Composer Bio
James Marlon Magas is a Chicago-based composer/producer/performer of moody soundtracks and frenetic one-man Electronic Rock & Roll performances. His original scores have been featured in Asia Argento’s 2014 film, Misunderstood, which premiered at Festival de Cannes in 2014 and Usama Alshaibi’s This Has Already Happened, which premiered at Pebbles Underground Film Festival in 2026.
Raised in the remote wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, self-taught DIY musician James Marlon Magas burst onto the early ‘90s Ann Arbor music scene with his noise/no wave/Dada-driven band Couch and accompanying vanity label, Bulb. Upon a mid-90s jettison to Chicago, Magas formed Lake Of Dracula, with monomaniacal polymath guitar-destroyer, Weasel Walter. After LOD called it quits, Magas briefly considered retirement from music until an impulsive Guitar Center purchase catapulted him onto dancefloors across North America and Europe, as mononymous electropunk MAGAS. Early tutelage and support from Detroit’s ADULT. helped accelerate the sudden metamorphasis, as well as unlocking an obsessive thirst for synthesizers and MIDI, which led growth of his studio, technique and sonic palette. His raw and unconventional sound have made him a sought-after collaborator, remixer and film composer for visionaries worldwide.
This Has Already Happened (dir. Usama Alshaibi, 2025) – Composer
Misunderstood (dir. Asia Argento, 2014) – Composer
Techno Diva (dir. Mare Costello, 2018) – Composer
James Marlon Magas 