Meet Rosie and Me

Our favorite band to come out of Brazil since dance sensations CSS has to be Rosie and Me. It seems, however, that a country of origin is about all these two great groups share: far from CSS’ high voltage electro tracks, Rosie and Me may have four members, but their music always seems to boil down to just a girl and her guitar. That girl is Rosanne Machado (Rosie), who describes the group’s sound as “unpretentious and simple.” The group, which lists The Weepies and Stars among their musical influences, often uses male/female vocals -- like in their sounds-like-a-love-song-but-is-actually-a-fight-song “Folkie Song #2.”

Having just played their first concert six months ago, Rosie and Me are musical newbies, but we expect them to make a splash. They’re currently recording their first official EP, which they plan on releasing in June. In the meantime, Rosie answered a few questions for us:

How did all the members of the band meet?
It started as a friend of a friend connection, Alex used to live in Rio when we first met in one of his trips to the south. Our musical tastes were so much alike that we thought about making music ourselves right away: I'd record samples on my computer and he would add up synths to them from his. Initially, it was a long-distance recording process, that's why the first tracks have a very noticeable lo-fi edge.

He ended up moving to Curitiba, where the entire band project took place. We started as a duo but there was something missing for the gigs, so we thought it was about time to find someone for the drums and bass guitar. Guilherme, our bass player, is Alex's work colleague, while Tiago, the drummer, is a long-time friend of mine. I couldn't think of any better people for the job.

What is the story behind "Folkie Song #2"?
Alex and I were at a party and happened to have a guitar around. After one too many drinks I started playing this song and the lyrics were sort of an argument between us. Suddenly people were singing along and there it was, our first song. It's got the "#2" because, even though it was the first one to be written, it was the second track on the recording line-up.

What is the music scene in Brazil like?
It's the melting pot of music. People often relate Brazil to that tropical sound and that's a classic misconception. We're talking about a large country, full of regionalisms and diversity. We're from the south/southwest, where most of the unsigned bands come from. Unfortunately, there hasn't been much room for alternative music in the mainstream around here, but the indie scene is continuously growing. It's not enough yet, but it's a good start for bands like ours.

How has your location influenced your music?
We were influenced by our location exactly by avoiding it. I've always wanted to create something that would stand out from the local scene, something as fresh as spontaneous. We're not exactly the live-gig kind of band, instead, we make the kind of music you feel like listening while driving to work and that's sort of unusual around here.

When you were little, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I've been making music since I was little, I'd always get a new instrument for Christmas. I suppose I wanted to be in a band all along. Same thing with Alex, he would make up songs on his way to school and forget the lyrics latter on. He ended up turning into a geeky computer engineer instead. Guilherme wanted to be an architect -- he's the one who sketched the bird and whale logo. Tiago wanted to be a plane pilot and destroy entire cities (drummers, what can I say).