Jim played keyboards with Peterborough band The Pleasure Heads before getting his first studio job at Spaceward Studios near Cambridge, in 1986. It was here that he trained under maverick engineer & producer of the first two Oasis albums Owen Morris. He became an assistant engineer at Power Plant studios, London in 1988, & witnessed first-hand the acid house movement through countless remix sessions. 

In 1990 while working at Powerhouse Studios Jim met Grammy Award winning producer Nellee Hooper & worked as engineer on albums by Björk (Debut), Massive Attack (Protection) as well as the Romeo + Juliet soundtrack. This led to future collaborations with James Lavelle & DJ Shadow including the critically acclaimed Psyence Fiction album by U.N.K.L.E. 

Mixing tracks for Kasabian in 2003 led to Jim co-producing their first two albums which subsequently went on to sell over 2 million copies. These records gave Jim the first of his three nominations for "producer of the year" at the Music Week/MPG awards. 

After a long & fruitful relationship with Domino Records, they approached Jim to produce the debut album by Arctic Monkeys in 2006, which then became the fastest selling debut album in British music history. 

Whilst producing English singer-songwriter Jack Peñate for XL Records, Jim met singer Adele. He was immediately blown away by her voice & produced her debut album 19 as well as producing two songs on her phenomenally successful follow-up 21, winning a Grammy Award for Album of The Year.