From the quiet suburbs outside New York City, James spent most of his teenage years playing drums, bass and singing in various rock bands forming a love of performing and songwriting. With an education in audioengineering and growing interest in composing for media, he joined the music licensing industry in 2015 managing production-music libraries and composing for television.

Since moving to Los Angeles and managing numerous licensing libraries, James has acted as a music supervisor on shows such as Sherri Papini: Lies, Lies and More Lies and the re-release of Northern Exposure, Las Vegas and Homicide: Life on the Street. 

Alongside his music-licensing path he continued his passion for composing, cementing his sound around the grit and eeriness of electronic textures with the emotional power of orchestral instruments; his work can be heard on various true crime television shows like 20/20, Dateline, The Genetic Detective and On The Case with Paula Zahn.

Further focusing his craft on the dark, emotional and mysterious, James scored thrillers such as Chimera, channeling the film’s themes of addiction and withdrawal directly into the the score with harsh, distorting synths and the poignant pairing of strings and piano, earning him awards for Best Original Score and ongoing admiration for the soundtrack.

While continuing to compose James occasionally releases both soundtrack and standalone albums. the most recent being Phantom Circuit, an aggressively electronic project of futuristic cyberpunk flair with growling synths, explosive drums and distortion-bending sound design. Inspired by Cyberpunk 2077, Bladerunner and Devilman Crybaby, it features violinist Luca Hart and was received as “gorgeous cyberpunk sound with excellent atmosphere featuring organic textures.”

​

“Music is one of the most influential elements on the human psyche. It can make the hair on the back of your neck stand up in terror, it can bring you to tears or it can fill you with the comfort that everything is going to work out in the end.”