Owen Pallett facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Owen Pallett
Pallett performing at Coachella 2010
Background information
Birth name	Michael James Owen Pallett-Plowright
Born	(1979-09-07) September 7, 1979 (age 45) Mississauga, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Indie pop classical baroque pop art rock electronic music
Occupation(s)	Musician composer arranger
Instruments	Violin viola vocals piano keyboards guitar bass
Labels	Blocks Recording Club Tomlab Domino Recording Company
Associated acts	Final Fantasy Les Mouches Enter the Haggis Picastro Arcade Fire The Last Shadow Puppets

Owen Pallett (born September 7, 1979) is a Canadian musician. They are a composer, violinist, keyboard player, and singer. Owen used to be known as 'Final Fantasy'. They won a big music award, the Polaris Music Prize, in 2006 for their album He Poos Clouds.

Owen is also famous for working with the band Arcade Fire. They have toured with them and helped arrange music and play instruments on their albums. In 2014, Owen and William Butler from Arcade Fire were nominated for an Academy Award (an Oscar!) for the music they wrote for the movie Her.

Owen started playing classical violin when they were only 3 years old. They wrote their first song at age 13. They even wrote some music for a video game called Traffic Department 2192. Later, they wrote music for movies and even two operas while at university. Owen has also written music for famous groups like the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the National Ballet of Canada. When Owen performs live, they use a special 'loop pedal' with their violin. This lets them record and play back sounds instantly, creating many layers of music.

Besides their own music and work with Arcade Fire, Owen has helped many other popular artists. They have arranged music and played instruments for pop stars like Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys, Robbie Williams, Taylor Swift, and Ed Sheeran. They have also worked with rock bands such as R.E.M., Linkin Park, Franz Ferdinand, the National, and Alex Turner.

Owen Pallett's Music Career

Solo Work

Owen Pallett gets ideas for their music from many places. They have mentioned electronic bands like Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) and Eurythmics as favorites. Albums by Tori Amos, The Strokes, Public Enemy, and Brian Eno have also influenced them. Owen's favorite album is A Promise by Xiu Xiu.

Owen used the name 'Final Fantasy' for their music before releasing the album Heartland. This name was a nod to the well-known video game series. However, Owen has said it's not even one of their top twenty favorite games!

Final Fantasy performing in 2005.

Owen's first album, Has a Good Home, came out on February 12, 2005. It was released by the Blocks Recording Club, a music group in Toronto that Owen helped start. A song from this album, "An Arrow in the Side of Final Fantasy," uses music from the video game Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins. Another song, "Adventure.exe," was used in commercials in the United Kingdom. Owen didn't mean for this to happen, and they donate all the money from it to Doctors Without Borders.

Owen's second album, He Poos Clouds, was released in June 2006. This album is special because it uses only string quartet music. Many of the songs are about different types of magic from the Dungeons & Dragons game. This album won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize. Owen felt uncomfortable keeping the prize money, so they gave it away to other bands who needed financial help.

In 2007, one of Owen's songs, "This Is The Dream of Win & Regine," was used in a commercial without their permission. Instead of suing, Owen and their agent worked with the company to get sponsorship for a music festival. This festival, called Maximum Black, featured many bands and played in Vienna, Berlin, and London.

In October 2007, Owen released a small record called "X" under the name Final Fantasy. It had two songs, "Hey Dad" and "What Do You Think Will Happen Next?". "Hey Dad" includes a tune from the Nintendo game "Super Mario Bros. 3".

In March 2008, Owen, as Final Fantasy, worked with Ed Droste from the band Grizzly Bear. They covered a song by Björk called "Possibly Maybe" for a tribute album.

In late 2008, Owen released two EPs (shorter albums). One was called Spectrum, 14th Century, made with the band Beirut. The other, Plays to Please, was a tribute to another Toronto artist, Alex Lukashevsky. For this EP, Owen arranged six of Lukashevsky's songs for a large 35-piece band.

In December 2009, Owen started performing and recording under their own name. The album Heartland was released on Domino Records on January 12, 2010. Owen also played at the Primavera Sound Festival in 2010. In August 2010, Owen released a four-song EP called A Swedish Love Story. After Heartland, Owen toured with other musicians, including Thomas Gill, Rob Gordon, and Matt Smith.

On November 12, 2012, Owen announced they were working on a new album called In Conflict. This album, their fourth full-length record, was released on May 27, 2014.

When Owen performs live, they use a special 'loop pedal' with their violin. They use computer programs like Max/MSP and SooperLooper to create many layers of sound. This sends their violin music to different speakers around the stage.

Other Music Projects

Pallett playing live in Brussels, 2010-03-23.

Owen Pallett was part of a band called Les Mouches in Toronto. They also played fiddle for a short time with the Celtic rock band Enter the Haggis. Owen was also the violinist for another Toronto band called Picastro. They briefly played keyboard in SS Cardiacs in 2005.

Owen has also recorded and toured with many other artists. These include Jim Guthrie, The Hidden Cameras, Royal City, and Arcade Fire. Owen helped write the string arrangements for Arcade Fire's albums Funeral and Neon Bible. One of Owen's songs, "This Is the Dream of Win & Regine," was inspired by Win Butler and Régine Chassagne, who are the main members of Arcade Fire.

Owen has also created remixes for bands like Stars, Grizzly Bear, and Death from Above 1979. They wrote the string arrangements for the Beirut album The Flying Club Cup and sang on one of their songs. More recently, Owen arranged the orchestra music for The Age of the Understatement. This was the first album by The Last Shadow Puppets, a band with Alex Turner from Arctic Monkeys and Miles Kane. Owen also conducted the London Metropolitan Orchestra for this project.

In June 2009, Owen helped create live music for a silent horror film called Tales of the Uncanny. They performed alongside Canadian band Do Make Say Think and German artist Robert Lippok.

In 2009, Owen worked with Win Butler and Régine Chassagne on the music for the film The Box. Owen was also supposed to score the 2010 film Rabbit Hole, but another composer, Anton Sanko, ended up doing it.

In 2010, Owen recorded with Arcade Fire for their album The Suburbs. This album later won a Grammy Award for Album of the Year. In late 2010, Owen composed music for a project called "Fourteen Actors Acting." For this, Owen won an Emmy Award for "New Approaches to News & Documentary Programming: Arts, Lifestyle and Culture."

In 2012, Owen worked with John Darnielle from The Mountain Goats. They performed songs from the album Transcendental Youth with a vocal group called Anonymous 4. Owen arranged the music for piano, guitar, and voices.

Owen wrote the music for the 2013 film The Wait. Owen's string arrangements are also on the songs "Wear" and "Trust" from the 2021 album Ignorance by The Weather Station.

Personal Life

Owen Pallett was born in Mississauga, Ontario, and grew up in Milton. They studied music composition at the University of Toronto and graduated in 2002.

Discography

With Les Mouches

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

Solo Work

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" (as Final Fantasy) – May 29, 2006
• "Alphabet Series: X" (as Final Fantasy) – October 2007
• "Lewis' Dream" (Flora Advert) – February 25, 2008
• "Lewis Takes Action" – January 2010
• "Lewis Takes Off His Shirt" – 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" – appears on ADULT SWIM SINGLES 2015 (2015).
• "Transformer (Guitar Demo)" – appears on the unlimited free milkshakes compilation Art Week 2016 (2016).

Other Contributions

See also

In Spanish: Owen Pallett para niños