Owen Pallett
- Location: Toronto,
- Websites:
- Bio: Owen Pallett named his violin-looping live project Final Fantasy as a nod to the unending series of operatic, melodramatic video games. After stints playing in Les Mouches, Hidden Cameras, Picastro ... (more)
- Bio: Owen Pallett named his violin-looping live project Final Fantasy as a nod to the unending series of operatic, melodramatic video games. After stints playing in Les Mouches, Hidden Cameras, Picastro and other Toronto bands, he released debut album Has A Good Home in April 2005. Final Fantasy’s sophomore album He Poos Clouds, written and arranged entirely for string quartet, is a satirical song cycle based on the eight schools of magic codified by Dungeons & Dragons. Pitchfork described it as “a joy to hear…this is, in a word, fierce.” A jury of music journalists awarded this LP the inaugural Polaris Prize for best Canadian full-length album. Two EPs followed in 2008: Spectrum, 14th Century presents imaginary field recordings from the titular fantasy kingdom, while Plays To Please is a big band tribute to songwriter Alex Lukashevsky of Deep Dark United.
The past few years have seen Owen constantly touring as Final Fantasy, his “one-man band.” The New York Times observed that “Pallett seems to regard the pop rule book with gleefully iconoclastic relish," marveling at “live shows that compress all the wonder and virtuosity of an illusionist’s routine into a three-and-a-half-minute pop song." The Village Voice praised He Poos Clouds for “the best lyrics of the year,” while the New Yorker described one recent concert as “fairly sublime.” During these travels Owen performed at Laurie Anderson’s 60th birthday party and curated 2008’s Maximum Black Festival, featuring Deerhoof, Stephen O’Malley, Dirty Projectors, Max Tundra and others.
Owen has written string and orchestral arrangements for numerous releases, including the Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible, Grizzly Bear’s Yellow House, Beirut’s The Flying Club Cup and The Last Shadow Puppets’ The Age of the Understatement. In this year alone, he wrote orchestral parts for Pet Shop Boys’ Yes, played violin on Mika’s The Boy Who Knew Too Much and contributed string arrangements to the Mountain Goats album, The Life of the World to Come. PSB’s Neil Tennant said that Owen is “a very creative composer…a bit of a prodigy.” John Darnielle of the Mountain Goats announced their FF-supported tour thusly: “all shows will be opened by the great & magnificent Final Fantasy, about which you can imagine how amped I am.”
Owen also co-wrote, orchestrated and conducted the film score for Richard Kelly’s The Box with Win Butler and Regine Chassagne; he is currently scoring John Cameron Mitchell’s upcoming film Rabbit Hole. The Brooklyn Philharmonic performed highlights from the Final Fantasy repertoire at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House during its 2009 season, and a similar program is slated for the Symphony Nova Scotia. Owen also joined forces with the Bang on a Can All-Stars during said group’s 21st anniversary marathon last year. The next Final Fantasy full-length, Heartland, revisits the realm of Spectrum; it concerns a young, ultra-violent farmer named Lewis and a supreme deity named Owen. Recorded over nine months in four countries, the album will be released on Domino Records on January 11th, 2010. (less)
