Sammy James, Jr. is a Grammy-winning music producer, composer, and founder of NYC garage rock band, The Mooney Suzuki.
Since the early 00’s, the group has released 5 full-length albums, toured extensively with acts like Kings of Leon and The Strokes, and taken festival stages worldwide from Coachella to Fuji Rock.
“Alive & Amplified”, the title track to the band’s Columbia Records debut, broke the UK Top 40, becoming an international hit and enjoying extensive licensing in ads, TV, film, and video games.
Many other Sammy-composed Mooney Suzuki songs have found placement in ads for companies like Nike, SAP Software and Suzuki, TV shows including Smallville, Friday Night Lights and Gossip Girl, and games like Madden, NHL, Burnout and Shaun White Snowboarding.
For Paramount Picture’s School of Rock, Sammy composed the title song performed by Jack Black and the kids in the film’s finale. It's actually Sammy performing the guitar heard when Jack plays in the scene.
Mooney Suzuki has contributed original songs and covers to a number of film soundtracks for Columbia Pictures, Disney, and DreamWorks’ #1 hit Tropic Thunder, in which Sammy also performs.
When not on the road with Mooney Suzuki, Sammy has kept busy in numerous side-projects, playing guitar in Native Korean Rock with Karen O of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, guesting on Strokes’ Albert Hammond, Jr.’s solo album, and collaborating with Dan The Automator of Gorillaz in Blues Explosion Russell Simins’ Men Without Pants.
In 2008, Sammy was enlisted by MTV for an episode of the Emmy award winning series Made, where he mentored an aspiring young rocker. (Click here to watch episode on MTV.com)
Most recently, Sammy has composed original music and lyrics for Ice Age: A Mammoth Christmas and The Vow, and in 2014 was awarded a Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album for his work with Cyndi Lauper on the Tony-winning Broadway show, Kinky Boots.