I’m James. 19 years old, from Perth, Western Australia.
Here’s me with Twix, one of our two dachshund / blue heeler puppies.
And here’s me in my coveted Envato 10th Anniversary T shirt 
I live up in the hills, about a half hour from the city pictured here.
Perth is known for its sweltering summers, yet last week we had some of the coolest temperatures in a long time! It’s usually 35C+ during this time of year, yet we had cold, rainy 16C days. It was great. Now this week we’re back to horribly hot weather. Yay.
Aside from music, I love animals, food, travel, camping, long walks, cycling and going to the beach.
My other interests include: game design, Seinfeld and other sitcoms, photography, graphic design (just a hobby - I’m terrible at it!), animation, curry, Turkish cuisine, Italian food and… just any good food. I like food.
Here are some pics of the beautiful bushland up here:
Music has been a big part of my life since I was 13, though my interest in composing music can be traced back to a school excursion in 2005 at age 8, where my class took part in a music composing workshop. We made little MIDI tracks using some sequencing software. At the time I had no idea what I was doing, but there was something amazing about being able to shape my own sound. I would’ve sat there for days on end, experimenting with different instruments, sounds and arrangements. We were only there a few hours, but something about that excursion sparked an interest in music.
Around 2010 at the age of 13, I got heavily into game design and programming. I’d sit there for hours working on my own 2D games, amazed at the potential things some lines of code and graphics could create. Another huge interest for me at the time was video game music. I would listen in awe at the soundtracks of my favourite games, Donkey Kong Country, Burnout, 007 Everything or Nothing, often playing them just for the music.
The moment I really got into music was when I began to experiment with some MIDI sequences of my favourite video game music in FL Studio. I used to love creating my own, re-imagined versions of them. At the time I was working on a little game project and I needed some music to go with each level, so I decided to try my hand at composing the music all myself. From that point onward, music production became a true passion in my life, accounting for 99% of my time spent on the computer. I then started learning guitar, bass and ukulele, which opened up a whole new world of music.
Fast forward to age 17, I started thinking about how I could make music a part of my career. I had always dreamed of one day working as a composer for video games, though that field was a very tough one to get into, and certainly for someone my age. Then I heard about a little thing called royalty-free music and my eyes lit up.
I started producing for AJ back in April 2015, after hearing about the site on a little blog called Day In The Life Of A Commercial Musician. I was instantly hooked on the concept of royalty-free music and the idea of being able to make money by composing. I made my first sale hours after my first track went up. Seeing that $9.00 in my balance was the most amazing feeling ever. Since then it’s been an epic rollercoaster of learning experiences, and a whole lot of fun. In the two years I have been here I’ve grown so much as a producer and have met some truly amazing fellow creatives along the way.
Envato has literally changed my life and for that I’m forever thankful. I’m humbled to be a part of the wonderful community here.
I’m truly grateful for where AJ has taken me, and super excited for what’s ahead in 2017.
And for the finale, here’s Twix again, and his brother Toby
