Singer and songwriter Liam Given, whose family split their time between Park City and Atlanta, Georgia, has busked at the Park Silly Sunday Market since 2021.
The young multi-instrumentalist has also performed at the Park City Song Summit, Miner’s Park, O’Shucks Bar & Grill,Park City Library, Summit County Fair and in Georgia at the ATL Hot Sauce Festival, Aisle 5, The Loft, Madlife and the Red Light Café.
He also enjoys riding dirt bikes and building his own guitars.
So it would shock many people to learn that Given is only 15.
“My dad has been really into music his whole life, so he drew me into classic rock ’n’ roll — AC/DC, Led Zeppelin and those bands,” he said. “Then he slowly pushed me into harder rock — Metallica — going into metal.”
Given ventured through his own death-metal and black-metal phase, but the past three years has settled into the indie-rock groove.
“That’s been really great,” he said. “It’s been more chill.”
Chill is something Given needs because this summer is turning into his “busiest by far.”
“This year is the first time I’m playing in a duo,” he said about his project with multi-instrumentalist and drummer Beckham White. “It’s called Far From It, and we’re getting ready to track a record and do a lot more headlining shows on a tour of Utah.”
The duo will record songs starting June 15 at Pale Horse Sound, a studio owned and run by Gregory Downs in Salt Lake City.
“Recording solo you can do whatever you want, and the nice part of that is if I want to sit there for two hours and mess with one part without worrying about anybody else,” Given said. “Working with another person in the studio and producer is a different kind of fun. You have not only help, but other inspirations and people to guide you and tell you something sounds bad.”
Given wrote all the music for the songs, and Beckham is currently writing out his drum parts.
“We’ll start preproduction and plan to track for six days, and the record should be out July 24,” Given said.
Once the recording sessions are done, Far From It will perform the following tour dates:
July
- 10 — Silver Lake Deer Valley
- 18 — Cyclops Records, Provo
- 26 — Kilby Court in Salt Lake City (album-release show)
August
- 15 — at Miners Park
- In addition, Given will play a solo show on Aug. 7 at the Summit County Fair.
Given met White, who is studying at the Berklee College of Music, four years ago.
“We connected through a music camp program and have been in touch on and off,” Given said. “Then this year, it was like, ‘Do you want to do some session work?’ and that transformed into starting this (duo) and recording a record. It’s been really fun.”
Given’s grandfathers inspired him to pick up the guitar.
“(They) played guitar, and I started pretty early with the ukulele,” he said. “But in 2020 or 2021 I started playing a real guitar.”
Given took some guitar and vocal lessons but self-taught himself on the bass and piano.
“I always go to the guitar because I like how versatile it is,” he said. “You can play most genres I listen to on it, and it’s nice to play what I like to listen to.”
Although Given’s first guitar was an Ibanez, which he still has, he started building his own shortly after learning to play.
The Partscaster is my main thing,” he said.
A Partscaster guitar is made from various parts and components, according to Given.
“It’s about finding any part you can and building something for way less money that will sound way better,” he said. “I saw some YouTube videos and thought I should try making my own.”
Given has built six guitars so far.
“I’ll source parts, and if everything goes right, it will take about a day,” he said. “If something goes wrong, then it will take a couple of days or a week.”
As far as creating songs, Given composes through his own filter.
“A lot of my inspiration comes from folk stuff, more modern folk artists like Gregory Alan Isokov and that kind of area,” he said. “I try to blend that with indie rock. I mostly write songs when I’m sitting down and finding the chords, the riffs and melody — anything that comes to my mind in the moment.”
The lyrics come later, and they are inspired by life’s experiences.
“Imagination really moves everything together, and my lyrics are pretty abstract,” he said.
Performing live is Given’s favorite aspect of being an independent musician.
“The energy of the crowd feeds into my energy, and it’s not even having people like your music. It’s just having your music, something you created, out there is pretty cool.”
Given remembers the first time he played at Park Silly in 2021.
“I had a little karaoke mic, and that has evolved a whole set up with amps and pedal boards,” he said, laughing. “(Executive Director) Kate McChesney has been super helpful and nice to me, and it’s been great to have that opportunity. And I’ve been doing some research with marketing and all that. I would love to make something out of this duo. Making something out of something solo would be great, but we’ll hopefully see the potential of this duo soon.”
For information about Liam Given, visit liamgiven.com.