Violins may seem like an unlikely instrument to drive indiepop, but throughout his award-winning career Owen Pallett has consistently broken the mold.
While attending the University of Toronto, he was the go-to string arranger for buzz Canadian acts like Arcade Fire, Hidden Cameras and Death from Above. A member of numerous bands ranging from experimental indie (Les Mouches) to Celtic rock (Enter the Haggis), Pallett found instant acclaim when he stepped out on his own.
A unique setup certainly helped. Under the alias Final Fantasy (which he eventually dropped in 2010 to avoid issues with the creators of the hit video game franchise), Pallett instantly enchanted audiences as a one-man band, playing his violin through a loop pedal to allow him to create complex arrangements live.
Despite winning the inaugural Polaris Prize – an annual award given to the best Canadian album based on artistic merit – for his sophomore album, He Poos Clouds, Pallett admits he’s still driven by doubts.
“I still lack that confidence,” he says. “I think confidence is the enemy of artistic pursuit. You always want to feel off-balance and exploratory, or else the work is no longer interesting.”
Whether it’s his solo albums, his Grammy-winning string arrangements (Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs) or his Oscar-nominated film scores (Her), Pallett’s discography is littered with interesting work.
His third album, Heartland, was a heady conceptual disc driven by conversations between “a young ultra-violent farmer” named Lewis and his all-powerful creator and album narrator, unsubtly named Owen.
Its follow-up, 2014’s In Conflict, is Pallett at his most direct, with synthesizers adding an electronic edge to his trademark baroque pop. It boasts collaborations with iconic producer and ambient pioneer Brian Eno, who Pallet dubs “the single most influential musician on my production and songwriting.”
“Ironically, working with him didn’t affect me that much,” Pallett says. “We’ve hung out several times before in person but at no point did we work in the same room on In Conflict. He contributed some amazing parts and fixed a bunch of songs. It felt very workmanlike – just like me.”
While he promises that “the new album is coming close to being completed,” Pallett has remained busy providing strings to seemingly everyone from indie favorites (Titus Andronicus, Caribou, Franz Ferdinand) to pop stars (Taylor Swift, Robbie Williams, Linkin Park).
“I worked on 20 or so records last year as an arranger,” he says. “I’ve been studying a lot of scores from the last 20 years or so to try and expand my compositional vocabulary. I’m not the most talented arranger, but I think I am good at finding a good spot between innovation and pop history.”
Although he remains focused on finishing up his longawaited fifth disc, Pallet is excited for his first tour of China that takes over the stately Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Hall on April 22 and then Beijing’s leading rock club Yugong Yishan the next night.
“I tend to prefer rock clubs, simply because I prefer the urgency of a standing crowd,” Pallett admits. “That said, I know that people generally prefer seated venues, so it balances out equally.”
Both shows will be unique. Although Pallett beams about the end of the 2015 In Conflict tour (“I felt as if we were the best band on the planet”), he admits “the superlatively positive responses everywhere [they] played” triggered his artistic instincts to returning to the uncomfortable.
“With that in mind, I figured it was time for a change,” he says. “I have sold my synthesizer and am now playing with a guitar and violin instead."
Shanghai: Apr 22, 7.45pm, RMB80-180. Shanghai Symphony Orchestra Hall.
Beijing: Apr 23, 8pm, RMB120 presale, RMB150 door. Yugong Yishan, see event listing.
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