Everything Works Out For Owen Pallett

There's a line in the epic song "Oh Heartland, Up Yours!" from Owen Pallett's radiant new album, Heartland, which reads "If I only had a rowboat/I would row it up to heaven/But if heaven will not have me, I will take the other options/I will seek out my own satisfaction."

Most Pallett fans would probably agree that if this guy doesn't get into heaven, there probably isn't a God. Yet for his third full-length album, the singer/songwriter/composer/arranger/producer is certainly seeking out his own satisfaction. He created Heartland on his own watch, and we're all lucky for it.

"In my mind I really wanted to have [Heartland] done last year," Pallett said over the phone from a surprise party he was attending for a friend in Toronto. "Domino [Records] were talking that if we wanted it out last year then they would have needed the master in May. So we worked to try and get it ready and finished and we didn't.

"I even had a moment where I didn't even know who to talk to about this. It's such a crazy thing because I was going through a lot psychologically with the whole process, so I called [Arcade Fire's] Win Butler and I was just like, 'Win, what should I do?' He told me 'Dude, just make your record. Take all the time you need to make this record and forget about your timeline.'"

Pallett, who until a short time ago went by the stage name Final Fantasy, didn't need to cancel his tours (of which included his run with The Mountain Goats last year) or any other projects after all (he also confirmed he's not currently working on the new Arcade Fire album, the last he heard of theirs was demos from over a year ago).

In fact, after speaking with the articulate orchestral man-of-the-hour, one quickly realizes if Pallett dreams it, it will come. It's as simple as that.

"I went to a party for The Bedroom Community, which is a label who puts out Ben Frost, Sam Amidon and Nico Muhly — very close friends of mine — and this party was at The Greenhouse Studios [in Iceland]," Pallett explained.

"So I tiptoed into the studio and me and Patrick — my boyfriend — were walking around in there and I was just thinking about how beautiful it was and Patrick said, 'You should record here, you should just do it.' And so I talked to the guys about it and we did it."

Free advice from Arcade Fire? Check. Setting his own timeline? Check. Recording in an Icelandic dream studio where Bjork recorded Medulla? Check. Getting the Czech Philharmonic to bulk up the album's orchestral arrangements? Easy!

"Getting them to play on your album is easier than you'd think," he said. "They're an orchestra that's geared towards doing film soundtracks. In fact, when we were in the studio, there were all these photos of David Lynch because he had done Mullholland Drive with the same group.

"I wanted them specifically because Mark Ronson was recording with them for the Rumble Strips music I was arranging, and so when he was telling me, 'We're gonna go to Prague and we're gonna do the arrangements there,' it just made sense to book them for the Final Fantasy session when I was there, too."

These are but a few of the fantastical happenings that came together to create the nerdy-musical-dreamscape called Heartland and of course, Pallett is overjoyed with the way things turned out.

"I think my record is awesome. I'm happy that it went the way it went," he says.

Owen Pallett tour dates:

Jan. 18 New York, NY @ The Bowery Ballroom
Jan. 22 Hamburg, Germany @ Ubel Und Gefahrlich (Spex Live Festival)
Jan. 24 Paris, France @ La Maroquinerie
Jan. 25 London, England @ Union Chapel
Feb. 6 Guelph, ON @ Sleeman Centre (Hillside Inside)
Feb. 9 Fredericton, NB @ McCain Hall Theatre
Feb. 10 Halifax, NS @ St. Matthew's United Church
Feb. 12 St. John's, NL @ Cochrane Street United Church
Feb. 17 Kingston, ON @ Sydenham United Church
Feb. 18-19 Wakefield, QC @ The Blacksheep Inn
Feb. 20 Montreal, QC @ Theatre Outremont
Feb. 21 Quebec City, QC @ Le Cercle
Feb. 25 London, ON @ Aeolian Hall
Feb. 26 Brantford, ON @ The Ford Plant
Feb. 27 Hamilton, ON @ Lincoln Alexander Centre
April 8 Toronto, ON @ Queen Elizabeth Theatre
May 9 Victoria, BC @ Alix Goolden Hall
May 10 Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theatre