Rosie & the Riveters bring empowerment into their music
New album ‘Good Clean Fun’ has vocal harmonies and a message of support for women
The cover of the new album Good Clean Fun! by Rosie & the Riveters features the four harmonizing songwriters but within the music is a message of female empowerment.
The album explores overarching values like love, harmony and gratitude, but it also shares the core values of the band.
"I wanted this [band] to be a place for women to come together, learn from each other, and give back to the community," founder and singer Farideh Olsen said on CBC's Saskatchewan Weekend.
Before starting the group, Olsen said as a solo singer-songwriter she felt that she wasn't growing artistically the way that she imagined she could.
"I had seen all these other female singer-songwriters out there who were doing stuff alone," Olsen said. "My thought was I was going to get singer-songwriters together, we are going to grow artistically together."
The band formed in 2011 and since has performed across Saskatchewan and Canada.
"The reason why I started this group was to empower female musicians to collaborate. It's continued because everyone in the group is invested as well," Olsen said.
The other singers that make up the Riveters are Alexis Normand, Melissa Nygren and Allyson Reigh. Reigh joined a few years after the Riveters formed.
"I thought 'I really want to be part of this'. It was exciting, and [they] were doing something so unique and so different," Reigh said.
The band is inspired by Rosie the Riveter, a feminist icon. The band also gives 20 per cent of their merchandise sales to Kiva, a non-profit organization that helps micro-finance women's projects around the world.
Reigh said they also try to reflect female empowerment through their support of each other on stage and on their albums.
"I constantly feel supported and happy and just confident in who I am. I think that's an important message we give each other," she said.
The quartet have a show at Saskatoon's Bassment Club on March 31 and April 1. They also will perform at the Artful Dodger in Regina on April 14.