Paul Sebastien, born Paul Sebastien Skrowaczewski,[1] is an American musician, producer, composer, marketing officer and businessman. He is best known for the being the frontman of the techno group Psykosonik, where he has been involved with singing as well as writing music and lyrics. He also composed for many video game soundtracks and worked in-house at Thomas Dolby's company Beatnik, which acquired his music publishing company Power of Seven. He has since worked as a manager and marketing officer for a number of companies, including Microsoft, Zipper Interactive, Offensive Security and currently at an unannounced Web3 startup. He is the son of the late Polish-American composer Stanisław Skrowaczewski.[2]
Paul Sebastien | |
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| Birth name | Paul Sebastien Skrowaczewski |
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| Years active | 1991–present |
| Member of | Basic Pleasure Model |
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Sebastien graduated from the Blake School in Minneapolis.[1]
Prior to forming Psykosonik, Sebastien was involved in a number of unsuccessful music projects.[1] During the early 90s, Sebastien met Theodore Beale at The Underground in Minneapolis, which led to them starting a duo with Beale on keyboard and Sebastien on guitar and vocals. They were later joined by drummer Michael Larson and production engineer Daniel Lenz, the latter of which was also responsible for co-writing tracks with Sebastien. This led to the formation of Psykosonik, and they began recording electronic music at Sebastian's apartment where he had a recording studio, and later found performance opportunities in local clubs including First Avenue, 7th Street Entry, and Glam Slam. Their first successful song was "Sex Me Up", which they used as a demo to sign with Wax Trax! Records and TVT Records.
The group released two albums in 1993 and 1995 respectively: Psykosonik and Unlearn. A remix of "Unlearn" by Josh Wink appeared on the soundtrack of the 1995 movie Mortal Kombat (although not featured in the movie itself), which became Platinum[3] in less than a year reaching No. 10 on the Billboard 200,[4] and was included in the 2011 Guinness World Records Gamer's Edition as the "most successful video game spin-off soundtrack album".[5] He hangs the Platinum award in his music studio to this day.[1] This led to them creating "It Has Begun" for the compilation album Mortal Kombat: More Kombat and "Panik Control" for the sequel Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Additionally, a selection of tracks by Psykosonik appeared in the American version of the game X-Kaliber 2097;[6] these were resequenced for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System by Ali Lexa. The group created a third album in 1997 titled Spiritual Machine although Wax Trax! Records did not release it, which subsequently led to Psykosonik disbanding.
In 1994, Sebastien started the music publishing company Power of Seven. He worked on a number of games under this name, including CyClones, and the title themes of Marathon 2: Durandal and Marathon Infinity. The following year, Power of Seven was acquired by Thomas Dolby's audio technology company Beatnik (then known as Headspace),[7] although the acquisition was not announced until 1996. This led to Sebastien becoming Headspace's production director, where he was responsible for composing for and managing the Headspace Music Library, and also worked on other multimedia projects. He highly enjoyed working with Dolby at Beatnik, as he was a large fan of his music during his teenage years and both shared common interests.[8][9] As part of Headspace, he served as one of the composers for the game Obsidian, although the Power of Seven brand was still used for other game projects even after its acquisition by Headspace.
Sebastien left the company in 1998 and went on to work on the music of the game Oni, along with fellow ex-Beatnik composers Brian Salter and Kim Cascone, as part of Power of Seven (a separate company from the one that was acquired by Headspace). While Power of Seven composed techno and electronic tracks for the game, other music was composed by Martin O'Donnell in collaboration with Michael Salvatori. Outside of Oni, Power of Seven also created standalone royalty-free music tracks.[10]
Although Sebastien gradually shifted away from the music industry to the technology industry, he formed an electronica/new wave duo with Caesar Filori named Basic Pleasure Model in 2003. During the mid-2000s, they released a few singles and performed concerts before becoming inactive. Years later, during 2019 to 2020, the duo released a handful of new singles.[11] Sebastien has also released solo ambient tracks, such as "The Turning of Summer" in 2021.
Following his time at Beatnik, his main focus shifted from composing soundtracks to business management at various technology companies. In 1999, he worked as the director of online marketing at the startup Zaplet. Two years later, he joined Microsoft, working in multiple management roles. He also joined Zipper Interactive in 2005 as a manager, and also served as one of the producers of three SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs games; the company was acquired by Sony in 2006. Subsequent companies he worked at include Disney Mobile, SugarSync, and T-Mobile.[12] He joined the online education company Udemy in 2014, serving as the co-creator of Udemy for Business.[13] Later, he joined Helpshift in 2017 as a chief marketing officer,[14] followed by Offensive Security in 2019, again in the position of a chief marketing officer.
Sebastien has developed an interest in cryptocurrency and Web3. This started in 2013 with bitcoin mining, and in 2017 his friend Mauvis Ledford introduced him to a network of crypto experts.[15] In 2022, he left Offensive Security to join an unannounced Web3 startup as a marketing officer.[16]
Sebastien lives with his wife Julia Sebastien, and they have three children.[1] His father is composer Stanisław Skrowaczewski, who died in 2017.
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1994 | CyClones | composer and sound effects; with Theodore Beale and Kevin Schilder |
| 1995 | Marathon 2: Durandal | title theme composer |
| 1996 | Marathon Infinity | title theme composer |
| Tracer | composer | |
| 1997 | Obsidian | composer; with Thomas Dolby, Blake Leyh, and Kim Cascone |
| Nebula Fighter | composer | |
| 2001 | Oni | composer; with various others |
| 2003 | NHL Rivals 2004 | sound director |
| NHL Fever 2004 | sound director | |
| 2005 | SOCOM 3 U.S. Navy SEALs | producer; with Prem Krishnan |
| SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Fireteam Bravo | crosstalk producer; with Prem Krishnan | |
| 2006 | SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Combined Assault | additional producer; with Tony Iuppa and Cade Myers |