American ska musician and YouTuber
Jeremy Andrew "Jer" Hunter (born June 16, 1995) is an American YouTuber, musician, composer and music educator who hosts the YouTube channel Skatune Network, where they post ska covers of popular songs. They have also released original music under the name JER, played trombone for ska punk band We Are the Union since 2015, and performed on albums by The Bruce Lee Band, Jeff Rosenstock, and Illuminati Hotties. Prominent on social media, Hunter has been outspoken about the history and current state of ska music, earning the fan nickname "The CEO of Ska". "BrooklynVegan" has written, "You can't talk about the renewed interest in ska without talking Jeremy Hunter", while music critic Anthony Fantano has described them as "a one-person ska wrecking crew".
Early life.
Hunter was born on June 16, 1995 and grew up in Broward County, Florida. They discovered ska as a child via the , which featured ska bands Less Than Jake and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. In sixth grade, Hunter reluctantly joined the school band at the urging of their parents, where they played trumpet and trombone. They also took piano lessons and learned bass guitar because "everyone plays guitar but nobody plays bass", and by high school had taken on a wide variety of instruments.
Hunter attended West Broward High School and graduated in 2013. Hunter's love of ska was deepened by high school friends, who introduced them to the music of Asian Man Records as well as the local DIY ska and punk scenes. In between high school and college, Hunter worked at the all-ages DIY punk venue The Talent Farm in Pembroke Pines, Florida, where they became involved with the local scene, forming a band, helping book shows in the area, and beginning to write their own music. After a brief stint at Broward College, Hunter moved to Gainesville in 2015 to attend Santa Fe College, where they studied musical composition with plans of becoming a film score composer.
Career.
Hunter posted a number of songs to SoundCloud between 2012 and 2016. They also fronted an emo side project, 11:59, that was sporadically active from 2014 to 2019.
We Are The Union.
In 2015, Hunter joined the ska punk band We Are the Union on trombone and backing vocals, marking their return from a three-year hiatus. Hunter, a fan of the band since high school, had jokingly asked on Facebook if the band needed a trombonist, and frontwoman Reade Wolcott, who had seen a video of Hunter performing one of their songs, invited them to join. Hunter at the time had felt alienated from the ska scene due to experiences of racism, and has credited We Are the Union with reigniting their love of the genre.
Hunter wrote most of the horn lines for the band's 2018 album "Self Care", and performed on that album as well as "Ordinary Life" (2021), released on Bad Time Records. Hunter and the band also performed at The Fest in 2015 and 2021.
Skatune Network.
In December 2016, Hunter, having recently purchased recording equipment, began posting ska demos to Facebook, including a joke Christmas cover of José Feliciano's "Feliz Navidad" (entitled "Feliz NaviSKA"). That cover, as well as a similar rendition of "Auld Lang Syne" for New Year's Eve, were unexpectedly popular on the site, inspiring Hunter to start the Skatune Network YouTube channel. An early cover of "January 10, 2014" by The World Is a Beautiful Place &amp; I Am No Longer Afraid to Die was shared by the band on social media, and within a week of launching the channel, Hunter had acquired over 2,000 subscribers. That number would expand to 100,000 by August 2019 and 200,000 by December 2021.
After an April 2018 cover of the Mii channel theme went viral, Hunter began regarding Skatune Network as a "full-time job" rather than a side venture. A November 2018 cover of La Dispute's "Such Small Hands and Nobody Not Even The Rain" was requested by the band themselves; that same month saw Hunter begin touring Skatune Network as a full-live band with shows in St. Petersburg and Orlando, Florida. In February 2019, their cover of PUP's "Free At Last", off their album "Morbid Stuff", was one of 253 fan covers included in the song's official music video. Later in 2019, Hunter returned to The Fest with Skatune Network, backed by members of We Are The Union and billed alongside Against Me!, Bad Cop/Bad Cop, Jawbreaker, Less Than Jake, Dag Nasty, Joyce Manor, and Screaming Females; they also played the festival again in 2021, playing a back-to-back set with Hunter's band We Are The Union and joining acts like Hot Water Music, Frank Turner, and The Wonder Years. In February 2023, Hunter collaborated with fellow YouTube musician Ali Spagnola on a ska cover of Taylor Swift's "Anti-Hero". They have been a musical guest at MAGFest in 2020 and 2023.
The subjects of Hunter's Skatune Network covers are eclectic and wide-ranging, encompassing 1980s pop music, emo, and R&amp;B as well as songs and theme music from films, television shows, and video games. Hunter has also released Skatune Network albums through Counter Intuitive Records since 2019, variously themed around the "Billboard" Hot 100, emo, Cartoon Network's Cartoon Cartoons, "Undertale", "Animal Crossing", the Beach Bunny album "Honeymoon", and Halloween and Christmas music. John Ochoa of "Vice" noted that Hunter's "range of genres" and "self-aware exploitation of meme and internet culture, like "Steven Universe" and "Adventure Time" stan communities" has helped Skatune Network find greater exposure beyond ska and punk circles.
JER.
Hunter's music as JER first appeared on benefit compilation albums in mid-2020: demos of "R/Edgelord" and "A Message to My Future Self" were included on Skank for Choice's "2020 Quarantine Compilation" in May, while "Breaking News! Local Punk Denies Existence of Systematic Racism" appeared on Bad Time Records, Asian Man Records, and Ska Punk Daily's "Ska Against Racism" compilation in early September. "R/Edgelord was officially released as the project's first single on September 18, with We Are The Union's Reade Wolcott producing and tenor saxophone from Abraskadabra's Thiago "Trosso" de Sá Jorge; a debut studio album was tentatively announced for 2021. This was followed by the official releases of "Breaking News! Local Punk Denies Existence of Systematic Racism" on October 30 and "A Message to My Future Self" on December 11.
In a February 2022 interview, Hunter mentioned that the JER album was still "in the works", and that the project was "a lot more personal" than their previous work. In April, it was announced that the album, titled "Bothered / Unbothered" would be released on May 27, 2022 via Bad Time Records; a new lead single, "Clout Chasers!", was released alongside the announcement. Two more singles, "Decolonize Yr Mind" featuring Oceanator and "Nobody Can Dull My Sparkle", were released in advance of the album. Produced by Wolcott, the album did not feature any of the three previous singles but instead featured nine new songs as well as a cover of Jimmy Cliff's "You Can Get It If You Really Want." Additionally, Hunter partnered with "BrooklynVegan" for a limited-edition canary yellow vinyl variant of the album. The album was well-received: "BrooklynVegan" and "Punknews.org" included the album in Best of 2022 lists, "Pitchfork"'s Nina Corcoran called it "a modern classic in the ska-punk canon", and music critic Anthony Fantano awarded the album an 8/10 score and included it on his 2022 "Loved List".
In June 2022, Hunter joined ska band and Bad Time labelmate Kill Lincoln for an East Coast/Midwest tour, including a "BrooklynVegan"-presented show at Saint Vitus in New York. They subsequently performed at the 2023 South by Southwest, alongside acts including Algiers, We Are the Union, Be Your Own Pet, Blondshell, The Callous Daoboys, Cheekface, Conway the Machine, Eshu Tune, Flo Milli, Genesis Owusu, Isabella Lovestory, Soul Glo, Sudan Archives, Tomberlin, and Voxtrot.
Other work.
Hunter played brass on the for "" (2019), having been recruited by series composer Aivi Tran via Twitter, and later performed at the show's New York Comic Con panel alongside Estelle and Sarah Stiles. They also contributed music to "Craig of the Creek" and composed for YouTuber TomSka's animated web series "#Content" and "Crash Zoom."
Outside of their music career, Hunter has worked as a music educator, including teaching marching band at Santa Fe High School and West Broward High School. They joined the Bluecoats Drum and Bugle Corps' 2023 Brass Educational Team as an instructor, having performed with them in 2016 and 2017. They have also been an instructor and euphonium technician with Pacific Crest Drum and Bugle Corps.
Hunter is prominently active on social media. They have credited Tumblr as the source of Skatune Network's first 20,000 subscribers, as "Steven Universe" storyboard artist (and later "Craig of the Creek" co-creator) Ben Levin had reblogged their cover of "Giant Woman". In addition to the Skatune Network YouTube channel, they host livestreams several nights a week on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch, where they interact with viewers. Twitch streams often involve Hunter recording ska covers in real time and playing video games like "Animal Crossing". Hunter also uses social media to promote smaller ska artists, including through a regularly updated Twitter thread, a Spotify playlist, and year-end YouTube videos, as well as discussing the history of ska, misconceptions about the genre, and issues within the scene. As of March 2023, Hunter had over 200k subscribers on YouTube and over 400k followers on TikTok.
Artistry.
John Ochoa of "VICE" described the typical sound of Skatune Network covers as "somewhere between bratty punk, dub-tinged ska, and loungey jazz, and often all three in one single track." Their JER music, meanwhile, incorporates rocksteady, early Jamaican ska, 2 Tone, third wave/ska-punk, and New Tone Ska with elements of genres like indie rock, emo, and hip hop.
Hunter grew up on ska punk bands like Less Than Jake, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Reel Big Fish, Streetlight Manifesto, and The Aquabats; 1970s soul and funk artists like Al Green and Earth, Wind &amp; Fire; as well as 1980s hip-hop; and jazz. They have also highlighted the influence of ska artists like Desmond Dekker, Fishbone, Tokyo Ska Paradise Orchestra, Hepcat, and The Specials, with Hepcat and The Specials influencing Skatune Network and Fishbone influencing JER. Outside of ska, Hunter has expressed admiration for emo/indie rock artists like The World Is a Beautiful Place, A Great Big Pile of Leaves, Ratboys, The Promise Ring, The Get Up Kids, Really From, Hop Along, Tigers Jaw, Rozwell Kid, Camp Cope, Slingshot Dakota, and Lemuria; hip-hop/R&amp;B artists like Silk Sonic, MF Doom, and Freddie Gibbs; and chiptune music. They also draw influence from Cartoon Network shows of their childhood, comparing JER to "the music you hear on the battle of the bands episode" of such shows.
The lyrics for JER emphasize political themes of anti-racism, labor rights, and intersectionality through Hunter's own personal experiences.
Hunter has occasionally been critical towards ska band The Interrupters for their dubious political views, particularly with lead vocalist Aimee Allen, due to her past appearances on InfoWars, supporting Ron Paul, denying the Columbine High School massacre, and for having allegedly homophobic and racist views.
Personal life.
Hunter is queer, non-binary, and polyamorous and uses they/them pronouns. They have ADHD and have struggled with anxiety and depression.
Outside of music, Hunter is passionate about science, particularly environmental and nutritional science, and has said they would have gone into those fields had music not taken off. They are vegan, and briefly hosted a ska-themed vegan cooking series called "Up Beat Eats" on their YouTube channel.
References.
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