Most new albums have a staying power of a few months. They get the big iTunes single debut, some blog buzz, the record hits the shelves, they do a two month tour to promote it and by the last date people are talking about track leaks from the new Radiohead album in the works. For Leslie Feist, it’s been quite the opposite. Her second solo release Let it Die, has steadily wowed audiences from it’s original 2004 Canadian debut to its 2005 U.S release, giving the Arcade Fire a run for their Canadian crossover appeal. Sensing that draw, her label Arts & Crafts is next releasing Open Season, which features demo and rare acoustic versions, remixes, collaborations and songs that were recorded for Let It Die that didn’t make the cut.
She’s multi-talented, but first and foremost, Feist is a voice artist. It just so happens that beneath her sultry vocals her songs are able to skip between doo-wop, jazz, bossa nova, dance, trip-hop and the occasional Bee Gees cover. Going by her surname when making music, Feist was born in Calgary and settled in Toronto in 1998. After playing guitar with indie rockers By Divine Right, she hustled up with rapper Peaches and sang and toured on her debut Teaches of Peaches. In the true spirit of the Canadian collective spirit, she then joined up with Broken Social Scene in the recording of You Forgot It In People, which would go on to win a Juno award (the Canadian counterpart to the Grammys) for Alternative Album of the Year. Two years later, Feist would win the category on her own with Let It Die, while her single “Inside and Out” was nominated for a Single of the Year Juno for 2006.
Although it was recorded in Paris during 2002 and 2003 and released a year later, Let It Die is anything but old news. In early 2006, Feist returned to Europe to record a follow up to Let It Die with Gonzales, Mocky, Jamie Lidell, and Renaud Letang. With Open Season ready for release, Glide caught up with her just to keep it going a little longer.
You won the Juno for best new artist and best alternative album for Let It Die, and the album eventually ended up on numerous best of lists in America. Were you surprised by the critical acclaim?
Well, I didn’t really think much about it. It kept coming in sort of like a waterfall, and at some point you become a little stunned. So I suppose if stunned is a form of surprised, then yes.
Is it both a blessing and a curse trying to follow up such a well received album?
I don’t really think about it. Like anybody with any sense has told me, if you believe the good press, you have to believe the bad press, and I’d rather not take any of that into consideration when I write and think about recording the next record. I suppose at the end of the day it only becomes real for me at gigs, when you can see people’s faces and look into their eyes and see whether they’re believing it or not. And just gauge yourself whether you believe it or not, and just try to keep that part of the…like the actual music should be the point.
Its not exactly a new release, so what do you attribute its longevity to?
Probably on a practical note I’d say, the fact that it came out in France six months before anywhere else in the world, and it had a chance to begin kind of somewhere off the radar. But then France is pretty much on its own radar, and not so much on the rest of the world’s (laughs). So yeah, I think probably it staggered a bit, and just took it’s time and played hopscotch across the globe, and that’s probably why its lasted so long, ‘cause it hasn’t been in one place for very long.
For such a delicate, minimal record, its still very rich and full. Were you constantly layering as you went along, or was there a complex picture in your mind from the beginning?
Actually, we began with more than we needed, and we combed through it a lot. We had more tracks than we needed…more than we wanted. And I think because the process was so experimental in a way…I mean the music doesn’t sound experimental in the practical sense of what it is to experiment and do things completely differently, and ‘get out your bunsen burner and your beaker and make up new formulas,’ but for us it was very, very experimental. And so we just never said no to any possibilities…‘hey, should we do this?’ ’Should we not?’ And so we always said, ‘yeah, sure, try whatever comes up,’ and then in the end we combed through and got rid of a lot. I needed to empty it out a little more than what we initially had, because for me, music is in the choice of what not to play as much as in what you’ve chosen to play.
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It’s very sultry, burlesque sounding…was that a result of the French influence?
I’d have to say no, because I didn’t know much about France when I was there. France was a blank slate when I arrived, and anonymity was familiar, and I loved having a fresh start like that, and not having any of my old ghosts hanging around. So I don’t think Paris itself played much of a part. To me, it had that romantic, soft lens, but I don’t really feel like it sounds French. I think the fact that people know I recorded it in French makes them hear it that way, so maybe if I recorded the album in Istanbul, people would think it has kind of a Turkish coffee sound to it. (laughs)
Since you originally recorded the album, what has been your biggest growth or change as an artist?
I’ve been on tour for a couple of years, so I think playing as many shows as I have has probably influenced the record about to be made. A lot of live sounds and a lot of playing true to songs that are destined to be on the next record. The last album, none of the songs were played live before they were recorded, so this is about as opposite of that as you can get.
What’s your reaction to being lumped in with what American press is calling the Canadian explosion? Is there really an explosion?
I wouldn’t fight it…I’m happy that my Canadian brothers and sisters have ventured across the permafrost. (laughs) But I don’t know, I don’t really have an opinion about it. I feel like musicians are musicians, and its not necessarily defined by what country you come from. We have some seeds in common…we all planted our initial seeds in the same soil, but it doesn’t mean we have much in common.
But I can definitely agree that yes, there seems to be something going on with so many Canadians making it out of Canada, but I think once the trail has been set, its easier for other people to imagine going. For me I can say that happened definitely because Gonzales and Peaches went before me and made me imagine, ‘alright, its not so impossible to go across the ocean.’
Working with so many collaborations, do you find it more or less difficult recording solo?
Well I came from a history of collaborations from when I was about 15 till 20. Then I was solo for a few years, then I was in another band, and I always interjected in-between collabs with solo and I’ve always been doing them all simultaneously, so its not even something I have to really think about. But it is a bit of a gear switch to go from, you know, the other day I was in the middle of my own tour through the states, and Jason Collett and I who are on this tour, we both had to fly to New York to do Conan with Broken Social Scene, and so we didn’t sleep for about 56 hours, and went straight off stage at our own shows in god knows where, onto a plane to New York, joined Broken, and got on another plane, and went back to Iowa or something. And that was a bit of a gear switch, to go from our own tour to being members of the biggest collective (laughs), but it was kind of a homecoming in a way as well, so its not something I have to think about too hard.
At this point in your career, do you feel like you’re at that Neil Young stage, where your fans will really accept almost anything you chose to put out?
Well I could hope so, but I don’t think I could put myself in the same sentence as Neil Young (laughs). But I would hope so, yeah. Its my dream to be able to just keep changing and following what makes sense to me. I don’t want to trip over myself. As soon as I start making decisions with my head, and my logic, instead of with my intuition, I think at that point I’ll just get too tangled in my own expectations and predictions and it would be much less exciting at that point. I much prefer the surprises that might be coming down the road.
