Holly McNarland thinks she picked the wrong time to move back to Winnipeg.

"Some of it I love and some of it I could live without, like -50," she says. "I'm sorry to keep bitching about the weather, but it has just been so cold, and I'm sick of it. I'm just really anxious for it to become warm and do all those festival things in the summer like Taste of Manitoba and Folklorama and be outside."

McNarland and her family just moved to Winnipeg from Vancouver in December.

Both she and her husband, Jay Mirus, spent their formative years in the city. McNarland left for the west coast when she was 19 to pursue her budding music career.

They decided to move to Winnipeg last year to get to know their families again and buy a house they could afford, she says.

"The solitude of the winter is forcing me to write. I mean look how many great musicians come out of Winnipeg and how many people play instruments, and I think it's because of the cold. You can go nuts or become creative and you can self-teach," she says.

The move means McNarland's fans won't have to wait four years until her next album like they did with her latest, Home is Where My Feet Are, when she took time off to have and raise her son.

Coming back and playing in front of people after so long was scary initially, McNarland admits, but it became easier as her first tour in more than three years went on last summer, she says.

"It took a while but it is a natural thing. I got it back into my head that this is my stomping ground," she says. "You forget how much fun it is and how unhealthy it is. I love what I do but I just missed my son."

Her son is never far from her now. She just got a new tattoo on her left arm of his name, Nege, to go along with the tattoo of her aboriginal name on her right arm. She plans on getting more.

"It's good, I'm living in the same city as my tattoo artist again," she laughs.

You can see McNarland's new tattoos on Saturday when she plays with singer-songwriter Emm Gryner at the Colosseum.