J.A. Steel's interest in music began at an early age when poetry turned into songwriting. As with most children in grade school, J.A.'s parents insisted she learn an instrument. Clarinet was the instrument of choice for 7 years, but that all changed during a family reunion. Steel's family had strong roots in a bluegrass heritage and J.A. picked up her aunt's banjo. The clarinet was traded in for a banjo and Steel would often join her guitar playing mother, Diana, as she entertained local church groups. Steel did manage to pick up enough guitar and at the age of 14 began writing music and the lyrics for the soundtracks for the feature film screenplays she was writing.
A screenwriting scholarship to the University of Southern California's Filmic Writing program changed her life forever as she left her small-town Pennsylvania roots for life in the big city. A chance encounter on the USC campus with hard rock heavy metal band "St. Elmo's Fire" led to her foray into rock promotion - helping the band promote a rock show at the world famous "Whisky A-Go-Go" shortly after her 18th birthday. Steel then worked with "St. Elmo's Fire" guitarist Jeff Jones to produce for songs for a USC Graduate thesis project. Steel would get a taste of combining her two loves - music and movies and would never look back.
In 1995 Steel negotiated the first ever recording contract between an American Artist, Sasha Alexeev and Taiwanese Record Label, Rock Records. Steel helped produce the "Wintertales" album which was recorded with the Shanghai Symphony. In 2000 Steel began working with Emily O'Neary and co-wrote songs for "The Third Society" and "Salvation". 2007 Steel worked with Zakky Nova on the "Salvation" and "Denizen" soundtracks. In Steel's latest film, "Blood Fare" she works with Caleb Gray on a large portion of the soundtrack.
A screenwriting scholarship to the University of Southern California's Filmic Writing program changed her life forever as she left her small-town Pennsylvania roots for life in the big city. A chance encounter on the USC campus with hard rock heavy metal band "St. Elmo's Fire" led to her foray into rock promotion - helping the band promote a rock show at the world famous "Whisky A-Go-Go" shortly after her 18th birthday. Steel then worked with "St. Elmo's Fire" guitarist Jeff Jones to produce for songs for a USC Graduate thesis project. Steel would get a taste of combining her two loves - music and movies and would never look back.
In 1995 Steel negotiated the first ever recording contract between an American Artist, Sasha Alexeev and Taiwanese Record Label, Rock Records. Steel helped produce the "Wintertales" album which was recorded with the Shanghai Symphony. In 2000 Steel began working with Emily O'Neary and co-wrote songs for "The Third Society" and "Salvation". 2007 Steel worked with Zakky Nova on the "Salvation" and "Denizen" soundtracks. In Steel's latest film, "Blood Fare" she works with Caleb Gray on a large portion of the soundtrack.
