After a decade of playing in rock bands, the Canadian singer Leslie Feist, who goes by her last name only, has been reborn as a chanteuse. Her second album, "Let It Die," was recorded in Paris, her adopted home, and released here in April by Interscope's Cherry Tree imprint. Speaking recently with Joel Topcik, Feist discussed what she's been listening to and why:

M.I.A. (Maya Arulpragasam)

I met Maya Arulpragasam about four or five years ago in England when I was on tour with the rapper Peaches, who was also my roommate. We stayed with Justine Frischmann, from Elastica, and she and Maya were roommates. Maya wasn't making music back then; she was making clothes and videos and art, spray-painting jackets. A couple months ago, I was at the South by Southwest Festival in Austin, and I saw her onstage, and it was just amazing. I can't stop listening to her new album, "Arular" (XL/Beggars U.S.). "Pull Up the People" is a song that's always rotating through my head. I didn't know I needed sunshine-dancehall-booty music until I got her record.

Apostle of Hustle

I've been listening to their album "Folkloric Feel" (Arts & Crafts) for the past year, though it's only been out for a few months. The album has a Latin-edged, moody, sexy, dark feel with these epic songs. A lot of it uses old drum machines but they're layered over a live drummer, so it's percussion-heavy with these minor key moods.

Willy Mason

Willy Mason is another one I saw at SXSW, at a party on the 17th floor of a hotel. I walked into this conference room with folding chairs and bright lights, and there's this scruffy guy up onstage who looks like he just woke up. I don't think I moved for the next 45 minutes. It was just him and a guitar. He's got an album out, "Where the Humans Eat" (Team Love). I've got the lyrics to "Hard Hand to Hold" stuck in my head: "It is tempting to fight/When you know that you're right,/It's hard to lie down/When you don't trust the ground."

Lhasa (Lhasa de Sela)

I listen to a lot of field recordings, stuff from Smithsonian Folkways and the Library of Congress. The thing that's so hypnotic about them is the repetition of phrases and rhythms that puts you into this deeper state of your mind. Lhasa taps into that. Her melodies are hypnotic. She's Mexican-American, but she's lived in Quebec for a while. She sings in Spanish, French and English on her most recent album, "The Living Road" (Nettwerk). It has a lot of organic-sounding percussion and natural sounds; you can hear the size of the room it was recorded in. And there's something about her voice: you can tell her feet are planted on the ground, and she's not even moving -- maybe she's just holding her arm out in front of her -- and she's just singing from the marrow of her bones.