Shaped by two decades of work as a climbing arborist, Fraser Teeple approaches music like a tradesman: he respects the strong tradition he stands within, and works carefully and with dedication to master the skill of telling a story, creating an image, or crafting a melody.

His economy and sensitivity as a songwriter are driven home with a textured voice that can cut through an east-end dive bar or soulfully creak out a heart-breaker to a still concert hall.

He has apprenticed in bars, coffee shops, and music venues across Canada and Europe — and has become a soundtrack for driving down a dirt road, renovating a house, and burning driftwood on a northern beach.

His latest album, We Built a Fire, sees Fraser collaborate with producer Matthew Johnston to create a record that is at once ethereal and rooted, dirty and clean. Something that feels built in the tradition of songwriters like Bonnie Raitt and Bruce Springsteen, but sounds completely like itself: northern, soulful, gritty, rural, well-traveled, honest, desperate, hurt, generous, hopeful, warm.