Feist on pulling out of the Arcade Fire tour: “I was having an out-of-body experience”
Canadian singer-songwriter Feist has opened up about pulling out of the supporting role for Arcade Fire on their European tour after singer Win Butler was accused of sexual misconduct by several women.
After the allegations surfaced, Feist revealed she would donate all proceeds earned from her merch sales to Women’s Aid. However, after one date of the tour in Dublin, Feist made a statement announcing she was leaving the tour and said she was “claiming my responsibility and going home”.
Feist has now explained her decision and told The Irish Times: “I was having an out-of-body experience. Not to mention, I had brought all of these new songs. I thought, ‘Okay, maybe I’ll go do this tour and workshop how to play these songs in a bigger context’.”
When the allegations first surfaced, Feist was preparing for the tour by rehearsing in Ireland and has now revealed she initially hoped to “duck my head and get through this”. However, the first performance was an excruciating experience for the singer-songwriter, which swayed her decision. She revealed: “I was out of body. My body was just doing the songs. My presence is here. Here is what I’m saying. Here is what I am doing. It was sort of this crime-scene wand [a device used to dust for finger prints]. You put a wand up and you can see the fingerprints.”
Feist continued: “It took me until the second show where all of the practical discomfort of having to dismantle this crazy machine and fold it back up and lose what I had invested in being there [on tour] … The whole thing was made so clear to me. I couldn’t continue.”
In North America, Beck was due to support Arcade Fire, but he also pulled out of the dates.
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