Feist

Here are the things you need to know about Feist; she's much more than just the torch singer leaning against the ballad with a lone spotlight on her. In a past life, she was a shouty battle of the bands teen queen in a Calgary punk band. She's made bashful indie boys swoon with her brash riffs playing guitar with Toronto rock band By Divine Right and her shout-out fronting of Canadian indie rock genre definers Broken Social Scene. She's stubborn and meticulous about things like the EQ level on the stereo and her long honed guitar tone. She's been placed in the role of the most unlikely fashion icon, but mostly she's a tomboy who doesn't really do make-up. Onstage she can pivot between being the solo singer captivating a room with her guitar or take on the role of leading a band of three brothers.

Nobody, least of all Feist, anticipated the tremendous response listeners around the world would have to Let It Die. Awards were won. Her name appeared in Best Of The Year lists. Eager bandwagon-jumpers were turned away from festival showcases. All of a sudden, a girl who was barely an unknown secret outside of Canada had top 10 radio singles filtering through malls and grocery stores. Her response? To keep touring. Thirty-three months and three continents were covered. The Reminder was written and conceptualized on the way.

When the road was finally exhausted, it spat her out at La Frette, a 200 year old manor house in the outskirts of Paris. Our girl corralled her live band, like kids at a rock 'n' roll summer camp, Feist and her talented comrades hung out in their pajamas making The Reminder. In love with being stationary for the first time in two and a half years, she woke up every morning and made snow angels in the feather-stuffed duvet on her great big bed. And the songs came one after another, more than they had expected to finish in this short two week window, an album.

It's hard not to be floored by the staggering breadth and depth of the material on The Reminder. You can hear the sound of every facet of Feist- the punk kid from Calgary, the T.O. indie rock poster girl, the Parisian ex-pat who taps the cobblestone. The lost and the found- without the slightest bit of compromise.

It's Feist simply answering her own questions with questions, and giving in - as she sings so sweetly at the end of The Reminder - to "how her heart behaves."

The Calgary-born former punk-turned-songstress will hit the Osheaga stage on Saturday September 8th!

www.listentofeist.com