In Lightning

Album: Multitudes (2023)
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Songfacts®:

  • "In Lightning" is a reminder that we are all part of something much bigger than ourselves, and that we have the power to create or destroy.

    "I've been trying to put more intention in my lensing of my interior weather," Feist told Apple Music. "In the past, I've been pretty invested in the dark that is intermittently blasted by a flash of light, which would maybe be a eureka moment, or a moment of clarity. And I've just been working dedicatedly on collating and collecting those little flashes of clarity. Maybe, eventually, they'll add up to knowing something."
  • This is the opening track of Feist's sixth studio album, Multitudes. The first 10 seconds of the record are clattering drums and chanting.

    "It's a war cry," Feist told Mojo magazine. "These were quiet songs, and there were no drums until my friend, film director Mike Mills, said, 'You need to play drums like you play guitar.' I'm not a drummer, but there was I with two sticks in my hands. That's why it's so rudimentary for. There's no nuance in my drumming."
  • Multitudes was written in the wake of both Feist's daughter's birth and the passing of her father, which happened around the same time. Many of the tracks on the album explore a similar theme, particularly the pandemic's impact on our personal lives and closest relationships.

    "It's the tendency to hide from the person that you're meant to be most visible to," she said to The Guardian. "But if you don't allow yourself to be seen, you're not bringing yourself to the table to grow."
  • Feist wrote the song and co-produced it with musician and producer Blake Mills (Alabama Shakes, Fiona Apple, Laura Marling), her engineer Renaud Letang, and her drummer Mocky.
  • Feist played drums, electric guitar, bass guitar, keyboards and recorder; Mocky played drums and recorder; Blake Mills played bass guitar. The other musicians are:

    Gabe Noel: cello
    Miguel Atwood-Ferguson: violin
    Shahzad Ismaily: keyboards
    Todd Dahlhoff: keyboards
  • Feist directed the song's music video alongside Julia Hendrickson and Sara Melvin. We see the Canadian art-pop auteur joyfully performing the song by the water's edge on a secluded beach.

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