Interview: Owen Pallett aka Final Fantasy

Final Fantasy is Owen Pallett, a 28 year old Toronto singer and violinist and sometime collaborator with the likes of Picastro, Beirut and Arcade Fire. He can now add festival curator to his CV, as his Maximum Black festival hits The Forum in London on February 29 with a bill boasting interesting and ambitious acts Frog Eyes, Six Organs of Admittance, Alexander Tucker and Dirty Projectors alongside his own alter ego Final Fantasy.

The circumstances surrounding how the festival came about are far from ordinary. We interrupted Pallet, working on new material at home, to ask him about the story...

This festival is rather unusually sponsored by the Vienna Public Utility company. This came about because they stole your music for an advertisement?
They had contacted me and asked if they could use the song (‘This is the Dream of Win and Regine’) and I said no. Then the company that was making the commercial had this in-house guy create a new song but the piece of music that was created was not at all dissimilar from my song, in fact it was the exact same with the vocals taken out (laughs).

Who is the Vienna Public Utility company?
Public works you know, they take out the trash, provide of water for all of Vienna, do the power.

If it was playing in Europe, how did you come to find out about it? How pissed were you?
Well obviously, I’m in Toronto, on the other side of the world… and I don’t really mind. You know, I’m sure that everyone has been used in all sorts of places, in faraway countries and you can’t do anything about it. In fact in most nations that aren’t European or North American the copyright laws are very, very different from the ones musicians are reliant upon and used to. But it was a big deal in Vienna, as the commercial was being shown before movies and there was wide coverage. I read about it in the papers that this commercial had ripped off the song. It was kind of funny; I thought the whole thing was hilarious.

Well why did you do something then?
The big argument for why I should pursue some kind of litigation or something is less about the money and more about the fact that it is instances like this where artists need to speak up for themselves, otherwise this sort of thing will happen. That was the reason why.

Famously Tom Waits was asked if someone could use one of his songs in a commercial and he said no. They had a song that was all new material, that had no Tom Waits in it, that sounded so much like Tom Waits that it’s obvious that someone just sat down and ripped off Tom Waits. So he took them to court and he won, so it's kind of a big deal.

So how did the whole festival thing come from that then?
Well at the time… I mean I’m not like Bloc Party you know, I don’t have people pinching my music and I’m not ubiquitous. Basically if somebody picks one of my songs it’s because they’re a fan. Because my music is not hugely popular, the reason they chose the song was because they liked the music.

So it was quite an organic thing then.
Exactly, somebody who was there making the commercial had the Final Fantasy CD and liked it, so they came to a show I played in Vienna - both people from the company that made the commercial and Utility company. Rather than play ‘This is the Dream of Win and Regine’ I played their version of the song which has like this guy singing (puts on funny voice) "Can you feel it!!!" just like, you know, to be kind of, "Haha, instead of hearing the song you want to hear I’m going to play this commercial song."

So they came up after the show and they were really nice about it and they were like, "So what can we do?" I mean, they’re a public works company so they’re funded by the people of Vienna, so it’s in their best interests to keep good faith and also to do things like promote cultural events. So it was kind of a natural conclusion that they would give us money to set up a festival. I mean it’s just me and Suzanne my European manager – we’re just two people so we don’t have the sort of time, energy or facility to set up like a huge Latitude-style festival, but knew we were able to get a bunch of bands we really like and get them to play shows across a few cities. (Maximum Black travels to Berlin and Vienna also).

So is the line up more like your wishlist of bands or is it people you’re already mates with?
A bit half and half. I made a list of like 20 – 25 bands but we also had to consider who’s a draw, so it’s not just whoever we wanted. We also had to curate a show that people would want to come to. The schedule also made a difference – we were hoping to get Grizzly Bear, they were a big omission, but they were in the middle of changing management and some emails got lost in the shuffle.

A shame – they’re great! So I hear you worked on the upcoming Alex Turner album.
Yeah I arranged an orchestra for the record, we flew over to London at the end of November with the orchestra and apparently the record is finished… I’ve been getting rough mixes by email and it sounds amazing!

To an outsider it seems like your two bands (Final Fantasy and Arctic Monkeys) are existing on different planets.
Yeah it was a real learning experience. On one hand it was really interesting to be working with people who were extremely, uh… the most famous people that I’ve met and worked with. (Laughs) I mean I know that sounds really airhead like, "Wow famous people!", but I mean there is something different. It’s like a different world of production.

Even working with Arcade Fire, who are arguably as big or bigger than Arctic Monkeys, it’s still a different thing because I’ve just known them for years. So it was interesting coz I had to completely bend my schedule for them, it was like working for a big Hollywood studio or something. But it was really exciting. I had a lot of fun, went to the Arctic Monkey show, got in trouble with their security...

Care to elaborate?
Oh... it's just in the UK you guys have a really hooligan sort of culture. I guess security people in the UK have to just assume that everybody is a drugged out asshole. And I’m not a drugged out asshole. And when I want to leave a venue just to get a bag of chips or something because I’m dying of hunger and they sort of tell me “You can’t get back into the show”, I’m like, “Whatever dude”.

Yeah it’s funny how used to that kind of security you can get.
It ended up I was totally bullied around and pushed around and I was thinking, "This is kind of crazy." Eventually I was let back in the show but only when I apologised to security.

Wow. That’s actually kind of sweet.
Yeah it’s kind of sweet but kind of weird, it felt so childish! It takes a lot to get you kicked out of a show in Canada and when you get kicked out, if you try and go back and apologise you’d get thrown in jail or something (laughs). You basically have to be caught smoking crack onstage to get thrown out. I had to send a lot of urgent texts. I mean Lawrence, head of Domino records, even got involved and the security guys were bossing him around and I was like, “Do you KNOW who this man is?? You guys are crazy, he’s the head of Domino records, he’s a millionaire! He knows everybody in the world. He probably has Prince on his speed dial, you know what I mean!” Was a really fun trip. 

The Maximum Black Festival takes place February 29 at the Forum in Kentish Town, tickets are £16.