Leslie Feist

Leslie Feist (born 13 February 1976) is a Canadian singer-songwriter who performs as a solo artist under the name Feist and as a member of Broken Social Scene. After years of critical acclaim she reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in October 2007, after her single "1 2 3 4" became widely heard when its video was featured in an Apple commercial for the iPod nano.

Quotes

 * On tour I'm so invisible to myself, it's just one task after another. In a way as much as I love reading autobiographies, I'm fascinated with them partially because I would have no sense of how to talk about my own life with any perspective. Like half of what I like about autobiographies isn't what happen in their lives, it's ... I'm so curious on how they remember things that happened. Then I think, oh maybe it's not accurate, maybe it's just the way they need to couch an event, they need to remember something that happened 30 years ago as a certain way in the present to make it, you know bearable, and so then half the adventure of reading an autobiography is thinking like, "oh, what does it say about them in the present that they need to think about the past like that," if they sound really altruistic or if they sound really benevolent and kind. Very seldom do you see someone say, "yeah, I was a real asshole," or if they do it's a charming asshole, it's not the mean spirited person, you know?
 * Interview with Seth Berkman in Stylus (20 December 2005)


 * Because there's just so much in a day now, I keep writing in much more abstract terms, like I don't try to write about what happened anymore. It would be impossible.
 * On attempts at keeping a journal, as quoted in Stylus (20 December 2005)


 * By nature of me being the one singing it and writing it there is always an innate bit of autobiography there ... but I think I learned years ago that you don't get songs that have that long stride and that pivot-hinge ability if it's too much diary entry.
 * As quoted in "Just Feist. Just Wait." by Jon Pareles in The New York Times (15 April 2007)

Monarch (Lay Your Jewelled Head Down) (1999)

 * Bring all the spaces together And all the silences ever Bring all the spaces together''' Come close again Be my pause before the end I miss you, oh, like a fading dream And I have a feeling you know what I mean
 * "One Year A.D."


 * I know I'm sane I don't give a care for the crown or the shield I will not protect you or happily yield To the one who makes me come undone
 * "Monarch"

Let It Die (2004)

 * Helping the kids out of their coats But wait the babies haven't been born I'm unpacking the bags and setting up And planting lilacs and buttercups But in the meantime I've got it hard Second floor living without a yard.
 * "Mushaboom"


 * It may be years until the day My dreams will match up with my pay.
 * "Mushaboom"


 * Old dirt road (Mushaboom) Knee deep snow (Mushaboom) Watching the fire as we grow (Mushaboom)
 * "Mushaboom"


 * I got a man to stick it out And make a home from a rented house And we'll collect the moments one by one I guess that's how the future's done.
 * "Mushaboom"


 * Don't you wish that we could forget that kiss And see this for what it is That we're not in love
 * "Let It Die"


 * The tragedy starts from the very first spark Losing your mind for the sake of your heart The saddest part of a broken heart Isn't the ending so much as the start.
 * "Let It Die"

The Reminder (2007)

 * Ooh, I'll be the one who'll break my heart I'll be the one to hold the gun.
 * "I Feel It All"


 * I know more than I knew before I didn't rest I didn't stop Did we fight or did we talk.
 * "I Feel It All"


 * No one likes to take a test Sometimes you know more is less.
 * "I Feel It All"


 * The truth lied And lies divide Lies divide
 * "I Feel It All"


 * One Two Three Four Tell me that you love me more Sleepless, long nights That was what my youth was for Old teenage hopes are alive at your door Left you with nothing But they want some more.
 * "1 2 3 4" (written with Sally Seltmann)


 * Oh, oh, oh You're changing your heart Oh, oh, oh You know who you are.
 * "1 2 3 4" (written with Sally Seltmann)


 * Sweet heart, bitter heart Now I can't tell you apart Cozy and cold Put the horse before the cart Those teenage hopes Who have tears in their eyes Too scared to own up To one little lie.
 * "1 2 3 4" (written with Sally Seltmann)


 * One, two, three, four, five, six, nine, and ten Money can't buy you back the love that you had then.
 * "1 2 3 4" (written with Sally Seltmann)


 * The cold heart will burst If mistrusted first And a calm heart will break When given a shake
 * "How My Heart Behaves"


 * I'm a stem now Pushing the drought aside Opening up Fanning my yellow eye On the ferry That's making the waves wave Illumination This is how my heart behaves.
 * "How My Heart Behaves"

Quotes about Feist

 * She really poured it on. She always pours it on. That's Feist.
 * Kevin Drew, after her video shoot for "1 2 3 4" as quoted in "Just Feist. Just Wait." by Jon Pareles in The New York Times (15 April 2007)


 * Feist comes from an indie-rock world, where it's sacrilege to admit any kind of ambition. But I had 100 percent in my mind the idea that we should have as much material as possible that could be played on the radio or resonate with a huge bunch of people. We already have the built-in reflex not to get behind anything that's going to be hollow. And when you have an artist with this kind of credibility, the idea is to communicate to as many people as possible without doing something ridiculous.
 * Gonzales, collaborator on The Reminder, as quoted in The New York Times (15 April 2007)


 * Apple has really done its job. I thought it was a cute but harmless song (I first heard the song when she performed it on Letterman this past summer, and thought the chorus part was fun. That was about it). But now? I'm at the point where I'm thinking, "the next time I'm on iTunes I should download that song." And there's a reason for that. If I don't hear the entire song, the thirty-second snippet Apple gave us in the ad will rattle around in my cranium for months. So it's either download the song or go out and yell at the college kid who's going to serve me my latte tomorrow morning. You can see that I have no choice.
 * "Apple's gonna make me buy that damned Feist song" at TVSquad (17 September 2007)


 * Feist's third album of new material, "The Reminder" is ... the album that should transform her from the darling of the indie-rock circuit to a full-fledged star, and do it without compromises. "The Reminder" is a modestly scaled but quietly profound pop gem: sometimes intimate, sometimes exuberant, filled with love songs and hints of mystery. ... In her new love songs Feist apologizes, confesses to longing, hints at betrayals and misunderstandings and wonders what might have been. Her voice is self-possessed yet unguarded, and it hovers in arrangements that are often modest — just a handful of musicians playing together in a room — but can also proffer gleaming instrumental hooks and nonsense syllables that invite singalongs. The songs find equipoise within heartache.
 * Jon Pareles in "Just Feist. Just Wait." in The New York Times (15 April 2007)