ARTISTFeist

Feist, the name by which Leslie Feist is best known, first became part of Canada’s alternative music community before reaching an international audience with Let It Die (2004) and The Reminder (2007). The former included “Mushaboom”; the latter featured “1234,” which reached the Top Ten in the United States, the U.K., and Canada. She followed these albums with Metals (2011), Pleasure (2017), and Multitudes (2023), exploring varied sounds and approaches. Her music has been described as drawing on indie rock, jazz-pop, bossa nova, and folk, with later work also incorporating bluesy rock, art rock, and avant-folk.

Born in Amherst, Nova Scotia, on February 13, 1976, Feist grew up in Regina and Calgary. At fifteen, she joined the punk band Placebo. After leaving in 1996 because of vocal-cord problems, she moved to Toronto, taught herself guitar, and wrote songs using a four-track recording setup. She played with By Divine Right and Broken Social Scene and collaborated with Peaches. Her first album, Monarch (Lay Down Your Jeweled Head), preceded the success of Let It Die, which earned her Juno Awards for Best Alternative Rock Album and Best New Artist. The Reminder brought her five more Juno Awards. Following Metals and Pleasure, she released Multitudes in 2023, recorded in California with Mocky, Robbie Lackritz, and Blake Mills.