Method of Composing:

Jerid finds that writing on-the-spot, the first time he watches the film is the most crucial and most influential time. It produces the best, most successful film ideas and more often than not, full scores. He says, “The second I start to watch the film, the music automatically plays in my head, fully orchestrated and complete. I don’t watch a film numerous times and struggle to find a theme, a key, a leitmotif or the orchestration. It comes naturally.” It’s because of this, Jerid offers the option of bringing a mini-recording studio in a rolling case to the client’s location, complete with a laptop and a MIDI keyboard. This enables Jerid and the client to immediately start spotting, writing, recording and fully orchestrating on location. In addition, he does full orchestration, producing, mixing and mastering in his studio. Jerid also states, “I always try to compose the music not only match the mood of the scene or the personality of the character, but also the genre of the film or scene. I do this with instrumentation as well as by altering the size of the orchestra. For instance, for a silent movie, I will match the instrument type used and the quantity of players possibly used. This gives authenticity to the film as well as the actions portrayed.”

  Jerid was born in Englewood, Ohio, a small town outside of Dayton. At the age of 9 yrs old, he found an old dilapidated snare drum in the trash while riding his bike down the street. He took it home, refurbished it, then proceeded to teach himself drums by listening to and playing along with his favorite bands such as TOTO, KISS and many others. His earliest influence was Peter Criss of KISS and the “KISS Alive I” album and Neil Peart, “Moving Pictures.” He attended Northmont High School, playing in numerous garage bands throughout the area. He proceeded to play drums for another few years until switching to bass guitar, then electric guitar. Following the same path, he learned to play various instruments by ear, listening and copying his favorite musicians from albums. Remaining with electric guitar, he learned hundreds of songs by his favorite players such as Randy Rhoades, Eddie Van Halen, George Lynch and Alex Lifeson, just to name a few. 

In 2010, Jerid decided to take a break from music and acquire a degree in Civil Engineering from San Diego State University. After graduating in 2014, he developed an Engineering and Architectural firm in San Diego. As CEO, he stayed for 11 years and, with the help of his wife, Elizabeth, developed the company into a medium-sized firm that is now run by Elizabeth Walters. In 2021, Jerid decided to get back into music full time. After picking up a guitar for the first time in decades, within 2 months he immediately wrote almost a dozen songs. Subsequently, he built a recording studio and began to record them. After recording only 3 songs, Jerid decided to attend Berklee College of Music to take a few classes on vocals and music production. After taking 6 classes, he decided to pursue a degree in “Music Composition for Film, TV and Games.” Graduating from Berklee in Summer 2025, Jerid will then be available for film scoring work. Jerid lives in San Diego, just south of Los Angeles and is looking forward to collaborating with some great people either in L.A. or other locations.