Owen Pallett

Born Michael James Owen Pallett-Plowright, Owen Pallett is a singer/violinist from Toronto best known for his solo recordings as Final Fantasy. Classically trained from an early age, at 15 he started playing solo violin shows. As his musical interests shifted to indie pop, Pallett collaborated with a multitude of indie artists, including Jim Guthrie, Royal City, the Hidden Cameras, the Vinyl Cafe, Gentleman Reg, and Arcade Fire. As well as touring in various string sections in the mid-2000s, he was an active composer, writing arrangements for Arcade Fire’s groundbreaking Funeral and Neon Bible, along with albums for F****d Up, Beirut, and the Last Shadow Puppets. Despite being the go-to violinist for other artists and an avid remixer, Pallett’s primary focus remained his own work as Final Fantasy. In 2005, he released Has a Good Home, which he followed up with 2006’s He Poos Clouds. In 2009, Pallett announced that he would no longer be using Final Fantasy as his moniker, to avoid confusion with Square Enix’s popular video game series by the same name. Plans were made to repackage his Final Fantasy back catalog, and in January of 2010, Owen Pallett released Heartland under his own name.