Owen Pallett

A prodigious musical talent, Owen Pallett started studying classical violin at just three years of age. He composed his first piece at 13, and wrote music for videogames, short films and operas before graduating from the University of Toronto with a degree in Music Composition. His first recorded output was a collaboration with Jim Guthrie on Morning Noon Night (2002) and as part of Toronto trio Les Mouches who released three albums from 2002 to 2004. He first provided string arrangements for Montreal's Arcade Fire on their breakthrough album Funeral (2004). Inspired by his love of computer games, Pallett took on the moniker Final Fantasy in tribute to a popular role-playing game; his debut release Has a Good Home (2005) featured melodies inspired by videogames. This multilayered solo project mixed his classical training with lo-fi indie, folk, electronica and pop elements. "Adventure.exe" was used in a UK commercial but Pallett donated all his earnings from inadvertently licensing the track to Doctors Without Borders. His second album, He Poos Clouds (2006), continued the videogame theme. When it won Canada's prestigious Polaris Award, the ever modest Pallett donated the prize money to a selection of his favorite bands who needed financial help. He continued to collaborate with Arcade Fire, featuring on their second album Neon Bible (2007), as well as working with Beirut, The Last Shadow Puppets, Pet Shop Boys, Mika, and many more. For his firstr soundtrack work, he teamed up with Arcade Fire's Win Butler and Régine Chassagne to compose the music for Richard Kelly's offbeat horror "The Box" (2010). With the release of 2010's Heartland, Pallett reverted to his own name for his solo releases. By now Pallett was working regularly with some of the biggest names in the industry including Duran Duran, The National, R.E.M., Snow Patrol, Linkin Park, and Taylor Swift. Returning to soundtracks, Pallett was nominated for an Academy Award for his work with Will Butler (Win's brother and also a member of Arcade Fire) on Spike Jonze's "Her" (2013).