Indian City releases second CD called Colours

Vince Fontaine has been involved with many musical ventures over the years.

As a founding member of Eagle and Hawk, he's also gone the solo route. Not one to rest on his laurels, Fontaine recently put together a collaborative project called Indian City.

The groups 2012 CD, Supernation won two Indian Summer Music Awards, an Aboriginal Peoples Choice Music Award and a Western Canadian Music Award.

Indian City features a broad cross section of musicians, some well established and some up and coming.

When Fontaine heard singer/songwriter William Prince, he invited him to join the group. "I was sitting in Ottawa in a hotel room in the summer of 2011," he recalled. "I saw William singing solo on Aboriginal Day Live. I thought 'Oh wow this guy is really taking it'. Then I thought 'He probably doesn't have a band so I better call him!'"

Prince says that Vince always has a concrete idea of what he wants. "He explains everything to me in visions. It's almost like there's an image in his mind and we're given the opportunity to bring our own elements to the mix," he said.

"Even the title track Colours started off as a song about a rainbow, as simple as that," Prince recalled. "Vince told the band that he wanted it to speak the message of telling everyone to be themselves and allow their colours to show. That in itself gave birth to the concept of the whole album itself."

"Obviously colours in the native traditional sense is part of it," said Fontaine. "You see, in our traditional life we put out colours in our vision quest. We wanted to make a colourful statement about ourselves, our people and the collective world in general."

Hear Vince Fontaine and William Prince on Scene on Air with host Bruce Ladan, Saturday Feb. 1.The show airs every Saturday from 5 - 6 p.m. on CBC Radio One, 89.3 FM/990 AM/97.9 FM in Brandon.