Liam O'Neil (musician)
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Liam O'Neil (born September 18, 1980) is a
Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...
musician and music producer, best known as the
keyboardist A keyboardist or keyboard player is a musician who plays keyboard instruments. Until the early 1960s musicians who played keyboards were generally classified as either pianists or organists. Since the mid-1960s, a plethora of new musical instru ...
and
percussionist A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Ex ...
for
Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
-based band
the Stills The Stills were a Canadian rock band from Montreal, Quebec, formed in 2000 and disbanded in 2011. History The band's original lineup consisted of lead vocalist and guitarist Tim Fletcher, guitarist Gregory Paquet, bassist Olivier Corbeil and dru ...
. He met the group's primary songwriter,
Dave Hamelin David Charles Hamelin (born October 3, 1980) is a Canadian musician, songwriter and Grammy Award-winning producer known for his work with indie rock band the Stills. Originally the band's drummer, he moved to guitar and co-lead vocalist in 2005 ...
, at school through a mutual friend. In 1996, the pair formed a
ska Ska (; , ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. It combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues. Ska is characterized by a w ...
band, in which O'Neil played saxophone. He later spent 18 months away from Montreal while he played in a
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
trio on a cruise ship, but he stayed in contact with the members of the Stills. After initially touring with the band, he became a full-time member when his bandmates heard him play a half-hour piano solo in a hotel bar. His first album with the band was ''
Without Feathers ''Without Feathers'' is a 1975 collection of humorous essays and two one-act plays, ''Death'' and ''God'', by Woody Allen. It is one of Allen's best-known books, spending four months on the ''New York Times'' Best Seller List. Title meaning The ...
''. A talented multi-instrumentalist, he played
piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...
,
organ Organ and organs may refer to: Biology * Organ (biology), a group of tissues organized to serve a common function * Organ system, a collection of organs that function together to carry out specific functions within the body. Musical instruments ...
,
saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to p ...
and
tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, thoug ...
on the record, as well as providing
backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are us ...
on a number of tracks. O'Neil contributed synth, piano, organ, and baritone and tenor sax to various tracks on
Kings of Leon Kings of Leon is an American Rock music, rock band formed in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, in 1999. The band includes brothers Caleb, Nathan, and Jared Followill and their cousin Matthew Followill. The band's early music was a blend of Southern roc ...
's 2010 album ''
Come Around Sundown ''Come Around Sundown'' is the fifth studio album by American rock band Kings of Leon, released in Ireland, Australia and Germany on October 15, 2010, followed by releases in the United Kingdom on October 18 and North America on October 19. Lead ...
''. He also collaborated with the band on their 2016 album W.A.L.L.S. O’Neil is currently a touring member of Kings of Leon. He is also involved with
hip hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hip- ...
act Da Gryptions, featuring members of
Stars A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by self-gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night; their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of ...
and
Young Galaxy Young Galaxy is a Canadian indie pop/dream pop band formed in 2005 in Vancouver, whose members are husband and wife, Stephen Ramsay and Catherine McCandless. History Young Galaxy formed in Vancouver as a duo including Stephen Ramsay and Catheri ...
.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Oneil, Liam 1980 births Living people Anglophone Quebec people Canadian indie rock musicians Musicians from Montreal Tambourine players 21st-century Canadian drummers The Stills members