Skubiszewski was born in 1981 in Melbourne. After spending his early childhood in the Ottway Ranges rainforest, he moved to the Melbourne suburb of East St Kilda with his parents and sister ''. His musical education began early under the guidance of his father, acclaimed Polish-Australian film and TV composer Cezary Skubiszewski.
Career
Education and Early work: First Screen Music Award
After studying fine art at the Victorian College of the Arts, Skubiszewski worked as a sound engineer and producer at Sing Sing Studio, whilst simultaneously becoming a prolific writer and producer in his own right. In 1999 at the age of 18, Skubiszewski collaborated with his father Cezary to compose the award-winning score for Two Hands starring Heath Ledger, which won the APRA award for Best Film Score.
2000-2010: Gold Records, ARIA Award, Number #1 Records, Screen Music Awards, and AIR nominations
Throughout the 2000s Skubiszewski began to gain widespread recognition as a songwriter, producer and performing musician, securing awards and nominations at APRA, AIR and ARIA for songwriting and production work with Illy, Phrase, The Cat Empire and Daniel Merriweather, as well as his own band Jackson Jackson, a joint project with Harry James Angus that secured an ARIA nomination for Best Urban Album in 2007. In 2007, Skubiszewski worked with British producer Mark Ronson as an engineer on Ronson's album Stop Me, which reached number 2 in the UK singles charts. He also produced his first Gold Record for the Cat Empire. During this period, Skubiszewski continued to garner acclaim for film and television collaborations with Cezary, including film and television hits such as Bran Nue Dae, Hating Alison Ashley, Book of Revelation, Serangoon Road and Carla Cametti PD.
2011-2019: Multiple #1 Records and Gold Records, Screen Music Awards, ARIA Awards
Skubiszewski's status as one of Australia's top producers was consolidated by a stream of awards, nominations, #1 hits, gold records and critical acclaim throughout the 2010s. Some key milestones were:
In 2014 Skubiszewski co-wrote and produced the single 'On and On' on Cinematic with Illy, which was nominated for Best Urban Album at the ARIA awards and which garnered critical and commercial success upon release, debuting at number four on the Australian ARIA Albums Chart.
In 2016 'Rising With The Sun' by The Cat Empire, produced and recorded by Skubiszewski, debuted at #1 on the ARIA and AIR charts in Australia, staying in the AIR top 20 for 21 weeks.
In 2017, Skubiszewski's production on Dan Sultan's record Killer was recognised when the album was nominated for three ARIA awards and met with widespread critical acclaim, specifically for Skubiszewski's production, including four stars from Rolling Stone.
In 2018 Skubiszewski won the APRA 2018 Screen Music Awards for the score of Picnic at Hanging Rock
In 2018, John Butler's record 'Home', which Skubiszewski produced, debuted at number 1 on the Australian charts.
, was nominated for two ARIA awards in 2018 - a collaboration between Dan Sultan, Gang of Youths' David Le'aupepe, AB Original, Camp Cope and Meg Mac. It debuted at number 5 on the ARIA Albums Charts.
Nali and Friends, a children's record released by ABC Music by Dan Sultan which Skubiszewski produced, won the 2019 ARIA award for Best Children's record after it debuted at #1 on the kids charts, beating The Wiggles, and at #22 on the ARIA charts.
Skubiszewski lives in the Macedon Ranges with his wife Ilaria Walker and their two children. An advocate of Indigenous Australian music, Skubiszewski has worked with numerous celebrated Indigenous artists such as Archie Roach, A.B. Original Yothu Yindi's founding members Deadly Award winning Djolpa McKenzie, Dan Sultan and Music Victoria Award-winning , and has composed music for Indigenous TV shows and films including Little J and Big Cuz and Bran Nue Dae.
