Peter James has been playing keys for the past three decades . Over the last 15 years you ’ ve heard his involvement on over 45 Hillsong albums as a musician , songwriter , and sound designer . Peter is the creative mind behind soundscapes in songs like Oceans , King of Kings , and many more . We sat down with Peter to learn a bit more about what drives his passion , where his creativity comes from , and what he ’ s been focusing on lately .
[ WM ] You ' ve been a Hillsong mainstay for a long time . How did you get started in music , and what ultimately brought you to your involvement in Hillsong ?
[ Peter James ] My parents picked up that I was into music really early on and I started getting piano lessons at the age of five ! I still remember my parents recording my original compositions right from an early age . I grew up in the church and was always drawn
to worship , so at the age of twenty I moved from New Zealand to Australia to do Hillsong College . I got heavy involved as a volunteer doing whatever was needed to build the church and by just staying faithful and consistent doors started to open and I became more and more involved with Hillsong Church , Hillsong United and Hillsong Worship .
[ WM ] Whether people know it or not , they ' ve heard your sound design on countless albums . Can you tell us a little bit about how you approach creating sounds for songs ?
[ Peter ] Sound designing is interesting . I ’ m always exploring and trying new ideas and sounds but at the same time making sure that the sounds I ’ m creating emphasize the emotion , direction and theme of the song . I always tend to go for sounds that move me emotionally and emphasize the emotional direction and theme of the song rather than something that might just sound ‘ cool ’ if that makes sense . When workshopping a new song , I like to sit back , close my eyes and create ideas and parts in my head first before even playing a note on the piano / keyboard . I find that if I start playing too early on in the process I can fall into ‘ autopilot ’ mode which doesn ’ t always lead itself to freshness creatively .
[ WM ] Is there a specific song that comes to mind when you think of creatively coming up with keys parts ?
[ Peter ] For the song ‘ Oceans ’ I decided to choose a warm Prophet 5 style pad from Omnisphere that had a lot of warmth , slow attack and motion to it , which emphasized the Ocean / waves theme of the song . I also experimented with a reverse piano patch from Omnisphere and other interesting more out of the box sounds to add musical tonal interest to the song . Oceans is quite a long song , so