Owen Pallett

Biography

Owen Pallett (born Michael James Owen Pallett-Plowright, September 7, 1979) is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist. Under their former pseudonym Final Fantasy, Pallett won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album He Poos Clouds×He Poos Clouds9 May 2006 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1The Arctic Circle4:242He Poos Clouds3:323This Lamb Sells Condos4:404If I Were a Carp4:045→0:576I’m Afraid of Japan3:577Song Song Song4:318Many Lives → 49 MP2:569Do You Love?3:0310The Pooka Sings5:26. Pallett is also known for their contributions to Arcade Fire, having served as a string arranger and touring member of the band. In January 2014, Pallett and Arcade Fire member William Butler were nominated for Best Original Score at the 86th Academy Awards for their original score of the film Her (2013).
From the age of 3, Pallett studied classical violin, and composed their first piece at age 13. A notable early composition includes some of the music for the game Traffic Department 2192; Pallett moved on to scoring films, to composing two operas while in university. Apart from the indie music scene, Pallett has had commissions from the Barbican, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Ballet of Canada, Bang on a Can, Ecstatic Music Festival, the Vancouver CBC Orchestra, and Fine Young Classicals. They have been noted for their live performances, wherein Pallett plays the violin into a loop pedal; Pallett uses Max/MSP and SooperLooper to do multi-phonic looping, which sends their violin signal to amplifiers across the stage.
Aside from their solo oeuvre and work with Arcade Fire, Pallett has contributed arrangements and instrumentation to the works of pop acts like Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys, Robbie Williams, Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran, as well as rock performers such as R.E.M., Linkin Park, Franz Ferdinand, the National and Alex Turner.

Solo work

Pallett has drawn inspiration from electronic act Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD), who were their favourite band, along with Eurythmics. They have also identified albums by Tori Amos, The Strokes, Public Enemy and Brian Eno as influential. Pallett's favorite album is Xiu Xiu's A Promise. The name Final Fantasy, under which Pallett recorded prior to the release of Heartland, was a tribute to the well-known video game series, although Pallett said that it is not one of their top twenty favorite games.

Pallett's debut album, Has a Good Home×Has a Good Home1 March 2005 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 16 tracks1None of You Will Ever See a Penny2:332This Is the Dream of Win & Regine3:243Your Light Is Spent3:074Furniture2:025The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead3:326Took You Two Years to Win My Heart3:587The Chronicles of Sarnia2:498↩0:409Adventure.exe2:0210Library3:1211That’s When the Audience Died4:3712Learn to Keep Your Mouth Shut, Owen Pallett1:3413An Arrow in the Side of Final Fantasy2:4514Please Please Please3:2915Better Than Worse3:5416The Sea2:16, was released on February 12, 2005, by the Blocks Recording Club, a cooperative, Toronto-based record label of which Pallett is a founding member. An Arrow in the Side of Final Fantasy borrows the music from the Space Zone's final level in Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. "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 due to an alleged miscommunication with their record label, Tomlab. All of Pallett's income from this use is donated to Doctors Without Borders.
Pallett's second album, He Poos Clouds×He Poos Clouds9 May 2006 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 10 tracks1The Arctic Circle4:242He Poos Clouds3:323This Lamb Sells Condos4:404If I Were a Carp4:045→0:576I’m Afraid of Japan3:577Song Song Song4:318Many Lives → 49 MP2:569Do You Love?3:0310The Pooka Sings5:26, was released in June 2006, though the video, directed by Jesse Ewles, was released on March 1, 2006. The album consists entirely of string quartet arrangements. Eight of the ten songs are about each of the schools of magic as described in the rules to the Dungeons & Dragons fantasy role-playing game. The album was named winner of the 2006 Polaris Music Prize. Uncomfortable with receiving a prize sponsored by a mobile phone conglomerate, Pallett gave the money away to bands they liked who needed financial assistance.
In 2007, the song "This Is The Dream of Win & Regine" was used in a commercial for Wiener Stadtwerke without Pallett's permission. Instead of litigation, Pallett and their booking agent Susanne Herrndorf approached the company for sponsorship for a music festival of their curation. The resultant Maximum Black Festival featured Final Fantasy, The Dirty Projectors, Deerhoof, Frog Eyes, Max Tundra, Six Organs of Admittance and others. It played Vienna, Berlin and London.
In July 2007, Pallett was interviewed on the CBC Radio One program Q, about their upcoming album, to be titled Heartland×Heartland11 January 2010 · Studio albumSpotifyYouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 12 tracks1Midnight Directives3:362Keep the Dog Quiet3:103Mount Alpentine0:494Red Sun No. 53:415Lewis Takes Action2:546The Great Elsewhere5:507Oh Heartland, Up Yours!4:078Lewis Takes Off His Shirt5:089Flare Gun2:2110E Is for Estranged5:2511Tryst With Mephistopheles6:5312What Do You Think Will Happen Now?2:38, which was to have a theme of nothingness.
In October 2007, Final Fantasy released a vinyl 7" on Tomlab's Alphabet Single series (The Letter "X"). The two tracks on X, recorded in Montreal with Zach Condon of the band Beirut, predate the album He Poos Clouds. The tracks "Hey Dad" and "What Do You Think Will Happen Next?" are both played regularly at live shows. The song "Hey Dad" contains a melody borrowed from the Nintendo video game "Super Mario Bros. 3"; specifically it is the music from the "Coin Heaven" bonus/hidden stages. Also, the song is quite similar in melody, lyrics and tone to another of Pallett's songs, "→".
In March 2008, Owen Pallett, under the alias Final Fantasy, collaborated with Grizzly Bear's Ed Droste on a cover of Björk's "Possibly Maybe" as part of Stereogum's tribute to Björk's album Post. On their Final Fantasy releases, Pallett has collaborated with Leon Taheny, who is credited as drummer and engineer.
In late 2008, Pallett released two EPs. The first one, Spectrum, 14th Century, was a collaboration with Beirut. The second EP, Plays to Please×Plays to Please21 October 2008 · EPSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 6 tracks1Horsetail Feathers3:252Ultimatum2:443Moodring Band2:544I Saved a Junky Once1:535Nun or a Bawd2:426Crush‐Love‐Crush4:56, was a tribute to fellow Torontonian Alex Lukashevsky and his group Deep Dark United. On it, six Lukashevsky originals were reconfigured for a 35-piece big band, the Toronto-based St. Kitts Orchestra (which includes Drumheller's Nick Fraser, Paul Mathew of the Hidden Cameras, and a whistling Andrew Bird, among others).
In December 2009, Pallett began performing and recording under their own name. The album Heartland was released on Domino Records on January 12, 2010. It was mixed by New York producer Rusty Santos. Also Pallett played Primavera Sound Festival 2010. In August 2010, Pallett released a four track EP entitled A Swedish Love Story on September 28 via Domino. The tracks received substantial airplay on community radio. Following the release of Heartland, Pallett has toured with guitarist/percussionist Thomas Gill and more recently with Rob Gordon and Matt Smith, their former collaborators in Les Mouches.
On November 12, 2012, Pallett tweeted that they had been working on a new album called In Conflict×In Conflict21 May 2014 · Studio albumSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 13 tracks1I Am Not Afraid4:162In Conflict4:143On a Path4:334Song for Five & Six4:315The Secret Seven5:166Chorale3:537The Passions3:548The Sky Behind the Flag4:239→ (1)0:4610The Riverbed3:4411Infernal Fantasy3:2312Soldier’s Rock4:5613→ (2)1:52. The album, their fourth full-length recording, was released May 27, 2014.
In live performances, Pallett plays the violin into a loop pedal. Pallett uses Max/MSP and SooperLooper to do multi-phonic looping, which sends their violin signal to amplifiers across the stage.

Other contributions

Pallett's previous projects included a now-defunct three-piece Toronto-based band, Les Mouches. Pallett also played fiddle for a short time with the Celtic rock band Enter the Haggis. Pallett was once the violinist of another Toronto band called Picastro, and briefly played keyboard in SS Cardiacs (with Leon Taheny, Jessie Stein and Michael Small in 2005). Pallett has also recorded and toured with Jim Guthrie, The Hidden Cameras, Royal City, The Vinyl Cafe, Gentleman Reg, and Arcade Fire (they co-wrote the strings arrangement for their albums Funeral and Neon Bible). One of their 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."
Pallett contributed remixes for the bands Stars, Grizzly Bear, and Death from Above 1979. Pallett also wrote string arrangements for the Canadian bands Immaculate Machine, on their 2007 album Fables, and Fucked Up, on their 2006 album Hidden World. Pallett also wrote the string arrangements for the Beirut album The Flying Club Cup, as well as provided vocals for the track "Cliquot". Pallett provided orchestration for The Age of the Understatement, the debut album of the English supergroup The Last Shadow Puppets, formed by co-frontmen Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) and Miles Kane (The Rascals). Pallett also conducted the London Metropolitan Orchestra in the recording of this project.
In June 2009, at Luminato, Toronto's annual festival of arts and creativity, Pallett provided part of the live soundtrack for the outdoor screening (at Yonge-Dundas Square, now Sankofa Square) of the 1919 silent German horror film Tales of the Uncanny, alongside Canadian instrumental band Do Make Say Think and German electronica artist Robert Lippok.
In 2009, Pallett worked with Win Butler and Régine Chassagne on the score for Richard Kelly's film The Box. Pallett was also initially set to score Rabbit Hole, a 2010 film by John Cameron Mitchell, but in the end, the film was scored by Anton Sanko.
In 2010, Pallett recorded with Arcade Fire during sessions for their 2010 album The Suburbs, which later received a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. In late 2010, Pallett was named as composer for T Magazine's "Fourteen Actors Acting" project; Pallett received, alongside the producers of that series, an Emmy Award for "New Approaches to News & Documentary Programming: Arts, Lifestyle and Culture".
In 2012, Pallett collaborated with John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats, when several songs from Transcendental Youth were performed in concert with the all-female vocal quartet Anonymous 4 and featured Pallett's arrangements for piano, guitar and voices.
Pallett scored the 2013 film The Wait, directed by M. Blash.
Pallett's string arrangements are featured on the songs "Wear" and "Trust" from the 2021 album Ignorance by The Weather Station.

Personal life

Pallett was born in Mississauga, Ontario and grew up in Milton. Pallett received an Honours Bachelor of Music for Composition from the University of Toronto in 2002. Pallett is gay and gender-queer, and uses gender-neutral pronouns.

With Les Mouches

The Polite Album (CD-R) – 2002
Blood Orgy!!! (EP) – 2003
You're Worth More to Me Than 1000 Christians – 2004 (rereleased via Orchid Tapes in 2015)

Studio albums

Has a Good Home (as Final Fantasy) – February 12, 2005
He Poos Clouds (as Final Fantasy) – May 15, 2006
Heartland – January 11, 2010
In Conflict – May 27, 2014
Island - May 22, 2020

Soundtrack albums

Spaceship Earth (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) - May 22, 2020
Her (Original Score) (with Arcade Fire) - March 19, 2021
Dream Scenario (Original Score) - November 10, 2023

EPs

Young Canadian Mothers (as Final Fantasy) – March 10, 2006
Spectrum, 14th Century (as Final Fantasy) – September 30, 2008
Plays to Please (as Final Fantasy) – October 2008
A Swedish Love Story EP – September 28, 2010

Singles

"Many Lives → 49 MP×Many Lives → 49 MP26 May 2006 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 4 tracks1Many Lives → 49 MP2:562The Miner Becomes Forgetful4:423Jars of Lars3:454The CN Tower Belongs to the Dead (Many Ives version)5:28" (as Final Fantasy) – May 29, 2006
"Alphabet Series: X×Alphabet Series: X23 October 2007 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracksAHey, Dad!4:00BWhat Do You Think Will Happen Next?3:33" (as Final Fantasy) – October 2007
"Lewis' Dream" (Flora Advert) – February 25, 2008
"Lewis Takes Action×Lewis Takes Action2009 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1Lewis Takes Action2:54" – January 2010
"Lewis Takes Off His Shirt×Lewis Takes Off His Shirt2010 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 2 tracks1Lewis Takes Off His Shirt (radio edit)4:162Lewis Takes Off His Shirt5:10" – March 29, 2010
"Julia/Tiberius" (with Daphni) – April 25, 2014

Various songs

"Joys" – appears on Worried Noodles (2007), a compilation of David Shrigley's lyrics set to music.
"Flare Gun" – appears on #8: SPAM (2007), a compilation released by Esopus.
"Possibly Maybe" – duet with Ed Droste of Grizzly Bear. Appears on the Stereogum compilation album, Enjoyed (2008), a tribute to Björk's Post.
"The Donor" – appears on Crayon Angel: A Tribute to the Music of Judee Sill (2009).
"Red Sun (demo version)" – appears on Friends in Bellwoods II (2009).
"Hard to Explain" – appears on the Stereogum compilation Stroked (2011), a tribute to The Strokes debut album Is This It.
"The Phone Call×The Phone Call29 June 2015 · SingleSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 1 track1The Phone Call4:33" – appears on ADULT SWIM SINGLES 2015 (2015).
"Transformer (Guitar Demo)" – appears on the unlimited free milkshakes compilation Art Week 2016 (2016).