| Liam Lynch | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | William Patrick Niederst |
| Born | September 5, 1970 Akron, Ohio, USA |
| Genres | Hard Rock, Punk Rock, Comedy Rock |
| Occupations | Director, Musician, Songwriter, Puppeteer, Writer |
| Instruments | Vocals, Guitar |
| Labels | Global Warming Records, 111 Productions Inc |
| Associated acts | Tenacious D, Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, Foo Fighters |
| Website | Official Liam Lynch website |
William Patrick Niederst, best known as Liam Lynch, is a musician, puppeteer, writer and director. He co-created, co-wrote, played the music for, directed, and produced MTV's Sifl and Olly Show.
Lynch also made the album Fake Songs, released in 2003, produced by his own company, 111 Productions. This album featured the song "United States of Whatever", which charted in the Top 10 in the United Kingdom,[1] and Australia.
Lynch also directs music videos. He has worked with Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, Spinnerette, and No Doubt. In 2003 he directed the UK music video for the Foo Fighters single "Times Like These", although it was rarely played in the United States.
He directed the 2006 film Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny after working with Tenacious D in 2002, when he directed the video to the song "Tribute", their most popular hit. He also directed several short films that played as part of their live show, as well as a documentary called On The Road with Tenacious D which was a featured part of their DVD collection, The Complete Masterworks. He directed Sarah Silverman's movie, Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic as well as a music video for Silverman called "Give the Jew Girl Toys". He wrote the original music used in the MTV animated series Clone High and co-wrote a song in the feature film, School of Rock. Lynch has an ongoing podcast available through his website that contains skits, videos he has created, and answering viewer mail.
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Lynch was born William Patrick Niederst in Akron, Ohio, When he was three years old, he received a toy tape recorder, which he used to make his own shows. Aged 9, his family moved to Hudson, Ohio, a 'small town' where he rebelled against his confining surroundings. He learned to play his first guitar and write stories. He met his best friend and, later, creative partner, Matt Crocco, who had moved to Hudson from New York. In the fifth grade, Lynch was enrolled in a new "gifted" student program, where three days a week he left school to meet scientists, work at a TV studio, take poetry classes and visit art museums. He was also diagnosed with colorblindness, dyslexia, attention deficit disorder and sequential order deficiency.[2] This led him to describe himself later in life as a "watered-down idiot savant".
After graduating from Hudson High School, Lynch went to Kent State University. Matt Crocco followed him. "People were freakier than myself" at Kent, Lynch explained. He took classes in writing, African history, glassblowing and sculpture. He had his poetry published in a book, lectured at meetings to psychiatrists and teachers of artistic learning-disabled students. He collaborated with the Dean of Education to allow artistic students, with low grades in other subjects, to prove themselves academically in the areas where they excelled rather than being held back. While at Kent, Lynch's parents moved to Louisville, Kentucky. Lynch eventually moved to Nashville, Tennessee after meeting composer Phil Copeland, got into studios, and learned about creativity with deadlines. He transferred to Belmont University in Nashville, but left Belmont after only three days of classes.
He continued to play music, this time as the frontman in a band Owen's Ashes. The music was theatrical and complicated. He acquired studio time and arranged meetings all over Nashville's Music Row for his new band. While at 12th & Porter, Liam was introduced to Brian Hardin, who would record many demos with Owen’s Ashes at 16th Ave Sound, Quad Studios and Sound Barrier.
A friend found a story in Rolling Stone magazine that Sir Paul McCartney was going to open a unique performing arts school, LIPA (Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts), and gave Lynch information on how to apply. Lynch, then 23, was one of 40 musicians chosen from around the world.
During this time, he created the concept of what was to become the Sifl and Olly Show. Lynch wanted to make something using the recordings he and Matt Crocco did a few years ago as a Christmas present for Matt. He originally wanted to do stop-action photography, but Lynch didn't have the money or the equipment for it. It was 3 A.M. and the only materials he could find were socks. He once said, "It could have easily been buckets." Making puppets out of his socks and borrowing a video camera from a friend, Sifl & Olly was born. Lynch sent a few tapes to MTV Europe in 1996, leaving them to become "idents," or short buffer clips played in between videos. A year later, these "idents" were half-hour shows. In 1997, he returned from Liverpool to Nashville to work on the Sifl and Olly Show pilot, briefly returning to Liverpool to finish his studies. MTV in America began airing Sifl & Olly in July 1998, but the show only lasted two seasons. A third season was released as a DVD available through the Sifl & Olly website.
The song "United States of Whatever" was featured during Season 1 in an episode of MTV's Sifl & Olly. When the Sifl & Olly Show was canceled, Lynch put the song on a sampler CD. "United States of Whatever" topped the British charts. Lynch promptly licensed the song November 18, 2002 as a single in the UK on the Global Warming label. It was released on a three-track CD single. The song was used in a commercial for Tony Hawk's Underground. Tony Hawk had made a guest appearance on the third season of Sifl & Olly.
Between the first and second seasons of the Sifl & Olly Show Liam recorded a solo album, Fake Songs. Lynch released the Fake Songs CD on EMI in the USA on April 9, 2003 (and in the UK two months later). The Fake Movies DVD that comes with the Fake Songs CD contains puppetry, computer animated shorts, skits, music videos, home movies and behind-the-scenes footage.
While working on the album Lynch directed a music video for the Foo Fighters (UK version of "Times Like These"), worked on DVDs for No Doubt, Tenacious D, and Eagles of Death Metal, Sarah Silverman, Queens of the Stone Age and finished composing music for the MTV animated series, Clone High. Lynch also co-wrote music for the Jack Black film School of Rock. He released several of his albums, "We're All-Nighters", How to Be a Satellite in 2006. He released his album Get Up On The Raft in 2008. He also has released two volumes of songs from his podcast Lynchland. Lynch collaborated on and directed Sarah Silverman's film Sarah Silverman: Jesus is Magic and also co-wrote and produced the soundtrack. The movie he directed — and for whose album of the same name he helped write and played guitar, Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, debuted in late 2006. In 2009, he directed a music video for the song Craigslist by "Weird Al" Yankovic.
Liam is also credited for the graphics and artwork on Them Crooked Vultures debut self-titled release.
Lynch has a podcast, LynchLand, which features video animations, songs from his albums, and guests. He also features his cats and other animals around his home. His video podcast has over 90,000 viewers. Lynch sells t-shirts, albums and other items on his website to offset the costs of the podcast.
Alex Albrecht, formerly of TechTV's The Screen Savers and current co-host of the Revision3 podcasts, Diggnation and The Totally Rad Show, made a cameo appearance in a musical number on an early podcast, #6. Albrecht is a personal friend of Lynch's. Friend Dhani Harrison, son of former Beatle George Harrison, made an appearance in episode #3 of LynchLand. Also making appearances on the podcast are Ringo Starr, Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, Sarah Silverman, Jack Black, Tony Hawk, Tim Robbins, Shirley Manson of Garbage, and "Weird Al" Yankovic.