friends, business partners, and band mates. There's this idea that women can't work well together and that's just not true. The message that we're sending is that women can come together and be strong and talented and independent."
Allyson says that the song writing process can happen in two general ways for Rosie and the Riveters. She explains, "Sometimes one of us will come to the group with a tune and we'll work on it together and figure out the harmonies. There won't be anything we need to change about the song. Other times we'll each bring pieces of a song in or we've just written a chorus or a verse and we'll work on it together. In that case, it's more of a collaboration."
The band's latest album is Good Clean Fun! which was released in 2015. Allyson says, "We had a fantastic time recording it. We worked with talented Winnipeg musicians and we had a great time. Being the the recording studio brings its own challenges but also brings a lot of joy. It was really awesome to have the songs come out at the end, hear how they were interpreted and hear how the musicians added their own talents to them. It was a great experience!"
While a male-dominated music industry can be an issue for female musicians, Allyson says that Rosie and the Riveters' experience in the folk music community has been somewhat different. She says, "There is a collective consciousness in folk music, though, because it has a tradition of being anti-establishment and there are many folk artists who are activists, so it makes the folk community more open to new ideas and niche groups so it is a little bit different."
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