Born into an artistic family to an abstract painter father and a visual artist mother, Leslie Feist moved to western Canada as a baby when her parents divorced. She was a good student who harbored aspirations of becoming a writer. She shifted her interest to music as a teen in Calgary, joining a punk band.
The band won a battle of the bands with a prize of opening for the Ramones. Feist could not handle the vocal strain of a powerful punk band, and left the group after straining her vocal cords. She relocated to Toronto, where she was not to sing for six months. She used the time to improve her instrument skills.
Reinventing herself as an indie rock musician, Feist eventually reworked herself into a solo performer, in time for her second record working to complete Let It Die. The fusion of pop, folk, and Latin influences earned enthusiastic critical reviews and won Canada’s Juno Award for Best Alternative Rock Album.
In 2012, Feist won Canada’s Polaris Music Prize for her album Metals. The unusual competition features a three hour show featuring the music of all contestants. At the same time, the 11-member grand jury sits behind closed doors at a round table debating the merits of each album and casting secret votes. No one – not even the grand jurors – knows the winner until it is announced onstage.
Feist released her latest album in 2017. She also performed with the surviving members of The Tragically Hip at the 2021 Juno Awards. Also in 2021, she took her performance residency Multitudes to Europe. The show is a traditional, intimate and communal experience for smaller audiences that Feist and designer Rob Sinclair co-developed. It features no songs, but no accompanying recording of those songs.
