Jamie Christopherson is a rising star in the world of musical composition, easily navigating the waters between film and video game scoring. His latest masterpiece is Lost Planet: Extreme Condition, of which we're pleased to present our readers with five exclusive tracks from the game.

Jamie has created music for such titles as The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle-Earth I & II, and Onimusha: Dawn of Dreams, as well as many scores for both film and television, including the forthcoming Ghost Image, as well as past efforts like S.S. Doomtrooper, The Crow: Wicked Prayer, Phantom Force and numerous others.

Can you offer up a little biographical information about your past? Where do you come from, where do you live?

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, where I was fortunate enough to be exposed to the film and TV music scene at a pretty early age. Growing up in LA, I was surrounded by the entertainment business (and music). Three doors down from me lived David Schwartz (Deadwood, Arrested Development) who was composing the music for Northern Exposure at the time. I would just walk down there after school and be a fly on the wall. I started out studying and playing mostly jazz music. For my formal theory and classical music training I went to a small liberal arts college in New York called Vassar. That gave me a solid background, but I felt that I needed more experience in the technical and creative side of writing music specifically for film and other forms of media. For that I spent a few years getting my masters degree in film scoring at the University of Miami. After that great experience I felt ready to move back to LA and dive into my music career.

What motivated you to get into sound design/composing?

Ever since I could start playing the piano, I began coming up with little tunes that would conjure up visual images in my head. When I fully discovered film music and the power that it had, I was hooked! I remember setting up my little Casio keyboard in front of the TV, popping in a VHS and muting the audio. I would then hit play on the VHS and play in real time to the visuals that I saw. I’d do that over and over again for a scene until I could play it perfectly for people.

Was composing your ultimate goal, or do you also enjoy doing sound work for film/games?

Composing has always been my ultimate goal. Right after moving back to LA I took a job as a sound designer for film work. While I don’t do much sound design anymore, the experiences I gained doing sound for film have really helped out my music. For one, I know how to think like a sound designer and know what they might try and do for certain scene of the film or level of the game. I try to write my music accordingly around that thought so that it can co-exist in the same sonic space. Also, I started off in games by doing “music sound design” work for several composers in town like Bill Brown and Mikael Sandgren. Now there are projects when I still like to incorporate some design work in my music for new sonorities.