MUSIC | Canadian everywoman Leslie Feist is straight up blowing up. 

Let It Die, Feist Album cover, 2004

Leslie Feist is hard to figure out. In many ways, she’s exactly what you’d expect from a folky singer/songwriter: she’s smart, beautiful, and clad in vintage shoes that she says cost less than five dollars. And yet, she’s a total original.

The 29 year old is all about dichotomies. Her newest album, Let it Die, contains a remake of the Bee Gees classic “Inside and Out” reinvented so effectively that it is both nearly unrecognizable, and appropriately respectful of its roots.

That sort of balance seems to be Feist’s musical trademark.

And it seems like as a result, she’s reaching a wide spectrum of people, from angsty teens to their merlot-drinking mums.

I met up with Feist (as she becomes more well-known, the Leslie seems to be falling by the wayside) at the Vancouver Folk Fest in July. After a slightly chilly start to the interview (which I get – journalists are annoying), and a few questions posed to the band as opposed to only to her, she warmed up enough for a chat.

And when I ask how she feels about her music becoming popular with such a varied audience, Feist admits surprise.

“There’s a cross generational aspect to it [the music] that I didn’t realize until I started seeing moms and daughters and sons and fathers, all at the shows together,” she says.

She’s opened for The Tragically Hip and has worked with Sloan. (This is, of course, a partial list.) It’s quite the Canadian resume, but Feist really doesn’t want to talk about all that. She’s no braggart. Chatting about the band, however, is welcome. It feels like she’s unused to the boys getting much attention and that she welcomes the chance to give them their due.

It seems “the band” is a fluctuating thing. Feist is mostly a solo-artist, but she clearly wants the guys to be recognized.

“Tonight is our third gig ever,” she explains. “We jammed for an hour, got on stage in Portland, played a show. Jammed for an hour in Seattle, got on stage and played, and tonight [at Vancouver Folk Fest] is our third gig. So we’ve played together for a combined total of about three hours … but that’s the way it kind of had to be, because I was on tour. Tour, tour, tour. And I didn’t have a week where I could go and rehearse with them. So here we are. Third time ever.”

I ask how everyone knows each other, and it’s a little bit like asking high school friends to expand on their shared history.

Feist performing on Late Nite with Conan O’Brien in July, 2005.

“We’ve been buddies for a long time,” Feist says.

“I’ve know the guys for years. But I’ve never played with them, per se. One of the guys is Julian Brown, he’s in Apostle of Hustle, and we’re also playing with this drummer I’ve admired for years, Jesse Baird.”

Minutes later, Julian Brown himself rolls up to the picnic table where we’re talking. He’s been on a mission to find sustenance.

“I was just talking about you!” she exclaims.

He’s blasé. “What was she saying?” he asks me, gesturing to my notebook. “Read it back.”

“I was just saying you were wicked,” Feist laughs. “I didn’t mean it though. Strike that from the record!”

Julian reports that his mission away from the picnic bench was unsuccessful. “There’s no booze at all at this festival,” he says, shaking his head.

Feist gestures to me, “See? Canadian Hosers. That’s who I’m on tour with.”

Not to worry, however. She’s got it covered. “We have a little flask. An emergency flask.”

Feist’s whole thing is very everywoman, and it’s charming, don’t get me wrong, but I can’t tell if it’s a persona or her real personality. I’m inclined to think the latter.

She’s not without her prickles. When I try to talk to her about “Let It Die” being used on the hit TV series The O.C., despite the fact that show is already known for it’s impressive indie music, she’s blasé and performs a bit of snooty confusion about the whole thing. She doesn’t have a television, she tells me (yes, she’s one of those) and has never seen the show. When the opportunity arose, she says, she’d never even heard of it. “I didn’t know what they meant. Someone described it as the new Beverly Hills 90210.”

Zing?

Feist also recently turned down an opportunity to work with McDonald’s.

I ask if it’s because she’s vegan, or possibly a Spurlock convert, but again, she seems irritated by the question, and the association in general. “I’m just really not interested in helping them sell anymore shitty food,” she says. “I mean, I would never eat there myself, so I would never try to convince people to eat there.”

So she’s an everywoman, but she’s a cool every woman. Approachable, maybe, but at the same time better? This seems to be the persona she’s trying to project, and it’s tinged with more than a little bit of 20-something social anxiety. I think it’s the sort of posturing young people tend to employ to mask deeper issues of shaky self-esteem. (Certainly, I do a bit of this myself.)

It surprises me a little, because on stage, Leslie Feist radiates confidence and intensity, not to mention creativity. No show is quite like the last and her performances are inevitably very different from what one might hear on an album.

I mention this difference and Feist is quick to agree. “The album and the shows become completely different as the length of time between them stretches,” she says. “As the memory of being in the studio gets further and further away, it starts to fade. And that method of playing and that method of singing – the impulse behind it – beings to shift and change over time.”

Hearing different versions of the songs they love can sometimes be jarring for audiences, but Feist isn’t concerned. “What best serves me – and the audience,” she says, “what helps me be happy and them be happy is giving them something that I truly believe in every night. Going through the motions of karaoke-ing something I did in studio – a version of a song from a year and a half ago – doesn’t make sense. I always want to put a fresh perspective on it, and people seem to appreciate that.”

She’s probably right. Her popularity certainly seems to be taking off.

She’s a Canadian with an apartment in Paris, for one thing. Kinda fancy, but when I ask about it, she plays it down. “I do have an apartment in Paris, but it’s sublet out. I guess I do live there, but I’m never there.”

And as for where she’s going next, the path’s a little unclear. “Like any day, you’re faced with immediate decisions. Do I eat blueberry yogurt or vanilla yogurt? You just make decision after decision until you end up somewhere.”

“I still don’t know where I’m on my way to. When you’re at a crossroads you just take the one that makes you feel like you’re going to be able to stand next to your actions, you know?”

Despite only recently taking up with the most recent incarnation of her band, Feist has been on tour for more than a year, but has only just recently managed to break into the American market.

“I’ve only played four shows in America so far, and they were astounding,” she says. “I didn’t realize I could have great shows in America.” That said, Feist isn’t banking on American success to make her happy.

“I’ve already quadruple, triple, multiple fold exceeded any expectations I had, and I really didn’t have any,” she says. “So I’ve just been trilled. Either way I’m going to win. I’m either going to continue touring in the States because it’s working there, or I’m going to get to stop and get to make a new record. Either way it goes down, I’m going to be happy.”

Check her out and you might be happy too.

Sidebar: What Feist is listening to right now

Ever wondered what’s on the play list of a fast-moving up-and-comer? It might not be what you expect. Here are the five things Leslie Fesit says she’s been spinning on a regular basis:

• Jason Collett’s Idols of Exile
• Etta James’s Fool That I Am
• LCD Sound System
• MIA’s Pull Up The People
• David Bowie’s Ziggy Stardust

A version of this piece published in Dose, August 15, 2005. I included many of the bits and quotes here that I had to trim from the original piece. A clipping of the published piece can be seen below. More music stuff is here. Other interviews are here.

Published in Dose, August 15, 2005.