Folk musician Fontine invites us into her natural world on The Intro

You say that we are in the shittiest part of a rom-com, 
Well I say that you're right but would you let me hold you tight, until the morning. 
I don't wanna miss your laugh, I wanna hear it every day my sweet baby,
But there's a time for everything, and I'm afraid that ours is up my little lady.

In the first verse of Fontine's title track from her recently released debut EP, Yarrow Lover, the Winnipeg singer-songwriter lays out some of the reasons why people have flocked to her as a collaborator for years: a beautifully warm voice; an ease and deft on her guitar; a vulnerable sensibility — and a quippy sense of humour. 

Now, after years of working on other musicians' albums — and notably being the longtime bandmate of country outlier Boy Golden — Fontine is standing in the spotlight with her own music, flipping the script and having her collaborators work on her album this time around.

"It feels crazy," Fontine told The Intro host Damhnait Doyle on the latest episode, her eyes widening before she let out a laugh. "But it also feels really awesome. I'm just super grateful to be a part of that [Boy Golden] band and all those people are my best friends, and being able to do this also with them is really amazing. It feels really cool to finally be able to have my own songs out."

Fontine told Doyle that her turn toward music came as early as she can remember because her dad was a touring musician. "From a week after I was born, I was on the road with my dad and my mom too, yeah," she said. "So I've just always loved it and always wanted to do it."

To get to Yarrow Lover, Fontine worked with different musicians for a few years to figure out what she wanted the EP to sound like. She eventually turned to friend and musician/producer Kris Ulrich (who's also worked with Boy Golden and Field Guide) to hone her sound, landing on the richness that you hear on the EP's six tracks.

Fontine's songs are deeply personal places where she processes her feelings, but they are easily universal, too. "I never was somebody's girl/ so forgive me if I'm a little scared to give this thing a whirl/ but honey you know that you're makin' it easy,'' she sings on lead single "Homemaker," a vivid song for anyone who feels the constraints of expectation. Whether singing about the city or country, her music is rooted in the natural world, and the EP's name comes from a plant that has healing properties.

"I feel most myself when I'm out on the land, surrounded by green stuff and, you know, I can touch the dirt and it's just really grounding for me," Fontine explained. "And I also feel that way when I play music, and so I think that just together is something that makes me feel like me."

As a queer Cree singer-songwriter, Fontine also feels the importance of being herself in her music. 

"All of the songs are about me being a queer person, for the most part," she said. "And I think it's just really important for me personally to be very vocal about it because we need to see that representation…. I've had a couple parents come up to me on the street or something and tell me that their six-year-old was at one of my shows and they were singing the songs over and over again. And it's just very crazy and cool."

Watch Fontine's episode of The Intro, above, and watch her perform "Homemaker," "Yarrow Lover" and "4 a.m."