OWEN PALLETT

'Owen Pallett' (born September 7, 1979) is a violinist and singer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and winner of the inaugural Polaris Music Prize.
Pallett is the principal member of the band Final Fantasy, which is essentially a solo project, although Leon Taheny is also credited as drummer and engineer. The name ''Final Fantasy'' is a tribute to the well-known video game series, of which Pallett is a fan.
Pallett has been noted for his live performances, wherein he plays the violin into a sampler controlled by foot pedals, which then loops back one or more of the previously played musical phrases as he plays additional parts simultaneously, a technique also used by other musicians such as violinist Andrew Bird, Wrens guitarist Charles Bissell in his solo performances, solo artist Feist, and electronic/avant-garde musician Amy X Neuburg. He has also performed with more traditional string quartets as backing musicians. Pallett is also well known for his work with Arcade Fire, he has often toured with them, and did the orchestral and string arrangements on both Funeral, and Neon Bible.

Contents

Biography

Music

Discography

Covers played live

References

External links

Biography

Pallett has been composing for most of his life, notably beginning with some of the music for the game ''Traffic Department 2192'', to scoring films, to composing two operas while in university. Apart from the indie music scene, he is currently working on a commission from Tafelmusik.
He believes his work is influenced by his sexuality, saying, "As far as whether the music I make is gay or queer, yeah, it comes from the fact that I'm gay, but that doesn't mean I'm making music about it". Final Fantasy
Pallett received a Bachelor of Music for Composition from the University of Toronto in 2002. Experiments with Violin
He is currently in a relationship with Patrick Borjal, his manager and publicist. Toronto musician embarks on cross-country tour

Music

On 12 February 2005, his debut album, ''Has a Good Home'', was released by the Blocks Recording Club (sometimes referred to as 'BlocksBlocksBlocks'), a cooperative, Toronto-based record label of which he is a founding member. ''Adventure.exe'' from this album was used in a series of 2006 commercials by Orange in the United Kingdom. Pallett did not intend to sell the song for this purpose, but its use was authorized anyway due to a miscommunication with his record label, Tomlab. All of Pallett's income from this use is donated to Doctors Without Borders. When Final Fantasy Sells Out
Pallett's second album, ''He Poos Clouds'', was released in June of 2006, though the video He Poos Clouds Video , directed by Jesse Ewles, was released on March 1, 2006. The album was named winner of the inaugural Polaris Music Prize. Pallett stated in interviews that he would donate a large portion of his prize money to Blocks.
His previous projects included a 3-piece Toronto-based band, Les Mouches, now defunct. He was once the violinist of another Toronto band called Picastro. Pallett has also recorded and toured with Jim Guthrie, The Hidden Cameras, The Vinyl Cafe, and Arcade Fire (he co-wrote the strings arrangement for their albums ''Funeral'' and ''Neon Bible'' Profile: Final Fantasy ). One of his songs, "This Is the Dream of Win & Regine", was inspired by the principal members of the latter group, Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, and is a play on a Dntel song called, "(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan."
On November 11, 2006, Pallett posted to a fan forum to announce a new album, tentatively titled ''Heartland'', presumably to be released in mid to late 2007. Heartland Subsequently on July 9, 2007 on the CBC Radio One program ''Q'', Pallett said that the album would be released no earlier than mid 2008. In the same interview he confirmed that it would be titled ''Heartland'', a name chosen specifically as a response to criticism of the perceived offensiveness of the name ''He Poos Clouds'', and that the name was selected before any of the music had been written.
Pallett is currently taking a break from touring to work on new material for Final Fantasy. He also contributed remixes for the bands Stars ("Your Ex-Lover Is Dead," for the redux album ''Do You Trust Your Friends'') and Bloc Party. He has also written the string arrangements for the forthcoming Beirut album ''The Flying Club Cup'' and has provided guest vocals on some tracks. Beirut Announce Album Release Date, Tracklist, Tour

Discography

''See also albums under Arcade Fire.''

Covers played live

★ Arcade Fire - "No Cars Go" (Bristol, October 2006)

★ Beirut - "Cliquot" (Paris, August 2007)

★ Bloc Party - "This Modern Love" (various concerts)

★ Destroyer - "An Actor's Revenge" (Leeds and Dublin, October 2006)

★ James - "Hymn From A Village" (Manchester, July 2007)

★ Jann Arden - "Good Mother" (various concerts)

★ Joan of Arc - "The Hands" (Kingston, July 2005)

★ Joanna Newsom - "Peach, Plum, Pear" (various concerts)

★ John Cale - "Paris 1919" (various concerts)

★ Joni Mitchell - "Sex Kills" (Bristol, October 2006)

★ Mariah Carey - "Fantasy" (various concerts)

★ OMD - "ABC Auto-Industry" (various concerts)

★ Simon Bookish - "Interview" (various concerts)

★ Xiu Xiu - "Fabulous Muscles" (various concerts)

References

External links

★ Final Fantasy official website

★ Party Poopers Owen Pallett and Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear interview one another in ''Out'' magazine.

★ Audiojunkies Interview with Final Fantasy (Owen Pallett)

★ Profile by Carl Wilson in The Globe & Mail (Toronto), toward the end of the Les Mouches period

★ Another piece by Wilson, on Final Fantasy, in The New York Times

★ Interview where Owen denies the rumor that he has never played the Final Fantasy video games

★ Interview with Owen Pallett aka Final Fantasy at twistedear.com