I think that’s the only way to approach making a record: to have a bit of humility and be a bit meek about assumptions that there are expectations on the other side. Maybe it’s my upbringing, but there was no presumption that there would still be people who were curious to hear anything from me. It had been so long since I played shows, which is the only place where I see people who worked on this record, so otherwise it feels like a figment of my imagination. It was much more of an inward-facing decision. STEREOGUM: How did the break between albums play into that?įEIST: I guess that long break want to try things. Like at the end of “A Man Is Not His Song” where there’s an about-face, it’s a function of telling a story where two things can be simultaneously different.
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Writing songs, the presumption is that you declare something you know - I’m trying to think of declaration songs like - but these were ones that came free of traditional building standards. I wasn’t sure what stories I wanted to tell in these songs. LESLIE FEIST: My instinct is to say thank you for getting it, because you’ve summed it up well, but this is an interview so I guess you need to hear me explain that in my own words.
How much of that was a conscious decision? It’s like you’re intentionally toying with expectations. STEREOGUM: You build crescendos and extremities that aren’t followed by a typical resolution on Pleasure. On top of discussing her new album at length, Feist and I talked about the pressures an artist faces when they’re expected to grow up, and what it was like to reunite with Broken Social Scene. After a six-year gap between albums, Pleasure is the ideal place for a musician of her eminence to be, and her hesitancy to articulate it speaks to the strength of its emotional appeal. Still, she’s filled with a palpable excitement.
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It’s as if by talking about it, the Canadian virtuoso realizes just how much new territory she’s standing on here, and because she doesn’t know every crevice of the land, she’s still learning how to navigate it. At the end of “A Man Is Not His Song,” she notes that, “more than a melody’s needed.” Pleasure is her answer to that: a substantive full-length that challenges people to listen for more than a pleasant melody. Feist hides her understated melancholy in samples and declarative yells, a new aspect of her songwriting acumen.
Songs actively turn their noses at smooth transitions. It feels entirely within her creativity realm, yet Pleasure continues to surprise over the course of its runtime. But this album represents how many songs I wrote since Metals - there’s no more.” By swatting away cushioned production and instrumentation pile-ons, she creates the illusion of barren demos while carefully threading them with emotional depth and spontaneity that mirrors life. “I tried to keep a journal while making this record because I’ve learned my memory about things can be so skewed,” she laughs. Most of all, the album deviates from what’s expected, be it bailing on the drum-heavy structure of 2011’s Metals or the pop choruses of 2007’s The Reminder, and Feist can’t remember why.
Though it rides on otherwise familiar Feist tricks - warm guitar strums, whispery vocals, exclamations that burst with spirit - Pleasure channels contemplative lo-fi it’s both rough around the edges and intentionally intimate. It’s been six years since the last release, and her upcoming fifth album, Pleasure, changes that narrative. On her last four albums, Feist took calculated approaches in and out of the studio to organize her feelings, to tell her story, to create a musical theme. Pausing is a sign of proper reflection and thought-out responses, but to her, it’s a sign of unpreparedness and a new feeling. “Like what you read about in the Victorian books to pass a season by the seaside.”īut as our conversation continues, Feist turns to apologies for taking a while to answer my questions. So when she answers my Skype call from an apartment she rented in California, palm trees towering behind her while the sun blankets the rest of the back patio, she’s as easygoing as expected.
Feist’s voice carries the tone of someone who prioritizes patience and kindness without acting too serious. She speaks with a relaxing cadence, the same way she sings on her albums, and there’s an airy quality to her speech, like she could spring from her seat at any moment and begin to twirl playfully around the room. Leslie Feist has a special type of charm.
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