Why Owen Pallett is living in a fantasy world

Classically trained Owen Pallett has arranged strings for some of the noughties' most acclaimed albums including Arcade Fire's Funeral . He has also released two records under the moniker Final Fantasy and his third, Heartland , is out on 18 January under his own name. Why the name change? The lawyer for Square Enix [which releases the Final Fantasy computer games] was a bit concerned. But it was a perfect time to have a change. From now on, it might be time to make my songs a bit more autobiographical. But isn't Heartland a concept album? Yes… no… I can't really define it as such. It's a romance. It's told from the perspective of a fictional character who I'm in love with – a heterosexual farmer who rides horses across fields. He becomes aware of my presence; that I'm devoting all this time to presenting his story. And though he's flattered by it, he goes a little crazy. So he climbs up a mountain and disembowels me… and that's the end of the album! When you worked with Arcade Fire on Funeral did you realise what an impact it would have? Yes. When I went into the studio and was confronted by how brilliant it was, I gave a little speech and said: "I hope you guys know that you're going to be as big as... " and I couldn't think of who to say because I didn't want to name some really awful mainstream band. Producers now get a lot of recognition but composers like you and Nico Muhly are making arrangers the new stars in pop. We're in a time where it's important to be sonically adventurous and there's an incredible sonic palette that is available to arrangers – it's kind of how we work. Thinking about the halo that different sonorities can create, as Nico puts it, that's something that a lot of producers and musicians feel attracted to.