Michael James was co-writer of Strings Of Life with Derrick May. James was a friend of May and lived close by. He dropped in for a visit at May's house and sat down to play a piano piece he had been working on. This piece went into Derrick's sequencer and was kept there until Derrick decided to listen to it all the way through. He found some portions which interested him, and he started to work with it, adding beats and strings. The rest is Detroit history.