Liam Howe

Liam Coverdale Howe (born 29 September 1974) is an English record producer, musician and songwriter.

Line of Flight produced many of the acts on Clean-up records and contributed numerous remixes to the 1990s dance scene.

This exposure led to a deal with them to release an album, which was undertaken by their new and upcoming output teased as Sneaker Pimps.

Wanting a bigger audience, Howe and Corner began writing for a more song-based project.

Ian Pickering, a lifelong friend of Howe's, joined the writing team as a lyricist.

With an album of material written, singer Kelli Dayton (who had been introduced to Howe and Corner through Derek Birkett of One Little Indian) was invited to sing, and the band Sneaker Pimps was then formed.

The debut album, Becoming X, was recorded entirely in Howe's father's house in Elwick, a small village on the outskirts of Hartlepool.

Howe and Corner produced the record under the Line of Flight umbrella, with contributions from producers Jim Abbiss and Flood.

A further three albums were released after Becoming X; Splinter, Bloodsport and Squaring The Circle, along with a multitude of singles and EP's. Howe also played live keyboards with Sneaker Pimps on three out of their four albums, to date.

Having produced for other artists and making a return to Sneaker Pimps, this inspired Howe to make a reprisal to producing his own content under the name Ape Mink Press.

Ape Mink Press, otherwise known and cited as 'AMP' on releases, is a solo venture from Liam Howe.

It originally started as a secret entrance into the Sneaker Pimps comeback in 2021, in which they released their fourth solo album, Squaring The Circle.

The plan being, that sources would drop information or content through the Ape Mink Press name - which is actually a direct anagram of Sneaker Pimps, but this was slowly faded into silence, until several singles for the Squaring The Circle album were released and remixes from the then-mysterious AMP were teased and eventually made available.

Howe, who then made it clear from numerous online interviews and press notes for the remixes, that this was not only a secret alias from himself for producing music, but a full-fledged solo project.

He later hinted that not only would there be more remixes for the album, but there would be a whole new album of his own work, released under the AMP title, in 2022.

So far, there have been two Sneaker Pimps EPs with remixes provided by AMP and there will be a remix for every track on the Squaring The Circle album.

This isn't the first time that an alias has been used by Howe, as there was previously Line Of Flight, F.R.I.S.K., and the Zip with Ultrafox.

Through the success of Sneaker Pimps, Howe's writing and production skills gained international recognition with hits such as "6 Underground" and "Spin Spin Sugar", which led to collaborations with artists such as Marilyn Manson, Placebo, Echo & the Bunnymen, Natalie Imbruglia, Nerina Pallot, and Emilíana Torrini.

In 1992, after numerous indie attempts to create music, he formed the dance act F.R.I.S.K. with fellow Northerner and childhood friend Chris Corner, and released the white label The Soul of Indiscretion EP.

This was self-funded and a recorded number of 1,500 were pressed.

The act was subsequently signed to Clean-up records, a subsidiary of One Little Indian Records.

Whilst studying fine art at Reading University, Howe formed the production company Line of Flight with Corner and other art students Joe Wilson and David Westlake.

They released The World as a Cone EP under this title in 1994.

Since co-founding electronic music band Sneaker Pimps in 1996, he has been a producer for Lana Del Rey, Marina and the Diamonds, FKA Twigs, Ellie Goulding, and Tom Vek.

Howe and Wilson then formed the band Ultrafox in 2001, with the German twins Claudia and Connie Holzer.

Ice Skating was released on User Friendly Records and featured contributions from Sneaker Pimps' Chris Corner and Dave Westlake.

Howe, Corner and Pickering had written a fourth Sneaker Pimps album, but it remained unreleased.

Demos of it leaked circa 2005.

There were further demos leaked for a newly planned Sneaker Pimps album, but that was delayed until 2021.

Demos of this also leaked circa 2006.

Corner relocated to Berlin with the success of his solo project IAMX, whilst Howe stayed in the UK to further his writing/production career.

In 2008 and 2009, Howe worked extensively on Marina Diamandis' debut album The Family Jewels co-writing and/or producing the majority of tracks.

In 2010, Howe produced CocknBullKid's debut album Adulthood on Island Records, including the co-writes "Yellow" and "The Hoarder", with Hannah Robinson and "Mexico" with Gonzales.

Also in 2010, the track "Little Dreams" was released on the Ellie Goulding reissue Bright Lights.

The song was co-written and produced by Howe.

The album entered the UK charts on its week of release at No. 5. He also worked with Diamandis on her follow-up album, Electra Heart, in 2011.

The album entered the UK charts on its week of release at No. 1.

The pair reunited in 2013, with Howe contributing synthesizer and recorder parts to the fifth IAMX album The Unified Field.

Then, in 2021, Sneaker Pimps released their fourth album, Squaring The Circle.

Since Sneaker Pimps, Howe has written and produced for a whole host of respected artists including Lana Del Rey, Ellie Goulding, Marina Diamandis, Tom Vek, Jessie Ware, Mikky Ekko, Adele, FKA Twigs, Say Lou Lou and Paul Buchanan of The Blue Nile.