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Skatune Network

Jeremy Andrew "Jer" Hunter 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 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 ==
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. 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; 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&B as well as songs and theme music from films, television shows, and video games. 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. "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. 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. 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." 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 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. In June 2025, Hunter announced their new album Death of the Heart, which released on August 15 via Bad Time Records. The announcement came with the single "The Way You Tune It Out." Other work Hunter played brass on the soundtrack for Steven Universe: The Movie (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 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". as well as discussing the history of ska, misconceptions about the genre, and issues within the scene. and over 400k followers on TikTok. == Artistry ==
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." == Personal life ==
Personal life
Hunter is queer, non-binary, and polyamorous and uses they/them pronouns. 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. == Discography ==
Discography
=== We Are The Union === • Self Care (2018) • Ordinary Life (2021) As Skatune Network Albums Singles As JER Albums Bothered/Unbothered (2022; Bad Time Records) • Death of the Heart (2025; Bad Time Records) Singles Music videos Compilation appearances Other credits == Notes ==
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