What’s in Your Fridge is where the Straight asks interesting Vancouverites about their life-changing concerts, favourite albums, and, most importantly, what’s sitting beside the Heinz ketchup in their custom-made Big Chill Retropolitan 20.6-cubic-foot refrigerators.

On the grill

Aline Daigle and Anna Katarina of Rumour Mill

Who are you

We are Rumour Mill—Aline Daigle and Anna Katarina with roots in Nelson B.C., currently standing in Vancouver, and about to jump headfirst into a musical adventure in New Orleans and Nashville! We’ve been friends since birth, graduated high school and college together, and have been working musicians and business partners for the past three years. Since moving to Vancouver, we have written and recorded two EPs. Our debut album Daylight’s Free was released in April 2019. Our follow-up, Gone With The Wine, is being released this winter. It is written, recorded, mixed and produced by us and features some of our favourite Vancouver musicians. Backed by our musical educations in jazz and classical, this Indie EP is a delicious cocktail of pop, folk and cinematic soundscapes. “Home”, the first single from our new work, is already available everywhere.

First concert

Aline’s first concert was Avril Lavigne and Anna’s was Nelly Furtado (unless you count when her mom was pregnant—then Sarah McLachlan). Funnily enough, both Avril and Nelly’s concerts featured the opening band Swollen Members. Their band name reluctantly had to be explained by our moms.

Life-changing concert

We attended the 2019 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival together and it certainly was a life-changing event. Some of our favourites artists were Chris Stapleton, Trombone Shorty, Ani DiFranco and Kamasi Washington. Being surrounded by such high-calibre musical talent in one of the most cultural cities in North America has an inspiring effect, and we both notice its influence on our songwriting styles and our musical aspirations. We have since decided to spend a month this winter in New Orleans and attend the 2020 Folk Alliance Conference. We are looking forward to working on our jazz chops and completely saturating ourselves in the music Nola has to offer!

Top three records

Fleetwood Mac Dreams (Aline & Anna)  Fleetwood Mac has been a big influence on our music. Dreams is such an iconic album with a heavy emphasis on vocal harmonies, an array of unique musical choices, and timeless production.

Emmylou Harris Wrecking Ball (Aline) This album is a perfect example of incredible production (Daniel Lanois) with strong sonic consistency and a wide sense of space and dimension. Emmylou’s use of percussion, background harmonies and dark grooves really set this album apart. “All My Tears” is our favourite song.

Bonnie Raitt Luck Of The Draw (Anna)  I had a few rough years in my early 20s and I stopped playing music. It was winter in Alberta when I repeatedly started listening to Bonnie’s Luck Of The Draw. It became an anthem and slowly drew me back towards the keyboard. Eventually I started writing and performing again. Another timeless record!

All-time favourite video

Bonnie Tyler “Total Eclipse of the Heart”  Oooooh there are so many good ones, but you really can’t compete with Bonnie Tyler’s “Total Eclipse of the Heart”. There is something so intense about videos from the '80s and this video is no exception. Also, can we talk about her hair?

What’s in your fridge

Wine. We love good B.C. wine, especially Orofino, Tall Tales, Nk'Mip, Little Farm, and Tinhorn Creek. We always visit wineries when we tour through the province. As motivation, we write our musical goals on tags and hang them on wine bottle necks—when we complete a task, we get to drink a bottle together. (It’s no wonder our new album is called Gone With The Wine!)

Old bones. We make bone broth, so we always have a bunch of bones in the freezer. Lightly roast them, boil, then simmer in a big pot for three days, adding salt and spice. Gotta get that collagen in ya!

Pickles (of any kind). Calling all pickles! We’ll take ‘em all: store-bought, home-made, machinewashed, pickled beans, pickled eggs! And don’t throw out the brine—we’ll drink that too.

Check out Rumour Mill on Spotify.