I’m on deadline at the paper right now but wanted to share this with you right away: A press release just received from For Great Justice Records, home of Final Fantasy Owen Pallett. I’ve thought changing the name would be a good idea for a long while, mainly because it makes his stuff so hard to find online (I realize the recent trend to neutral single-word-noun band names is partly about making yourself Google-slippery as an anti-commercial, anti-surveillance-age gesture, but as a guy with a Google-challenging name, I also know what a pain in the ass it can be). But it also sounds as though some legal pressure came to bear.
(Later): In related news, “Issa” (who plays Hugh’s Room this weekend) has decided to change her name back to Jane Siberry. What with Bill Callahan now performing as Bill Callahan and Lou Barlow as Lou Barlow, it seems like the day of the bandonym may be dimming (although of course there are still plenty of younger ones out there, such as St. Vincent and Wavves). Perhaps that’s a good thing? As Franklin Bruno wrote in a little rant in October on why he doesn’t use a bandonym, which I chose not to take as a personal rebuke of the Pop Conference paper I wrote on the subject a few years ago: “If you disdain me before you know anything about me because I’m not bearing the mark of cool, it is as well that I don’t know you, and that you don’t know my music. If you can’t figure out that an individual who records pseudonymously may be implicated in all manner of objectionable (or not) Romantic self-expression, and that one who does not may not admit of any direct equivalence between the ‘I’ of songs and the person who happens to be performing them, then, again, it is well that, etc. Also, good luck with fiction and poetry. Should one at this point exclaim ‘but the self is fragmented/decentered/illusory,’ I reply: Perhaps, but if so, then this is the case whether or not I fuck about with self-presentation. “Franklin Bruno” may well be held together with spittle and memories, but this is so, and is reflected (or not) in the work, quite independently of whether or not he goes to the trouble of rebranding himself Ziggy McPersona.” So there’s that.
Owen’s new album about the fictional world of Spectrum and the “young, ultra-violent farmer” who lives there comes out Jan. 12.
Friends,
I began playing solo violin shows in 2004. Although it was essentially a solo project, I named the band Final Fantasy, as the experience - and the tone of the material - was reminiscent of the hours and hours I had spent as an adolescent playing those epic JRPGs.
But the laws of trademark infringement exist for good reason, and so I am voluntarily retiring my band name. In the new year, my record Heartland is coming out, and it is my first to be released in many territories, including Japan. With this in mind, I feel it is in my own best interests to definitively distinguish my music from Square/Enix’s games.
So, I am no longer playing shows as Final Fantasy. Subsequent releases, including Heartland, will be issued under my own name, Owen Pallett. Prior releases will sometime soon be re-packaged and re-issued.
I thank Square/Enix for their kindness and support, and I thank you all for your understanding.
Salud!
Owen Pallett
There are plenty of one-man bands with band names still around. Check out black metal sometime - those guys have pseudonyms and band names (for example, the black metal band Xasthur is one dude, who goes by the pseudonym Malefic, and the band Striborg consists of one guy named Sin-Nanna).
Thanks. Just glanced through your post. did not have the time to browse the whole thing. I subscribed to your rss feeds and looking forward to more.