Liam Paul Paris Howlett (born 21 August 1971) is an English

record producer A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...

, musician, songwriter, co-founder and leader of the British electronic

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

The Prodigy, and an occasional DJ.

Early years

Howlett was born in

Braintree, Essex Braintree is a town and former civil parish in Essex, England. The principal settlement of Braintree District, it is located northeast of Chelmsford and west of Colchester. According to the 2011 Census, the town had a population of 41,634, ...

, England. He was trained in classical

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keybo ...

(from childhood). At the age of 14, he mixed songs recorded from the

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

using the pause button on his cassette player. He was first influenced by hip hop music and culture when he began to attend school at Alec Hunter High School in Braintree. He learned

breakdancing Breakdancing, also called breaking or b-boying/b-girling, is an athletic style of street dance originating from the African American and Puerto Rican communities in the United States. While diverse in the amount of variation available in t ...

alongside his crew called The Pure City Breakers, and DJed in his first band Cut 2 Kill. After a fight at a gig in support of the band, Liam left Cut 2 Kill and started to write his own music. He went to his first rave in 1989.

Music career

The Prodigy

Howlett and dancer/vocalist

Keith Flint Keith Charles Flint (17 September 1969 – 4 March 2019) was an English singer and member as well as one of the vocalists of the electronic dance act The Prodigy. Starting out as a dancer, he became the vocalist of the group and performed on th ...

formed The Prodigy in 1990.

Other musical projects

In 1998, Howlett was offered the chance to do a mix for Mary Anne Hobbs' radio show. He dug out some of his old favourite tracks again and this prompted him to release an edited (due to some copyright issues) version of the mix in February 1999. It was the first material which was recorded in his new home studio "The Dirtchamber", so accordingly the album was to be called ''Prodigy present

The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One ''Prodigy Present: The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One'' is a 1999 solo mix album by Liam Howlett of The Prodigy (the latter used as a moniker in this case), initially produced for BBC Radio 1's mix show '' The Breezeblock''. There are more th ...

''. In 1990, Howlett composed music for the film '' The Uranus Experiment''. Described as an "anal space opera", the film featured the first sex scene shot in microgravity. In the end of January 2006, a compilation album titled ''

Back to Mine ''Back to Mine'' is a series of mix albums, usually mixed by DJs or composers of electronic music. The compilations usually feature artists other than the artist compiling the album, and are based on what the artist would play in their home aft ...

: Liam Prodigy'' was released. It was a collection of Howlett's favourite tunes, including an exclusive Prodigy track called "Wake the Fuck Up", which was often performed as an intro in The Prodigy's live concerts. Howlett was a co-producer on the track "Immunize" from Australian drum and bass act Pendulum's third album ''

Immersion Immersion may refer to: The arts * "Immersion", a 2012 story by Aliette de Bodard * ''Immersion'', a French comic book series by Léo Quievreux#Immersion, Léo Quievreux * Immersion (album), ''Immersion'' (album), the third album by Australian gro ...

'', which was released in 2010. In 2012, Howlett co-produced the first single "We Hate Everyone" from

K.Flay Kristine Meredith Flaherty (born June 30, 1985), better known as K.Flay, is an American singer, musician, songwriter, and rapper. Her debut album '' Life as a Dog'' was released in 2014, peaking on ''Billboard''s Heatseekers Albums chart at No. ...

's EP ''Eyes Shut''. He also produced the song ‘Stop, Focus’ from the same EP. On March 30 2022, it was announced that Howlett would compose the musical score for the

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fi ...

's movie Choose or Die

Personal life

Howlett has been married to Natalie Appleton of All Saints since 2002. They have a son, born 2 March 2004, and live in Hampstead,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Howlett once owned a

McLaren F1 The McLaren F1 is a sports car designed and manufactured by British automobile manufacturer McLaren Cars, and powered by the BMW S70/2 V12 engine. The original concept was conceived by Gordon Murray. Murray was able to convince Ron Dennis to ...

supercar A supercar – also called exotic car – is a loosely defined description of street-legal, high-performance sports cars. Since the 2010s, the term hypercar has come into use for the highest performing supercars. Supercars commonly serve as t ...

, chassis #23 of the 106 ever manufactured. He later sold it to former F1 team owner Paul Stewart.

References

External links

Interview at SuicideGirls.com on 25 March 2006
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howlett, Liam 1971 births Living people English keyboardists English record producers English electronic musicians English techno musicians Hardcore techno musicians Big beat musicians Remixers Club DJs The Prodigy members Ableton Live users People from Braintree, Essex Musicians from Essex Breakbeat hardcore musicians