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Mar 15, 2023 By Mark Redfern Photography by Sara Melvin & Colby Richardson

Feist is releasing a new album, Multitudes, on April 14 via Interscope. Now she has shared the album’s fourth single, “Borrow Trouble,” via a music video. Leslie Feist co-directed the video with Mary Rozzi, Colby Richardson, and Heather Goodchild. Watch it below, followed by Feist’s previously announced upcoming tour dates.

“‘Borrow Trouble’ caused some trouble in trying to finish the recording,” says Feist in a press release. “It began as a contemplative acoustic morality tale and shape shifted itself into the sound of trouble itself. It’s a mess that holds its own logic. It’s the convincing cacophony that thoughts can be. It saws away at you until your overwhelm pops an air supply in the form of another idea, a solution that starts with accepting there’s no such thing as perfection.

“Mike Mills (the filmmaker), directed me deeper into the tangle, insisted I play drums ‘because you’re not a drummer!’ and Amir Yaghmai brought the fist pumping drone of violins. Early on, when I was writing it Charles Spearin said ‘yah but what does borrowing trouble mean?’And I said, ‘It’s an expression from the old days,’ which became the chorus. ‘May as well let the song explain, like I’m doing now.’”

When Multitudes was announced, Feist shared three new songs from it: “In Lightning,” “Hiding Out in the Open,” and “Love Who We Are Meant To.” “In Lightning” was one of our Songs of the Week. Then she shared videos for “Hiding Out in the Open” and “In Lightning.”

Feist’s last album was 2017’s Pleasure. Multitudes was forged out of two life-changing events for Feist—the birth of her daughter and the sudden death of her father.

“The last few years were such a period of confrontation for me, and it feels like it was at least to some degree for everyone,” Feist said in a previous press release. “We confronted ourselves as much as our relationships confronted us. It felt like our relational ecosystems were clearer than ever and so whatever was normally obscured—like a certain way of avoiding conflict or a certain way of talking around the subject—were all of a sudden thrust into the light. And in all that reassessment, the chance to find footing on healthier, more honest ground became possible, and the effort to maintain avoidance actually felt like it took more effort than just handing ourselves over to the truth.”

The songs on Multitudes were written during Feist’s 2021-2022 tour of the same name. Following that trek, Feist landed in Northern California’s Redwood Forest. There she co-produced the album with Robbie Lackritz (Peach Pit, The Weather Station) and Mocky (Jamie Lidell, Vulfpeck). The latter had worked on Feist’s 2011 album, Metals. Multitudes was recorded in a studio built by Lackritz and engineer Michael Harris (HAIM, Vampire Weekend). The album features multi-instrumentalists Gabe Noel (Kendrick Lamar, Kamasi Washington) and Shahzad Ismaily (Laurie Anderson, Lou Reed), alongside Feist’s regular touring musicians—Todd Dahlhoff (woodwinds, synths, bass) and Amir Yaghmai (strings, guitars).

Feist Tour Dates:

5/2 Madison, WI The Sylvee
5/3 Minneapolis, MN First Avenue
5/5 Chicago, IL Radius
5/6 St. Louis, MO The Pageant
5/7 Nashville, TN Brooklyn Bowl
5/9 Atlanta, GA Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre
5/10 Raleigh, NC The Ritz
5/12 Washington, DC 9:30 Club
5/13 Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn Steel
5/15 Philadelphia, PA The Fillmore
5/17 Boston, MA MGM Music Hall at Fenway
5/18 Toronto, ON HISTORY
5/19 Montréal, QC MTelus
7/11 Halifax, NS Halifax Jazz Festival

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