Feist on canceled Arcade Fire tour after scandal: ‘I had an out-of-body experience’

Released in summer 2022 a report from the US music platform Pitchfork, in which several people accused arcade fire singer Win Butler of at least sexually assaulting them. At the time the allegations became public, Arcade Fire were on tour – with Canadian singer Feist as a support act. On September 1, 2022, she released a statement announcing that she no longer wanted to open for Arcade Fire. Now the 47-year-old musician has commented on the fact.

After the Pitchfork report came out on August 27, 2022, the musician, whose full name is Leslie Feist, played two more shows supporting Arcade Fire before pulling the ripcord. In an interview with “The Irish Times”, the singer now described these two shows, for which she already knew about the allegations, as “out-of-body experiences”. She added, “Not to mention I brought all these new songs with me. I thought, ‘Okay, maybe I’ll go on this tour and do a workshop on how to play these songs in a larger context.’” She even donated the money from the merchandise sales to Women’s Aid Dublin — but that was her initial strategy “Holding your head down and going through this” made her feel worse and worse.

Speaking to The Irish Times, she said: “My body just sang along to the songs. The whole thing was brought so consciously before my eyes. I couldn’t go on. It was like, ‘I can’t shirk my responsibilities here.’ Not to mention that I heard every word that came out of my mouth through an ear that wasn’t mine. I heard how twisted and distorted… The songs weren’t safe in the context they were in. And neither was I… It was very difficult.” So, after two shows, she decided to drop out of the tour.

Feist’s new album MULTITUDES will be released on April 14, 2023. The Canadian singer has released seven studio albums to date, with her last record PLEASURE being released in 2017.

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