Owen Pallett
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Owen Pallett is a violinist and singer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He 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.
As Final Fantasy, 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. He has also performed with more traditional string quartets as backing musicians.
He believes his work is strongly 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," in a [recent interview].
On 12 February 2005, his debut album, Has a Good Home, was released by the recording club Blocks (sometimes referred to as 'BlocksBlocksBlocks'), a cooperative, Toronto-based, record label of which he is a member. A second album, He Poos Clouds, was released in June of 2006.
His previous projects included a 3-piece Toronto-based band, Les Mouches, now defunct. He was once the violist of another Toronto band called Picastro. Owen has also recorded and toured with Jim Guthrie, The Hidden Cameras, The Vinyl Cafe, and The Arcade Fire. 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."
The name "Final Fantasy" is in fact a tribute to the considerably more well-known video game series, which Owen is a fan of. There is a rumor that Owen has never actually played the Final Fantasy series (or games in general) which is false. In fact he just does not consider the Final Fantasy games as one of his top twenty favorite games.
Discography
see also albums under The Arcade Fire.
- Les Mouches The Polite Album CD-R (2002 · Department Of Records)
- Les Mouches Blood Orgy CD-EP (2003 · Blocks)
- Jim Guthrie Now, More Than Ever CD (2003 · Three Gut Records)
- Les Mouches You're Worth More To Me Than 1000 Christians CD (2004 · Blocks)
- Final Fantasy Has a Good Home CD/LP (2005 · Blocks/Tomlab)
- Final Fantasy Young Canadian Mothers 7" (2005 · Escapegoat Records)
- Final Fantasy He Poos Clouds CD/LP (May 15, 2006 · Blocks/Tomlab)
Trivia
- Has performed a cover of "This Modern Love" by Bloc Party at a concert in Waterloo, Ontario in April 2006, and at other concerts as well.
- During a concert in Montreal, April 2006, Owen performed a cover of Mariah Carey's "Fantasy".
- During various concerts, Owen performed a cover of "Peach, Plum, Pear", by Joanna Newsom.
- His method of looping and layering violin to create his music is also used by violinist Andrew Bird.
External links
- [Final Fantasy official website]
- [Final Fantasy official forum at SHZine]
- [Tomlab]
- [Blocks Recording Club]
- [Picastro's official web site]
- [Les Mouches]
- [Artist profile on Pitchfork Media]
- [Interview in Toronto's Now Magazine, where Pallett discusses his homosexuality]
- [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]
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