I was born in 1974 and you’ve heard me talk about my Love of 80s music before. And why not? The 80s, in my humble opinion, was simply the greatest decade in American culture as far as the amount and quality of music created.
That’s why I’m excited to bring you this exceptionally fun and inspiring conversation with Jim Daneker.
Jim is an award-winning and Billboard-charting composer and producer who specializes in the bold, evocative, and memorable.
In addition to 27 years as keyboardist, musical director, and producer for CCM icon Michael W. Smith, Jim has enjoyed a diverse musical career. He has produced albums, created a virtual instrument series called Backstage Pass, and arranged and written music for film. His film music work includes trailers for Hollywood blockbusters such as The Fast and The Furious Franchise, Transformers 2, The Chronicles of Narnia, and several Disney projects.
After two decades of serving other artists, Jim took two years to pursue his dream of scoring a cinematic instrumental album, called AD ALTA, which was released in 2017. In 2018, Jim produced another Billboard #1 album, this time for quadruple #1 artist Paul Cardall—an album that had the unprecedented distinction of debuting on nine charts simultaneously and won a Dove Award for Instrumental Album of the Year.
In February 2023, Jim announced his Retirement from touring and the launch of a lifetime dream project called Arcade Orchestra, which reimagines the biggest hits of the 80s in an epic live show.
In this conversation, we dive into all things Arcade Orchestra. He shares his vision for AO, why the 80s were such an incredible decade for music and movies, what is was like to transition away from a steady music gig into building his own thing, and much more.
In addition to being a very fun conversation about all things 80s, this is going to especially inspire you if you have been focusing exclusively on client work and have been dreaming of putting yourself out there in the spotlight more.
I should note that Jim was very kind in opening up his home, near Nashville, to me for an in-person interview! It was so much fun to see his studio setup.
To find out more about Jim and Arcade Orchestra, make sure to visit https://jimdaneker.com and https://arcadeorchestra.com.
