Born 1961, Jim Anderson started beating on things at age 4. By age 17, Jim
was teaching private drum lessons at Fullerton Music while attending
Fullerton College, where he earned his AA in Music Education. In his early
twenties Jim took a break from school to tour Japan with Robert Palmer's
Band. In his mid twenties Jim moved to Amsterdam in the Netherlands, where
he toured Western Europe with a variety of musicians including Jan Ackerman,
Candy Dulfer and Jan Cooper.
At age 27, Jim returned to the states to do studio work with Grammy winning
producer Les Pierce and Holland Dozier Holland and start his first company
Percussive Innovations. PI manufacturers a full line of drum and cymbal
mutes, pads and accessories. In 1998 Jim met his wife Kristen, and two
years later had their only son Matt. At age 30 Jim returned to college to
pursue his other passion - psychology. He earned his BS in Human Services
and a Master's Degree in Counseling Psychotherapy. Jim is a licensed
Marriage & Family Therapist and has been in private practice in Orange
County for the past 15 years.
Jim's interest in inventing continued to grow and by age 39 Jim had
designed, patented and licensed percussion products to Zildjian Cymbals,
Remo Drumheads, Toca Percussion and Quiet Tone by Sabian. In 2003 Jim
invented VertDrums (VertDrums.com) and followed that with Factory Metal
Percussion in 2004, both to rave reviews at NAMM.
By 2007 Factory Metal had been nominated for the MIPA Award, featured in
Modern Drummer and Drum Magazine, and developed an Artist Endorser Roster
including greats such as Terry Bozzio, Keith Carlock, Vinnie Colaiuta, Omar
Hakim, Gary Novak, Giovanni Hidalgo and Horacio Hernandez to name only a
few. FMP has designed custom instruments for the Blue Man Group, 20th
Century Fox Movie Robots, Tommy Lee of Motley Crue, Rick Allen of Def
Lepard, Street Drum Corps and most recently the rock band KoRn.
In 2008 Jim sold Factory Metal Percussion to a local metal shop in SoCal. In
2009, Jim returned back to work as a License Marriage and Family Therapist.
In 2010 he started a unique Music Based Therapy Program at the Childhelp
Merv Griffin Village in Beaumont California – using drumming, songwriting,
recording and performance to help aid in the therapeutic process with
abused and neglected children.
Jim's future goals include continuing to utilize music and drumming in his work
as a therapist. He also plans to stay active designing innovative percussion
products, and developing new creative systems and approaches to drumming.
Jim continues to do outside product development, invention and consulting for
a number of drum and cymbal companies in the industry. For more information
on product design, or to reach Jim Anderson – please email him at:
Jim Anderson <jimdrumz@aol.com>
2011 Jim founded his new company: http://drumsandpercussion.com/
