Liam Howlett

Liam Howlett
Liam Howlett in Germany, 2005
Background information
Birth name	Liam Paul Paris Howlett
Born	(1971-08-21) 21 August 1971 (age 45) Braintree, Essex, England
Genres	Big beat, EDM, alternative rock, alternative dance, electropunk, hardcore techno, breakbeat, breakbeat hardcore
Instruments	Synthesizers, keyboards, samples, turntables, programming
Years active	1990–present
Labels	XL Recordings
Associated acts	The Prodigy, Cut 2 Kill

Liam Paul Paris Howlett (born 21 August 1971) is a songwriter, record producer, co-founder and leader of the British electronic band The Prodigy, and an occasional DJ.

Howlett was born in Braintree, Essex, England.

He 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. 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 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 became connected to rave music and he reportedly went to his first rave in 1989.

Howlett and dancer/vocalist Keith Flint formed The Prodigy in the early 1990s.

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.

In the end of January 2006, a compilation album titled Back to Mine: 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 produced two Dirty Candy songs, "Nail Em" and "Advice" (which The Prodigy fans will recognize as being "Dead Ken Beats", an unreleased song played live several times). These were available on Dirty Candy Myspace account.