Folk, Pop, Alternative, Indie
Feist was born in the year 1976 from Nova Scotia, Canada. At the age of 12 she was a dancer at the opening ceremony of the 1988 Calgary Winter Olympics and is now a leading singer - songwriter who has practically created her own genre.
She is renowned for her exceptionally high vocals, despite damaging her voice fronting a punk band Placebo (from Calgary, not the European Placebo) in her teen punk years.
She played as a bass guitarist for the band Noah’s Arkweld and subsequently a guitarist for Divine Right before connecting with the artist Peaches.
She worked with Peaches before making her solo debut; on stage at the back with a sock puppet while Peaches performed, toured England with her, was a guest vocalist on Peaches album The Teaches of Peaches (2000), featured in her music video “Lovertits” (Feist later covers this song with Gonzales in her album Open Season) and later backup vocals for the song “Give ‘Er” from Impeach my Bush (2006).
Let It Die is Feists first solo self produced album, a rerecording of her home-recorded songs which she named The Red Demo’s. Let it Die features die-hard original ballads and golden interpretations. She recorded it with Chilly Gonzales in Paris for two weeks.
Feist was the top winner at the 2008 Juno Awards in Calgary and won 5 awards for Songwriter of the Year, Artist of the Year, Pop Album of the Year, Album of the Year and Single of the Year.
Throughout her career she has collaborated with fellow artists Kings of Convenience, Broken Social Scene, Peaches, Chilly Gonzales, Tony Scherr, Jane Birkin, Jean Philippe Verdin, Emile Jean Mercedier and Rene Albert Clausier. Her songs express an array of themes and brings life to life; passion, strength, lust, doubt, novelty and curio, hope, heartbreak... rhythmic, soulful, melodic, clappity, fun, soft, sweet, rich and undoubtedly original beats and ballads for this decade.
Let it Die, The Reminder, Mushaboom, Open Season all express different stages and aspects of this talented artist with her quiet slow numbers, some sombre such as “So Sorry” and “Limit To My Love”, meshed together with the light and upbeat “1, 2, 3, 4” (probably her biggest hit, featured on Sesame St!) and “I Feel It All”. She is also recognised for her famous covers such as Nina Simones “Sea Lion Woman”, Ron Sexsmith’s “Secret Heart” and BeeGee’s “Inside and Out”.