After graduating with a degree in music from Harvard University, Jim moved to LA in the late 1980s to pursue a career as a composer and songwriter. For the first five years in Los Angeles, he kept body and soul together as a recording engineer. Several hundred song demos later he landed his first TV scoring gig on Moon Over Miami, followed by Beverly Hills 90210 soon thereafter.
By the mid 1990s Jim started pursuing animation scores, since this arena was the last bastion of orchestral scoring in TV and he wanted to hone his film scoring skills while getting paid. Over the next seven years he scored over 450 episodes of TV including Bump In The Night, Jumanji, Extreme Ghostbusters, Men In Black, Godzilla, Jackie Chan Adventures, Starship Troopers, Heavy Gear, Max Steel, Dragontales, and Jojo's Circus. Ironically, many of these series feature scores that have more in common with The Matrix than with Loony Tunes. During this period Jim is proud to have mentored a group of young composers, a number of whom remain collaborators to this day.
Jim received ASCAP awards for Most Performed TV Themes in 1998 and 2002. In 2001 he was nominated along with Nathan Furst for an Annie Award for their score to Max Steel. In 2001 he was awarded a Daytime Emmy with the excellent sound guys at Advantage Audio for Men In Black the Series.
Over the past decade, Jim's work has grown to include films and more songwriting. His film scores include South of Heaven West of Hell with Dwight Yoakam, On Edge starring Jason Alexander, The Almost Guys starring Robert Culp and Play the Game starring Andy Griffith. Recently, Jim scored Extreme Movie for The Weinstein Company.
Jim produces and writes songs for feature films with a number of recording artists. This is great as he can wear his pajamas all day - a lifelong dream.
Despite many trips to the emergency room over the years, Jim still plays ice hockey with 20 year old whippersnappers three times a week, hence the name Slashing Music . He can't believe he gets paid to do what he loves.
