Feist (singer)

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Feist
Feist performing at the Olympic Island Festival, 2006
Feist performing at the Olympic Island Festival, 2006
Background information
Birth name Leslie Feist
Born February 13, 1976 (1976-02-13) (age 32)
Amherst, Nova Scotia
Origin Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Genre(s) Pop rock, anti-folk, indie folk, baroque pop
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter
Instrument(s) Vocals, guitar, piano, banjo
Years active 1991–present
Label(s) Arts & Crafts, Cherrytree, Interscope
Associated acts Placebo
Kings Of Convenience
By Divine Right
Broken Social Scene
Website www.listentofeist.com

Leslie Feist (born February 13, 1976 in Amherst, Nova Scotia, Canada) is a Juno Award-winning and Grammy-nominated Canadian singer-songwriter. She performs as a solo artist under the name Feist and as a member of the indie rock supergroup Broken Social Scene. At the 2008 Juno Awards on April 6, 2008 in Calgary, Alberta, she was the top winner with five awards, including Songwriter, Artist, Pop Album, Album and Single of the Year.

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Feist's parents were both artists. Her father, American Harold Feist, is an abstract expressionist painter and worked at both the Alberta College of Art and Design and Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick. Her mother Lyn Feist was a student of ceramics. Their first child, Ben was born (Ben is now a software engineer at Sapient in Toronto) and the family soon moved to Sackville in the Maritimes. Leslie Feist was born on Feb 13, 1976 in Amherst, Nova Scotia which borders Sackville and at the time, had the closest maternity wing. Her parents divorced soon after, and Leslie, Ben, and their mother moved to Regina, Saskatchewan, where they lived with her grandparents, and later to Calgary, Alberta. She aspired to be a writer, and spent most of her youth singing in choirs.[1] At the age of twelve Feist performed as one of 1000 dancers in the opening ceremonies of the Calgary Winter Olympics, which she cites as inspiration for the video "1234". She also has two half-siblings, Emily and Jackson, from her father's later marriage. Feist has dual Canadian-American citizenship due to her American father[2], though she joked in a televised interview on The Colbert Report that she was given American citizenship as part of a deal with Apple.[3][4]

[edit] Early career

In 1991, at age fifteen, Feist got her start in music when she founded, and was the lead vocalist for a Calgary punk band called Placebo (not to be confused with the British band Placebo).[1] She and her bandmates won a local Battle of the Bands competition and were awarded the opening slot at the festival Infest 1993, featuring the Ramones. At this concert she met Brendan Canning and Kevin Drew, with whom she formed Broken Social Scene ten years later.

In 1995, Feist was forced to take time off from music to recover from vocal-cord damage. She moved from Calgary to Toronto in 1996. That year she was asked by Noah Mintz of hHead to play bass in his solo project Noah's Arkweld. She played the bass guitar in Noah's Arkweld for a year despite never having played bass before. In 1998, she became the rhythm guitarist for the band By Divine Right and toured with them throughout 1998, 1999, and 2000.

In 1999, Feist moved in with a friend of a friend, Merrill Nisker, who then began to perform as an electro-punk musician Peaches; Feist worked the back of the stage at Peaches' shows, using a sock puppet and calling herself "Bitch Lap Lap".[5] The two also toured together in England from 2000-2001, staying with Justine Frischmann of Elastica and M.I.A.[6] Feist appeared as a guest vocalist on The Teaches of Peaches. She also met musician Gonzales during this time, and a long-term collaboration formed.

[edit] Monarch (Lay Your Jewelled Head Down)

Feist's solo début album, Monarch (Lay Your Jewelled Head Down), was released in 1999. Composed of 10 songs, it is a companion to her two recent and better known albums Let it Die and The Reminder. The album contains the songs "Monarch" and "That's What I Say, It's Not What I Mean". Monarch (Lay Your Jewelled Head Down) was produced by Dan Kurtz who would later form Dragonette.

[edit] Let It Die

In the summer of 2001, Feist self-produced seven songs at home which she called The Red Demos, which have never been released commercially. She spent more than two years touring throughout Europe with Gonzales. In that same year she and a group of old friends formed Toronto indie rock supergroup Broken Social Scene and subsequently recorded You Forgot It in People. While on tour in Europe with Gonzales, they began recording new versions of her home recorded Red Demos, which would later become her major label debut Let It Die. Let It Die featured both original compositions and covers, and Feist has been noted both as a songwriter and as an innovative interpreter of other artists' songs.

After the recording of Let It Die, Feist moved to Paris. While in Europe, she collaborated with Norwegian duo Kings of Convenience as co-writer and guest vocalist on their album Riot on an Empty Street, as well as co-writing and singing as a duet "The Simple Story" with Jane Birkin on her album Rendezvous.

Feist toured during 2004, 2005 and 2006 through North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia supporting Let It Die. She won two Canadian Juno Awards for "Best New Artist" and "Best Alternative Rock Album" in 2004. Sales of Let It Die totaled 500,000 internationally, and she was awarded a platinum record in Canada, as well as a gold album in France.

In 2005, Feist contributed to the UNICEF benefit song "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?"

In early 2006, Feist returned to Europe to record a followup to Let It Die at LaFrette Studios with Gonzales, Mocky, Jamie Lidell, and Renaud Letang, as well as her touring band Bryden Baird, Jesse Baird, Julian Brown of Apostle of Hustle, and Afie Jurvanen of Paso Mino. An album of remixes and collaborations, Open Season, was released on April 18, 2006.

[edit] The Reminder

Feist's third solo album, The Reminder, was released on April 23, 2007 in Europe, and on May 1, 2007 in Canada, the USA, and the rest of the world. She toured worldwide to promote the album. The album features "1234", a song co-written by New Buffalo's Sally Seltmann, that became a surprise hit after being featured in a commercial for the iPod nano, hitting #8 in the US, a rare feat for indie rock musicians and even more notable since it hit the Top Ten on the strength of downloads alone. She has been lauded in the press and was featured on the cover of the New York Times arts section in June 2007. The Reminder had sold worldwide over 1,000,000 copies and is certified gold in the U.S. The album also won a 2008 Juno Award for "Album of the Year" on April 6th, 2008 in Calgary, Alberta.

[edit] "1234"

Main article: 1234 (song)

Prior to the Apple iPod Nano commercial airing, The Reminder was selling at approximately 6,000 copies per week, and "1234" at 2,000 downloads per week. Following the commercial, the song passed 73,000 total downloads and reached No. 7 on Hot Digital Songs and No. 28 on the Billboard Hot 100; The Reminder jumped from No. 36 to No. 28 on the Billboard 200, with sales of 19,000.[7] Following the television advertisement for the iPod nano in the UK, the single beat its original chart position of 102 to become number 8 in the UK charts. Time magazine named "1234" one of The 10 Best Songs of 2007, ranking it at #2. Writer Josh Tyrangiel called the song a “masterpiece,” praising Feist for singing it “with a mixture of wisdom and exuberance that's all her own."[8][9]

On April 6th, 2008, Feist won a Juno Award for the single as "Single of the Year".

[edit] "My Moon, My Man"

The track titled My Moon, My Man was also released as a single and the intro was featured on a Verizon commercial for the LG Chocolate VX8550 in 2007.

[edit] In popular culture

  • In 2006 Feist collaborated with former roommate Peaches on a track entitled "Give 'Er", which appeared on Peaches' album Impeach My Bush. Feist contributed backup vocals. Feist also lent her voice to the two tracks "La Même Histoire" and "We're All in the Dance" for the soundtrack to the film Paris, je t'aime.
  • Feist has had her music covered by many artists such as fellow Nova Scotians Travis MacRae and Buck 65, as well as bandmates Broken Social Scene and former tour mate Bright Eyes. Fellow Canadian Buck 65 appeared in the Feist-directed music video for "One Evening," which was also nominated for Video of the Year at the 2004 Juno Awards.
  • Feist works primarily with video director Patrick Daughters, who directed the videos for "Mushaboom", "1234", "My Moon, My Man", and "I Feel It All," the "1234" and "My Moon, My Man" were choreographed by the acclaimed dancer Noemi Lafrance.
  • Feist currently plays a 1965 red Guild Starfire guitar, and in many photographs is seen playing a (now discontinued) Framus acoustic guitar, model/body type unknown.
  • Feist in November of 2007 performed a duet with Chicago native Brian Rasek (formally lead singer of "Repus") in a charity benefit concert at Millennium Park for AIDS relief in Africa.
  • Feist's favorite author is 18th century Swedish author, Olof von Dalin.
  • Former ESPN anchor Dan Patrick, now host of the syndicated Dan Patrick Radio Show on Sirius satellite radio, uses the song '1234' to transition from commercials back to live discussion.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Solo albums

[edit] Broken Social Scene

[edit] By Divine Right

[edit] Other collaborations

[edit] Singles

Year Single Peak positions Album
U.S.
Hot
100		 U.S.
Pop
100		 U.S.
Modern
Rock		 U.S.
Hot
A.C.		 UK CAN AUS BRA
Hot
100		 WW
2004 "Mushaboom" - - - - 97 - - - - Let it Die
"One Evening" - - - - - - - - -
2005 "Inside and Out" - - - - 83 - - - -
2006 "Secret Heart" - - - - - - - - -
2007 "My Moon My Man" - - - - - 13 - - - The Reminder
"1234" 8 10 34 30 8 3 36 33 15
2008 "I Feel It All" - - - - - 31 - - -
"Sea Lion Woman" - - - - - 94 - - -

[edit] Awards and nominations

2003

2005

2006

2007

2008

[edit] References

  1. ^ a b Stren, Olivia (July 2007). "Dream girl". Toronto Life 41 (7): 58–62. 
  2. ^ STLtoday - Leslie Feist
  3. ^ In an appearance on The Colbert Report on April 28, 2008, Feist joked that she is a dual citizen and holds a U.S. passport, having been offered American citizenship “as part of the iPod deal”.
  4. ^ Transcript of episode 4056 of The Colbert Report, April 28th 2008 [1]
  5. ^ Everett-Green, Robert. "Grammy girl: Feist", The Globe and Mail, 2008-02-09, pp. R1, R19. 
  6. ^ Feist (2005-05-05). "A Torch Singer with an ancient sound". The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-05-14.
  7. ^ Feist gets big boost from little iPod. Retrieved on October 2, 2007.
  8. ^ Tyrangiel, Josh; "The Best Top 10 Lists of the Year"; "The 10 Best Songs"; Time magazine; December 24, 2007; Page 39.
  9. ^ Time magazine's Top 10 Songs of 2007 at time.com
  10. ^ "Breakout of the Year: Feist", by Phoebe O'Reilly in Spin magazine's "Best of 2007" Edition, January 2008.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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v • d • e
Feist
Albums
Singles
Other charting songs
Other collaborations
"Folkloric Feel" by Apostle of Hustle · "Riot on an Empty Street" by Kings of Convenience · "Get to Know the Girl" by Hypno Love · "Navy Brown Blues" by Mocky · "The Ish" by Teki Latex
Related articles
v • d • e
Broken Social Scene
Brendan Canning | Kevin Drew | Justin Peroff | Charles Spearin | Andrew Whiteman | Jason Collett | David Newfeld | Leslie Feist | Emily Haines | James Shaw | Evan Cranley | Amy Millan | Ohad Benchetrit | Martin Davis Kinack | Jo-ann Goldsmith | Torquil Campbell | John Crossingham | Lisa Lobsinger | Julie Penner
Former member
Collaborators
Albums
Feel Good Lost (2001) | You Forgot It in People (2002) | Bee Hives (2004) | Broken Social Scene (2005)
Broken Social Scene Presents...: Spirit If... (2007) | Something for All of Us (2008)
EPs
Live at Radio Aligre FM in Paris (2004) | EP To Be You and Me (2005) | Broken Social Scene: 2006/08/06 Lollapalooza, Chicago, IL (2006)
Singles
"Stars and Sons/KC Accidental" (2003) | "Cause = Time" (2003) " | "Ibi Dreams of Pavement (A Better Day)" (2005) | "7/4 (Shoreline)" (2006) | "Fire Eye'd Boy" (2006)
Record labels
Related subjects