Jan Skubiszewski – producer and one-half of Jackson Jackson – makes his debut under the moniker Way of the Eagle. By Patrick Muller.
Way of the Eagle is the collaboration-based solo project from Melbourne producer and composer Jan Skubiszewski.
“My family is Polish and the Polish eagle is a real symbol of that. I wanted something to do with my heritage, but also like the idea of the eagle being alone, yet part of the world. It seemed to fit the amount of late nights I’d spent in the studio alone,” he laughs.
As a producer, Skubiszewski has worked with a lot of big names. His upcoming debut album reflects this, with names like Dan Sultan, Illy and Harry James Angus of The Cat Empire and Jackson Jackson appearing on the record.
On having so many different names appear, Skubiszewski had this to say. “Some collaborators I’ve known, like Illy. That was more about getting into a groove we already had. A lot of the others I had songs that I’d written and tried to find the right vocalist for or had writing sessions with different people. I must have worked on 30 songs over the course of the record.”
On the writing with these artists, Skubiszewski noted the difference: “Some of them have come along really quickly like Rattlesnake, Sweet Addiction, but then others, like the one I did with Illy, we were throwing back and forth for about three years until we felt it was finished.”
It’s reasons such as these that have held the album back from its release for sometime. “There was that, then the tricky thing with me producing a lot other records is the I’m just busy, so finishing it has always been hard. And then if a vocalist had just done something, they wouldn’t want that single competing with their record. It was a chess game.” Yet the newest single, Sweet Addiction was an easy and joyful affair to get together. “I’d just arrived in New York and I had a writing session booked with an artist who fell sick with the flu. Someone said, ‘Well, instead of wasting a day, would you want to meet this guy Bobby.’ We got in the studio and hit it off. We spent till 3 or 4 in the morning on the song. When the album was released, he sent me a really beautiful message.”
The name of the new album, KODO, has an interesting story behind it. “While I was thinking what I should call the album, I bought a bike. It was coming from Japan, so while I waited for it I would read about it on the website and it said, “if we could summarise this bike in one word, it would be Kodo, which means, the essence of the rhythm of life.” I thought maybe that’s what I should call my album, that’s cool. But then my bike got stolen, so now whenever I see the record I’m like, ‘Aww, my poor bike’.” He laughs.
Skubiszewski is happy about the opportunity he has to expose people to some great emerging talent. “What I’m really excited about, apart from the singles is that there’s a couple of young artist including Sam T and Benji Lewis who no one has really heard of yet. There’s a lot of names people know, but there’s some that people don’t, and it’ll hopefully get people into what they’re doing.”
Way of the Eagle will be hitting the road with Will Hull-Brown and Ryan Monro of The Cat Empire as well as singers Dan Sultan, Sam T and Benji Lewis.
KODO is out now.
