Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Heavy Metal Nearly Destroyed My Voice

Canadian singer/songwriter Feist nearly destroyed her vocal chords by spending years singing in a heavy metal band.

The 31-year-old, nominated four times at Sunday`s Grammy Awards, insists she came close to ruining her music career after the years she spent in a 1990s rock band screaming along to their songs. Feist - real name Leslie Feist - insists it took nearly a year for her voice to recover.

She says, "It was all about aggression and volume when I was younger singing with a hardcore band. My voice eventually broke and I wasn`t sure if was going to come back. I had to rest for nine months and then learn how to sing again." But the star is convinced the experience helped her discover her new sound.

"The mechanics of recovery meant I couldn`t ever sing like that again. A different girl and a different voice came out. I started to learn the guitar and began layering my voice with a four-track recorder. I moved to a new city. It was a new leaf and a new life. It was an escape to melody."

La Sirena

La sirena
You are heart in the waves
La sirena
You are heart in the waves
You are heart in the waves
Cause you are the end of me
Yeah you
Are the end of me
Yeah you
Are the end of me
Yeah you
Are the end of me
La sirena
You are heart in the waves
In the waves
You are heart in the waves
In the waves
Cause you are the end of me
Yeah you
Are the end of me
Yeah you
Are the end of me
Yeah you
Are the end of me
Yeah you
You are the end of me
Yeah you
Are the end of me
Yeah you
Are the end of me
Yeah you are the end of me

Inside And Out lyrics

Baby, I can't figure it out
Your kisses taste like honey
Sweet lies don't gimme no rise
Oh, what you're trying to do

Livin' on your cheatin'
and the pain grows inside me
It's enough to leave me crying in the rain
Love you forever but you're driving me insane
And I'm hanging on
Oh, oh, oh, oh

I'll win, I'll never give in
Our love has got the power
Too many lovers in one lifetime
Ain't good for you
You treat me like a vision in the night
Someone there to stand behind you
When your world ain't working right
I ain't no vision, I'm the girl
who loves you inside and out
Backwards and forwards with my heart hanging out
I love no other way
What are we gonna do if we lose that fire

Wrap myself up and take me home again
Too many heartaches in my lifetime ain't good for me
I figure it's the love that keeps you warm
Let this moment be forever
We won't ever feel the storm
I ain't no vision, I'm the girl
Who loves you inside and out
Backwards and forwards with my heart hanging out
I love no other way
What are we gonna do if we lose that fire

Don't try to tell me that it's over
I can't hear a word I can't hear a line
No girl could love you more
And that's what I'm cryin' for
You can't change the way I feel inside

You're the reason for my laughter and my sorrow
Blow out the candle I will burn again tomorrow
No man on earth can stand between my loving arms
And no matter how you hurt me, I will love you till I die

I ain't no vision, I'm the girl
Who loves you inside and out
Backwards and forwards with my heart hanging out
I love no other way
What are we gonna do if we lose that fire

Loves you inside and out
Backwards and forwards with my heart hanging out
I love no other way
What are we gonna do if we lose that fire

Inside and out
Inside and out
Inside and out
Inside and out

Inside and out
Inside and out

One Evening lyrics

The evening was long, my guesses were true
You saw me see you
That something you said, the timing was right
The pleasure was mine

The time and the place, the look on your face
Sincerest of eyes

If you're ready or not, the state of our hearts
There's no time to take

When we started both brokenhearted
Not believing
It could begin and end in one evening

We were caught by the light
Held on to the day till it became ours
The minutes went by, the cab is outside
There's no time to take

When we parted, moving on
And believing it could begin and end in one evening

When we started both brokenhearted
Not believing it could begin and end in one evening
When we parted, moving on
And believing it could begin and end in one evening

Let it die

Let it die and get out of my mind
We don't see eye to eye
Or hear ear to ear

Don't you wish that we could forget that kiss
And see this for what it is
That we're not in love

The saddest part of a broken heart
Isn't the ending so much as the start

It was hard to tell just how I felt
To not recognize myself
I started to fade away

And after all it won't take long to fall in love
Now I know what I don't want
I learned that with you

The saddest part of a broken heart
Isn't the ending so much as the start
The tragedy starts from the very first spark
Losing your mind for the sake of your heart
The saddest part of a broken heart
Isn't the ending so much as the start

Feist Bioghraphy

Born Leslie Feist in Amherst, Nova Scotia, singer/songwriter Feist goes by her surname when it comes to making music for a living. The songstress relocated to Calgary at a young age and got her start playing in an all-girl punk band named Placebo (not to be confused with the U.K. modern rock act of the same name). After winning a battle of the bands contest, Placebo (whose members were still in high school) played their first gig opening for the Ramones in 1991, and for the next five years, Feist perfected her rock & roll ways. Touring cross-Canada in the end took its toll on Feist, who had strained her voice so harshly that she was told she'd never sing again. To regain focus and seek medical assistance from another specialist, Feist fled her hometown to settle in Toronto in 1998.

After being advised to stop singing for six months, Feist bought a guitar and spent six months holed up by herself in a basement, where she began crafting a natural pop sound and documented the proceedings with a four-track recorder. A year later, Feist was asked to join By Divine Right as the group's touring guitarist. The new gig found her playing in front of countless stadium crowds as By Divine Right opened for the Tragically Hip across North America. Somewhere in between touring with some of Canada's biggest acts, she also found time to record and self-release her first solo album, 1999's Monarch (Lay Down Your Jeweled Head). After playing some smaller gigs in the Toronto area, Feist then moved in with electroclash rap vixen Peaches in 2000. Peaches christened Feist Bitch Lap-Lap and from there, Feist sang on and toured in support of Peaches' debut album, Teaches of Peaches.

Not one to stay too long in once place, Feist joined Broken Social Scene during the recording of the group's sophomore effort, You Forgot It in People. The album became a critical success after its release in 2002, and Broken Social Scene won a Juno Award the following year for Alternative Album of the Year. Feist had already formulated plans for a second solo album by this time. When she wasn't touring North America and Europe with Broken Social Scene, she worked on her solo material with Renaud Letang of Manu Chao and Chilly Gonzales, often traveling back and forth between Calgary, Toronto, and Paris for the album's recording. Let It Die was soon released on the Arts & Crafts label in May 2004, and the sprightly "Mushaboom" enjoyed airplay in Canada, France, and the U.S. By the end of the following year, the album had earned Feist her greatest acclaim to date, and she took home two Juno Awards for her work.

2006 saw the release of Open Season, a collection of remixes, collaborations, and other songs. Feist then set to work on her next full-length effort, recording and assembling the material in one week in a rented house near Paris. The Reminder hit shelves in the spring of 2007, where it debuted at number two in Canada and number sixteen on the U.S.'s Billboard charts. Buoyed by such singles as "My Moon My Man" and "1234," the album became the year's best-selling item on /iTunes and took home an additional pair of Juno Awards. MacKenzie Wilson & Andrew Leahey, All Music Guide