28 Facts About Owen Pallett

Michael James Owen Pallett was born on September 7,1979 and is a Canadian composer, violinist, keyboardist, and vocalist.

Under their erstwhile moniker of Final Fantasy, Pallett won the 2006 Polaris Music Prize for the album He Poos Clouds.

Owen Pallett is known for their contributions to Arcade Fire, having toured with the band and been credited as an arranger and instrumentalist on each of their studio albums.

Apart from the indie music scene, Owen Pallett has had commissions from the Barbican, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, National Ballet of Canada, Bang on a Can, Ecstatic Music Festival, the Vancouver CBC Orchestra, and Fine Young Classicals.

Owen Pallett has drawn inspiration from electronic act Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, who were Owen Pallett's favorite band, along with Eurythmics.

The name Final Fantasy, under which Owen Pallett recorded prior to the release of Heartland, was a tribute to the well-known video game series, although Owen Pallett said that it is not one of their top twenty favorite games.

Owen Pallett's debut album, Has a Good Home, was released on February 12,2005, by the Blocks Recording Club, a cooperative, Toronto-based record label of which Owen Pallett is a founding member.

Owen Pallett did not intend to sell the song for this purpose, but its use was authorized due to an alleged miscommunication with their record label, Tomlab.

Uncomfortable with receiving a prize sponsored by a mobile phone conglomerate, Owen Pallett gave the money away to bands Owen Pallett liked who needed financial assistance.

In July 2007, Owen Pallett was interviewed on the CBC Radio One program Q, about their upcoming album, to be titled Heartland, which was to have a theme of nothingness.

On December, 2009, Owen Pallett began performing and recording under their own name.

On November 12,2012, Owen Pallett tweeted that Owen Pallett had been working on a new album called In Conflict.

In live performances, Owen Pallett plays the violin into a loop pedal.

Owen Pallett played fiddle for a short time with the Celtic rock band Enter the Haggis.

Owen Pallett was once the violinist of another Toronto band called Picastro, and briefly played keyboard in SS Cardiacs.

Owen Pallett has recorded and toured with Jim Guthrie, The Hidden Cameras, Royal City, The Vinyl Cafe, Gentleman Reg, and Arcade Fire.

Owen Pallett contributed remixes for the bands Stars, Grizzly Bear and Death from Above 1979.

Owen Pallett wrote the string arrangements for the Beirut album The Flying Club Cup, as well as provided vocals for the track "Cliquot".

Owen Pallett conducted the London Metropolitan Orchestra in the recording of this project.

In June 2009 at Luminato, Toronto's annual festival of arts and creativity, Owen Pallett provided part of the live soundtrack for the outdoor screening of the 1919 silent German horror film Tales of the Uncanny, alongside Canadian instrumental band Do Make Say Think and electronica music artist Robert Lippok from Berlin, Germany.

Owen Pallett recorded with Arcade Fire in 2010 while they were making their 2010 album The Suburbs.

In 2009, Owen Pallett worked with Win Butler and Regine Chassagne on the score for Richard Kelly's film The Box.

Owen Pallett was initially set to score Rabbit Hole, a film by John Cameron Mitchell, but in the end the film was scored by Anton Sanko.

Owen Pallett collaborated with John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats in 2012 when several songs from the Transcendental Youth album were performed in concert with the all-female vocal quartet Anonymous 4 and featured Owen Pallett's arrangements for piano, guitar and voices.

Owen Pallett scored the 2013 film The Wait directed by M Blash.

Owen Pallett was born in Mississauga, Ontario and grew up in Milton.

Owen Pallett received an Honours Bachelor of Music for Composition from the University of Toronto in 2002.

Owen Pallett is gay, identifies as gender-queer and uses gender-neutral pronouns.