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William Patrick Niederst, better known as Liam Lynch, is an American filmmaker, singer, musician, songwriter, and puppeteer.

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William Patrick Niederst (born September 5, 1970), better known as Liam Lynch, is an American filmmaker, singer, musician, songwriter, and puppeteer. While studying at LIPA in Liverpool, United Kingdom, Lynch co-created, co-wrote, directed, scored, and produced the 1998 MTV comedy puppet series The Sifl and Olly Show.

Early lifeLynch was born William Patrick Niederst in Petersburg, Virginia, on September 5, 1970.
CareerWhen Lynch was 23, his friend read a story in Rolling Stone that Paul McCartney was going to open a unique performing arts school in Liverpool called the Liver…

William Patrick Niederst, better known as Liam Lynch, is an American filmmaker, singer, musician, songwriter, and puppeteer.

Early life

Lynch was born William Patrick Niederst in Petersburg, Virginia, on September 5, 1970. Before pursuing a career in the arts, he worked various jobs such as a restaurant dishwasher, a Blockbuster employee, a car washer, a box factory worker, a telemarketer, and a wax museum tour guide. He also tested artificial intelligence for Sony when they introduced their now-defunct AIBO robot dogs, and still owns the early prototype of the robot.

Career

When Lynch was 23, his friend read a story in Rolling Stone that Paul McCartney was going to open a unique performing arts school in Liverpool called the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) and gave Lynch information on how to apply. He was one of 40 musicians chosen to join LIPA from around the world. During his time in the United Kingdom, Lynch created the concept of what was to become The Sifl and Olly Show. He wanted to make something using the recordings he and Matt Crocco made a few years prior as a Christmas present for Crocco. He originally wanted to do stop motion photography, but didn't have the money or the equipment for it. When he made the first episode, it was 3 a.m. and he grabbed the only materials he had nearby, which were socks; he later said that "it could have easily been buckets". Making puppets out of his socks and borrowing a video camera from a friend, he created Sifl and Olly. He sent a few tapes to MTV Europe in 1996, leading them to become idents played in between music videos. A year later, the idents would become half-hour shows. In 1997, to work on The Sifl and Olly Show pilot, Lynch relocated back to the U.S. from Liverpool and settled in Nashville, Tennessee, though he briefly returned to Liverpool to finish his studies.

MTV began airing Sifl and Olly in the U.S. in July 1998, but the show only lasted two seasons. A third season was released as a DVD available through the Sifl and Olly website. Lynch's song "United States of Whatever" was featured during the first season of Sifl and Olly. When the show was canceled, he put the song on a sampler CD. It was used in a commercial for the 2003 video game Tony Hawk's Underground, with Tony Hawk having made a guest appearance on the third season of Sifl and Olly. The song was later featured on Lynch's 2003 album Fake Songs, produced by his own company 111 Productions, which led to the song peaking within the top ten of the charts in Australia and the United Kingdom. The song later gained a Guinness World Record for being the shortest song to peak within the top ten of the UK Singles Chart, clocking in at just 1 minute and 25 seconds. When he was asked to perform the song on Top of the Pops, Lynch was on tour with No Doubt to film them for a live DVD. Since he could not make the show, he promised to send a performance video in his place; the video, hastily shot and edited in one day, become the song's official music video.

While working on Fake Songs, Lynch directed a UK-only music video for the Foo Fighters song "Times Like These"; worked on DVDs for No Doubt, Tenacious D, and Eagles of Death Metal, Sarah Silverman, and Queens of the Stone Age; and finished composing music for the MTV animated series Clone High. He also co-wrote music for the Jack Black film School of Rock. He released several of his albums, including We're All-Nighters and How to Be a Satellite, in 2006. He released his album Get Up on the Raft in 2008. He also released two volumes of songs from his podcast Lynchland. He collaborated on and directed Sarah Silverman's film Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic, also co-writing and producing the soundtrack. He then directed Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny, released in late 2006, and helped to write and played guitar for the album of the same name. In 2007, he animated and voiced the character of Bulby, a wise-cracking light bulb created to promote the Queens of the Stone Age album Era Vulgaris.

Source: Liam Lynch (musician) (CC BY-SA)

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