Jesse was immersed in music at a young age, memorizing every lyric and melody in his VHS collection of Disney Sing-A-Longs. At the age of 10, Jesse picked up the guitar and never looked back. He formed his own band and began gigging, all the while still in middle school. Jesse found his love for recording at 15 when his mom gave him a multi-track cassette recorder, and he began to demo his ideas. At age 19, he joined a touring rock band, Travisty Theory, and shared the stage with acts such as Sevendust, Lifehouse, Hoobastank, and Cypress Hill. This experience fueled the fire for recording again, and soon after, Jesse and his father built a studio in Atlanta, where he produced local bands and began self-producing his own records, releasing them under the moniker Like Clockwork.

JOA landed his first major label gig at age 23, engineering for the production team Matt Mahaffey & Jeff Turzo, two of his personal musical heroes. Jesse then took on a studio management and house engineering gig for songwriters Scott Cutler & Anne Preven and eventually joined their publishing company, Pulse, as a staff writer for 3.5 years. During this time, Jesse co-wrote with Bonnie McKee, Demi Lovato, Katharine McPhee, Ollie Goldstein, and Paloma Faith, just to name a few.

In addition to producing and writing for several major label and indie artists over a span of ten years, JOA has released three full-length albums, three EPs, and a handful of singles as Like Clockwork.