Her career spans Grammy nominations and appearances on “Sesame Street.” The fans, however, of the Canadian singer-songwriter Leslie Feist are likely to think first of that voice. That sleepy, sore, yet assertive croon. So raw it feels like a secret, but so commanding it sounds like a declaration. It’s almost as if listeners do not hear a voice, but an open chest.
Feist’s new album “Multitudes” is set to be released on April 14 and it is sure to contain that signature vocal ache. It’s a unique style that the artist has been cultivating since she was a teenager organizing her punk-rock band, Placebo.
Her early career was spent collaborating with artists in Canada’s indie-rock underground. This dramatically changed in 2007, when Feist’s voice was thrust into the global consciousness, with the release of the Apple commercial for the third generation iPod Nano.
In a shimmering indigo jumpsuit, with her signature gingerbread bangs, Feist swayed alone on an iPod screen. As the stack of iPods unraveled and the bass dropped, dancers in red, yellow and a ferocious purple burst from behind. Those fateful 30 seconds had been taken from Feist’s music video for her hit “1234,” off her third solo album “The Reminder.”
Originally debuting at number two on Canadian sales charts, “The Reminder” went double-platinum in Canada and peaked at gold in the U.S. after the iconic commercial. It sold 1.2 million copies and earned Feist four Grammy nominations in 2008, including Best New Artist.
Feist’s popularity has always depended on the intimacy that infuses her music. In Feist’s 2017 album “Pleasure,” listeners hear the white noise of her studio. In a 2017 interview with Pitchfork, Feist said the choice was, “…in keeping with the whole experiment of investing in imperfection.”
Like the loose arms of the “1234” video, perfection comes second to emotion in the artist’s work. Titles such as, “I Feel It All,” “Intuition,” “How My Heart Behaves” and the playful “In Lightning,” (instead of enlightening) fill Feist’s discography.
In the beginning of a London concert for her 2011 album, “Metals,” Feist provoked a quiet, detached audience by saying, “Is anyone going to say anything?” Before long, the crowd wrapped Feist in a chorus of bird noises before she strummed and cooed “Cicadas and Gulls.” The concert closed with the singer inviting couples to slow dance on stage.
When asked about the uncomfortable directness of her music in the interview with Pitchfork, she said, “I feel like my acoustic lone wolf perspective is the pivot point of everything. I could play this new record beginning to end by myself; my skeletal frame can hold it up.”
The emotional loner character is not only embodied in her music. “I have a funny perspective in that a lot of my friends created alter egos inside which to make what they make, and I didn’t,” Feist told Pitchfork. “It was because I didn’t ever feel entitled to really play-act. I barely felt entitled to take up the space I took up in the world. When I was young, I was pretty shy. I really thrived as an underdog.”
Born in Amherst, Canada on Feb. 13, 1976, Feist settled in Calgary with her older brother and mother after her parents separated. Although shy, Feist was not quiet. She sang in local choirs and formed the punk rock band Placebo at 15, winning her high school’s battle of the bands.
Feist put off college to tour with Placebo until she lost her voice. What became her signature “achingly intimate vocal style, as if she’s singing directly into your ear,” according to a review of Feist’s 2021 Meridian Hall performance, was once the ragged cry of Placebo’s lead singer.
After six months of vocal rest, Feist worked with a voice specialist to discover that spellbinding croon and joined Canada’s indie-rock scene. She became the bassist for the band “Noah’s Arkweld” in 1996 before joining “By Divine Right” as their guitarist in 1998. Always a nomad, she released her debut album “Monarch” in 1999 before touring with electro-rock artist Peaches and pianist Chilly Gonzales across Europe.
Feist continued to work with Gonzales on her 2004 album “Let It Die” while collaborating with Broken Social Scene from 2002 to 2005. The artist still performs with the band when her schedule allows. After releasing her third solo album “The Reminder” in 2007, the iPod Nano commercial hurled her into stardom.
Music has been central throughout the many phases of Feist’s life, although she pondered a career shift when she was working on “Metals.” In 2017, she explained to the New York Times how her relationship to music has changed since she was 15. “Fifteen-year-old Leslie felt super-compelled to be in a band with her friends – she decided what I’m doing with the rest of my life?”
“I didn’t want to keep just plunking quarters in the meter as if I owe it something – or as if it owes me something,” she continued. “It had to be a legitimate exchange. And it turned out it was.”
Aalianna Marietta can be reached at [email protected].
