Name: Liam Paris Howlett Member of: The Prodigy Role in the band: Songwriter, producer, re-mixer Otherwise: DJ |
Liam Paris Howlett was born on August 21, 1971 in Essex, England. At the
age of 13 his father made him take piano lessons, which Liam actually didn't
want to. He first got interested in the hip-hop music during high school, which was new during that time, and after leaving school he became the second DJ of a rap/hip-hop act called Cut 2 Kill. After some time he was kicked out of the band and then discovered the rave scene. He started to DJ at rave parties and became a well-known DJ in Essex. During one of these parties he met Keith Flint, a raver who had heard some of the songs Liam had written. Together with Keith and his friends Leeroy and Sharky they started a rave act, The Prodigy, Liam at the keyboards and the other three dancing. MC Maxim Reality joined the band too, since Liam wanted a stage MC for the shows. |
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Sharky left the band when they got a record deal with XL Recordings, and
the band continued as a four-piece band. Liam's music was inspired both
of the rave music and the hip-hop music, making the songs have hip-hop inspired
beats and both "happy" and dark melodies. Another common thing
on the songs where the lyrics, all sampled from different songs. The first
three years of the band Liam wrote more "ravey" songs, including
the chart success "Charly", but during 1993 he changed the style
of his music because he was bored of writing songs sounding all alike. The
songs on the band's second album, "Music for the Jilted Generation",
were written in a different way, mostly during night. Liam mixed different
genres when writing the songs, progressing the sound even higher than before.
This included using guitars on some songs. Their most successfull single from that album was "No Good (Start the Dance)", which got a massive airplay. There were also vocals by Maxim on the album. |
The songs on the bands third album, "The Fat of the Land", are
also a bit different, now having vocals by both Maxim and Keith Flint, writing
their own lyrics, instead of just sampling lyrics from other songs, which
Liam still does. At the end of 1998 the band took a break. In October the same year, Liam was asked by Mary-Ann, presenter of the Breezeblock Radio Show, to do a hip-hop/big beats-style DJ mix. Liam did one and it was played on the show in November. The result proved how much Liam loved hip-hop and breakbeat music. After the mix had been played, Liam wanted to release it as an album. During the production of the album, being called "The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume 1", Liam had to replace some songs because of copyright stuff. |
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Liam is still with girlfriend Angela, who he has been going out with since the Prodigy's early days. He moved to an expensive converted farmhouse in 1997, together with Keith Flint, mostly to escape from people wanting to see him. But he might be moving, because of all the noise of making a swimming pool, which Keith wants. |