JAMES PERRY is an award-winning music composer from London whose work is played all over the world.
With ten years of music experience in the film and TV industry, his career serves as genuine motivation for anyone pursuing an area of vocation largely unheralded in the black community.
His most recent work is featured behind the scenes of BAFTA award-winning comedian Mo Gilligan’s latest documentary on Channel 4, The Black British Takeover.
Keen to share how his initial interest and subsequent ability have led him down this path, Perry told Lifestyle that it was a chance conversation that turned his head to the opportunities that presented themselves in the world he now finds himself .
“I started at university in 2011,” he mused. “I didn’t always tend to be drawn to film music but when I was in university I had a lecturer who happened to be a film composer, so I used to listen to what he was saying.
“My course didn’t actually involve film composition but I was so interested in it that I actually used to sit inside lectures of the film composition students even though I wasn’t getting credited for it. I had an interest and I was eager to learn.
“I used to go to the library and download films and listen to scores heavy and had a real interest from there and I think that has led me to this day.
“And having studied the music I remember growing up, one of my favourite movies was called Remember the Titans, with Denzel Washington, it’s an American Football movie and it was only after I studied music I realised that part of the reason why it is my favourite movie is because of how heavily involved the music is in terms of swaying the emotion in the movie.
“This was an area I wanted to pursue because there is not many people that look like me in this avenue so it would be a great route to take.”
Perry didn’t start playing the piano until he was 16-years-old. Initially only focused on playing live music as part of a band and potentially pursuing a career in music production, he says the change of lanes to music composition felt like a natural calling. He says delving into the art form saw him broadening his horizons in terms of what music, instruments and sounds he listened to and as his world expanded, so did his thirst to leave a mark on it.
Perry has worked in the US entertainment world since 2014, where he scored the online series All That Matters directed by Hollywood actresses and directors Meagan Good and Tamara Bass. He then went on to work with Good and Bass again in 2019, when he scored the feature film If Not Now, When? , which was featured at the American Black Film Festival in 2019 before being released on Amazon Prime Video in 2021.
In between, Perry also worked with writer/producer, Amy Aniobi on her film Honeymoon , which he received an award for ‘outstanding music’ at the Abuja International Film Festival.
“It’s definitely been a journey,” he said. “One of the first projects I did was with a production company called Fully Focused and they did documentaries for the Amy Winehouse Foundation, which were short films to show the importance of alcohol addiction and abuse, in order to raise awareness.
“Then one of the first films I did was with a friend called Josh Bridge, who is also a director and producer from the UK, and we had a sold-out premiere in Cineworld. That was in 2013. “In regards to a big break, I feel like that came back in 2014 but it’s only starting to show now.
“That was when I worked on an online web series with Meagan and Tamara. “How I actually went about that was through somebody tagging me on one of Meagan’s posts on Instagram because they were looking for music but they weren’t looking for a composer.
“At first I thought it wasn’t my kind of lane so I left it and then after a while I reached out to them and said if they were looking for a composer, I would be happy to do the music for them.
“They got back to me and said they loved me but they didn’t have the budget for it. At the time I just thought you know what, I don’t mind helping. “So we went with it and I did four out of the five episodes, they loved it and everything was cool and from there we have had a great relationship.
“I feel like that was the start of my career in terms of branching outside of the UK and sowing the seeds and I think even though sometimes people think big breaks are like blockbusting movies and stuff, I think that was a big break for me in terms of planting that seed to go on throughout my career.”
Perry is active in a wide range of musical mediums, be it film, TV, theatre, adverts, live performances, music production, podcasts, and games, He composed the current music titles for the BAFTA awardwinning TV talk show The Lateish Show with Mo Gilligan (Season 3).
On top of this, earlier this year Perry also scored the music for Gilligan’s latest Netflix stand-up There’s Mo To Life , which was released in more than 180 countries. More recently, Perry has continued to attract US clients, as he scored the TV One thriller feature film Stranger Next Door , directed by Victoria Rowell, starring Tim Reid, Vicky Jeudy and Skyh Black.
This premiered at the American Black Film Festival in June 2022, while also airing on TV One in July. For the aspiring music composer out there looking to emulate his journey, Perry enthused: “They definitely have to first start with the belief and the drive.” He added:
“Don’t be afraid to listen to different genres of music, go to networking events, meet people who are as hungry as you, meet people who are looking to do things quite similar around you.
“Go to concerts, be inspired. Reach out to people. A lot of the time I feel like people put people on high pedestals, like they aren’t able to be reached but I feel that, behind that person there is always someone else, an assistant for example, so how can you reach out to them? A conversation, an email. There are different paths you can go down.”
Looking forward, that hunger Perry speaks about is very much a part of his own blueprint. “For me, future success is evolving, continuing to do what I love and inspiring people through that.”
He added: “I think I’d love to work on a Marvel film, that would be great, especially as a black guy from south London, that would be a cool achievement.
“To work on something I have grown up on, seen it on TV and in the cinema, being amazed at everything, a Marvel film would be cool.
“I would also like to work with Tyler Perry at some point, that would be cool. I think his journey has been amazing. I’d love to know his story more as well, and also, we have the same surname, so that could play a part in making it happen.”
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