Liam Howlett

Liam Howlett

Liam Paris Howlett (born August 21, 1971) is a DJ and core member of the British band The Prodigy.

Early life

Born and raised in Braintree, Essex, Howlett was trained in classical piano from childhood. At the age of 14, he mixed songs recorded from the radio using the pause button on his cassette player. It was the time he went to school at Alec Hunter Humanities College in Braintree when he first got influenced by hip-hop music and culture. He learned breakdancing alongside his crew called "The Pure City Breakers", and DJed in his first band Cut 2 Kill before starting to write his own music. He decided to leave Cut 2 Kill after an episode at a Hip/hop Jam, The Dj gave a shout out to the 'Chelmsford Massive' which were seen as outsiders from other crews at the Jam. Liams crew decided it was best to leave, during their exit they were held up at knife point, one of the members of Cut2Kill then pulled out a gun on the attacker but no shots were fired. Liam then felt he would never fit in with this scene anymore, and moved on.

Having had his fill with the prejudices and the vibes in the hip hop scene, Howlett gained interest in electronic music. He became connected to rave music when he went to his first rave in 1989, at the age of 18, which was held at "The Barn" in Essex. He became hooked immediately and from this point in time onwards he would spend his time recording and mixing rave tunes in his bedroom.

Howlett's first appearance in the mainstream came in an episode of Rapido, hosted by future Eurotrash presenter Antoine de Caunes. It showed Howlett mixing in his bedroom.

The Prodigy

Main article: The Prodigy

At weekends, he went to all the raves and when the clubs closed down in the early morning those ravers went on to party on the beach while Liam played a compilation of the latest rave tracks out of a van. One day, Keith Flint approached him and asked whether Liam could do some mixes for him. When Liam had done the mixes he would pait to Keith. One night, when Keith and Leeroy Thornhill were returning from a rave, they flipped Liam’s tape onto side B (which was titled "the prodigy" in reference to the moog synthesizer used) to find some of Liam's own tracks on it and got completely hooked. They decided to approach Liam and ask him if he wanted to play on stage with Keith and Leeroy dancing at the front of the stage. Liam agreed, and The Prodigy was born. The Prodigy name came from a synthesizer called a 'Moog Prodigy' which Liam used in his tracks. Howlett signed to leading UK rave label XL Recordings on the strength of several tracks played to XL bosses Nick Halkes and Tim Palmer, and in 1991 the debut Prodigy single was released.

Liam used to purchase records from a record shop owned by Tim Palmer, although Liam did not know this prior to the XL meeting. The shop was mainly mother. Liam and his friends would travel into London, where the shop was located, anstaffed by Tim d ask for the most underground of dance tracks, the ones only a dedicated specialist dance DJ would know of, simply to test Tim Palmer's mother. Time after time they would be amazed as she acknowledged the track and handed it over for them to listen to.

In 1998, Liam 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 presents Dirtchamber Sessions Volume 1.

In the end of January 2006, a compilation album titled Back to Mine: Liam Prodigy was released. It was a collection of Howlett's favorite tunes, including an exclusive Prodigy track called "Wake the Fuck Up", which is often performed as an intro in The Prodigy's live concerts.

Personal life

On June 6, 2002 Liam married a member of All Saints, Natalie Appleton. Their son, Ace Billy, was born on March 2 2004. In his spare time, Liam is also fond of snowboarding.

External links

• Interview at SuicideGirls.com Mar 25, 2006