| Someone owes Owen Pallett some money. I won’t name any names, but Pallett doesn’t hesitate in doing so.
"I played on this Esthero recording two years ago," says the violinist, seemingly glad to get something off his chest. "She didn’t pay me for the work I did for her. We’re talking $300 here.
"I didn’t know her that well," he continues, "but I know she’s firmly in the clutches of a terrible recording company and she’s probably going to end up having to sell all her possessions to pay them back and all that sort of bullshit." Pallett recently read an article in Eye weekly in which Esthero talked about being able to get into any première in L.A., but being relatively unknown at home. This rubbed him the wrong way, in a big way. "Bitch, you haven’t paid me," he says. "She’s complaining she’s not a big star in T.O.?"
It’s not so much the money that bothers Pallett, he simply believes in supporting those who support one other. His debut album under the moniker Final Fantasy is out on Blocks Recording Club out of Toronto. Pallett could have easily shopped his majestic debut around a little, waiting for a sweet deal, but didn’t. He regularly offers his services to other musicians and isn’t surprised when they don’t have money to pay him. But then again, his friends aren’t usually getting into L.A. premières.
Pallett’s first instrument was the piano, and in high school he favoured Bartok over Def Leppard. He got into the violin while studying composition at the University of Toronto and he has been in and out of bands like Bobby Brown has been in and out of court. Pallett started Les Mouches and has played with the Hidden Cameras, Royal City, Picastro and Gentleman Reg. He also helped with the string arrangements on the Arcade Fire album Funeral. Pallett joined the band both as an opening act and supporting musician on their recent smash North American tour and he even took the stage for their spectacular performance on Late Night With Conan O’Brian.
The concept of Final Fantasy grew from Pallett toying with the idea of looping his violin after seeing the self-taught loop-basedToronto artist Guitarkestra and hanging around the South by Southwest music festival. After returning home, Pallett says he ruined his boyfriend’s birthday party by "getting kind of drunk and ending up being kinda less than a gentleman." Looking for a way to make amends, Pallett picked up the violin to make music for the sole benefit of his boyfriend. "Final Fantasy is about romance… and feelings," says Pallett, with a laugh.
While some ashamed souls might buy a box of chocolates from Shoppers Drug Mart to get back on their lover’s good side, Pallett put together a fluid 16-track album that could easily please fans of classical, indie-pop, electro-pop and new folk. And he made it in six days. "So much great entertainment is made this way," Pallett says. "I mean there’s so many people out there who spend five years working on an album and it turns out like total garbage."
With his violin, Pallett is like a one-man band. When performing live, he usually stands alone, sometimes accompanied by a drummer. He plucks, smacks, taps, bows, scratches and screams into his violin. He loops the sounds, adding layer upon layer and then sings.
"The best comparison I can think of is a wedding cake," he says. "You build the first layer and then after that you’re just kind of smearing shit on top."
If Pallett’s sound is like a wedding cake, then the crowning statue is his beautiful, personal lyrics sung with contrasting whispered mumbles, sweet melodies and violent shouts.
For example: "Hey yo yo yo yo yo/ I need an empire to overthrow/ You make me wish for a more dangerous life so I can show you ’bout self-sacrifice"
"Took you two years to win my heart/ and two words to break it"
What started as a (successful) make-up project is keeping Pallett busy, but don’t expect to see him live any time soon. Plans for a Canadian tour are not yet underway because he wants to make sure he’s doing it right.
"I want to have another record, some T-shirts, some seven inches," says Pallet. "I want to be a full carnival." |
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