Owen Pallett dispels media myths and more
By Kate Hargreaves
Lance Writer
October 17, 2007
 It’s only six o’clock in the evening, and small groups of people are trickling off University Avenue into downtown Windsor’s Phog Lounge with hopes of getting out of the cold and damp and claiming a prime seat for this evening’s show. They are well aware that the headlining act will not even take the stage until after midnight, but tonight the indie music fans have been drawn out of their homes and into their venue of choice well before dark. Final Fantasy has finally made his return to Windsor.
When Toronto’s Owen Pallett a.k.a. Final Fantasy takes to the stage shoeless and alone save his violin and piano, he seems quietly surprised at the warm cheering welcome he receives from the standing room only crowd. The 27- year old violinist came to media attention a few years back as part of Montreal act Arcade Fire’s live band and a string arranger on their breakthrough album Funeral. Pallett’s solo work as Final Fantasy garnered him much critical acclaim, his second album, He Poos Clouds, winning the 2006 inaugural Polaris Music Prize.
On this third showcase at Phog, Final Fantasy has brought along London’s folk-pop songstress Basia Bulat, and electronic solo act Nifty. Well known for his innovative live show, Pallett performs his set alone, accompanied only by an overhead projector backdrop of moving paper cut outs and colours, the childlike images changed by hand along with the music.
With no backing band, Final Fantasy’s elaborately layered songs are built from the ground up; Pallett plays and samples each violin line live, combining them gradually with vocals, sometimes jumping over to piano, into the sweeping melodies no one would believe rose from one person.
Between songs, which vary from gentle pizzicato near-lullabies, to screaming into his violin, and the popular live staple of Mariah Carey’s Fantasy, Pallett jokes and banters with the crowd about the band Rilo Kiley’s stage wear and his skills at Guitar Hero 2. “Everyone plays Windsor, don’t they?” he asks the audience before launching into a much-demanded encore. “You seem nice.”
Pallett was kind enough to sit down with The Lance before the show and answer a few questions about his music, future projects, and even dispel some media myths.
Lance: I read in an interview that you are a self-taught violinist. How did you pick up the violin?
Owen Pallett: That’s interesting because I’m not. I studied with a Russian teacher named Ninel Bard. I studied with her for fifteen years, which is really weird for violin because you usually switch teachers, but I studied with her from when I was three until I graduated high school.
Lance: Ah, so someone is trying to make a myth out of you.
OP: Sure, I’m all about dispelling myths [laughs].
Lance: Since playing Phog last time, you’ve won the Polaris prize. How did that exposure affect your career?
OP: A lot of people ask me that question and I don’t really have an answer. It’s a tricky question. It’s like saying, “How did doing that duet with Elton John help your career?” And it’s kind of, well, I still work really hard [laughs]. I’m still practicing. It hasn’t made me a better violinist.
Lance: I heard that you put up some of the Polaris money to record an album for a band in Toronto, Rozascia?
OP: Yeah, I gave them $2,000. I heard their record. It sounded really awesome. I don’t know if they got together to finish it yet because they are all crazy [laughs], which is too bad because the record sounded great.
Lance: This is the third time you’ve played here at Phog, and it’s got to be a big difference to playing huge festivals like Coachella with the Arcade Fire.
OP: Yeah, it’s a total bummer. Just kidding [laughs].
[Phone rings. It is apparently someone else with questions for Pallett. He politely asks them to call back in a little bit].
I love doing interviews [laughs].
So [about the venues], it’s not a prefer / un-prefer thing. It’s like oysters and pasta.
Lance: You’ve been recently collaborating with Beirut. How did that come about?
 OP: I contacted Zach [Condon, Beirut’s frontman] over e-mail and said we should work together and that I had access to a recording studio. Originally, I was thinking that he was going to bring the band up and record the record. I wasn’t even aware until maybe a month before we got there that the record was done and that we were just going to be working on the string parts. And so we did that. It was good; it was fun. It was strange actually because they have a violinist in the band already, and I mean, I’ve worked before with bands and string players previously in the band, like Sarah and Richard in Arcade Fire, but this time it was tricky. It wasn’t the case that we were bad at working together; it was just that I think it became a bit of a sausage party, and she kind of felt a little bit like she was given the short end of the stick, which is too bad. It’s especially bad because all the best ideas on the record were hers [laughs]. Other than that it was a totally wonderful experience.
Lance: And Beirut played on some of your new material?
OP: Yeah, most of them played on the new recordings we made, which are going to be on the new EP I’m not finished making yet and the seven-inch that I was supposed to have for sale, but that we don’t have yet.
Lance: That was my next question. You are working on an album, an LP or an EP?
OP: I’m working on an EP right now.
Lance: Is that Heartland?
OP: Heartland is the album that I’m still working on writing. Before I start actually even writing the songs for Heartland, I want to have the full album of lyrics finished, so it’s taking longer than I’d expected. I’ve just had a lot of other stuff going on.
Lance: My last question is a bit of a random one, but if you were to make a mix tape, off the top of your head, what song would you definitely put on it?
OP: [Hesitates] Um, well for who? It depends.
Lance: Say for a Final Fantasy fan who you wanted to introduce to new music.
OP: That’d be tricky. Well, in the spirit of this tour, I’d say I’d probably put on the song “Tinto de Verona” by Nifty [the opening act] because it’s a really great song, and it’s brand new!
Six hours later, when he asks the bar to throw on the new Nifty album while taking his final leave from the stage, the audience seems reluctant to make their way out of the bar. It’s not because of the cold.
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