Jann Arden + Leslie Feist

Heartbreak and One-night Stands

LF Oh, thanks. You presented me the Juno Award for it. By the way, you just killed me at the Junos. You were the most hysterical, amazing public speaker I’ve ever heard. How much of that was off the seat of your pants and how much was just off the teleprompter? 

JA Everything was off the seat of my pants because the teleprompter didn’t work! The only thing that they had for me, honestly Leslie, was the monologue for the first three or four minutes. You know, I really didn’t know anything about you until that day. 

LF I understand.

JA When you’re in this industry, sometimes you just end up in this vacuum. But what I compared your voice to is a shard of glass: On one end, it catches this great beautiful spectrum of light, and the other end just kinda pokes you in the retina. 

LF Wow!

JA I think maybe losing your voice was one of the most serendipitous things to ever happen to you.

LF Well, it was kind of like an accidental force that pivoted me toward melody. Before that, I was in more hard-core bands, yelling to hear myself over the top of the guitar player, and it was all about percussion and angst, you know. [Laughs] Now I’ve figured out melody angst!

JA It’s a more powerful tool.

LF Oh, for sure. I’ve just been figuring out that a melody is the thing that has the story already in it. People always ask what came first, and if I’m lucky, the melody comes first ’cause the melody is speaking about some kind of vibe, some kind of feeling.

JA The melody will win people over. When they’re in their cars, they’ll be like, “Oh yeah, that catchy little riff !” And then they want to know what you’re saying.

LF Yeah, so the melody’s the door and the lyrics are the foyer! 

JA Indeed.

LF [Crackling cellular reception] Oh no, you’ve turned into a robot. Helloooo? 

JA Put up your arms! Put your legs over your head, Feist! You’ll get better reception.

LF Like an antenna!

JA Yes! Did you like who you were in Canada?

LF Absolutely. I am the same person. I’m just not so often in Canada anymore.

JA Do you think that having gone to Paris, getting a record deal, coming back to Canada and having the success that you’ve had – is it a reflection of our industry’s inability to jump on the wagon and sign domestic acts?

LF Well, I’ve thought about that a lot and I came to the conclusion that I can’t say that Canada had anything to do with my success or failure. I was making different music when I was in Canada, and I really wasn’t trying to wave my arms to get on any radar that I wasn’t already on. The Junos were just never on my radar, and I was sure I was never on their radar. [Laughs]

JA Anyone that has had the chance to travel extensively, as you have, sometimes sees friends at home through a kind of time warp. Life is very static, somehow, for you and not for them.

LF Well, you know, I just recently came up against that ’cause I went back to Calgary for Easter to hang out with my mom and my grandma…

JA You went to the Blackfoot Truck Stop and you know it! 

LF I knew they had closed-circuit TV cameras in there! Isn’t it the diner with the model trains?

JA Yeah.

LF I think it’s a lot more surreal for my mom than for me ’cause at every step she’d ask, “Where are you now?” and she’d see movement. For me, every step just rolls into one. From the inside, everything looks different than from the outside. I read an amazing quote from Anaïs Nin: “We don’t see things as they are; we see things as we are.”

JA That’s lovely.