In December 2016, multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Hunter got bored and decided to record a ska cover of “Feliz Navidad,” calling it “Feliz NaviSKA.” This silly idea got a lot of eyeballs, way more than they anticipated, so Jeremy kept recording ska covers of songs by Green Day, My Chemical Romance, Blink 182 and other groups. The views continued to grow. This was the birth of SkaTune Network, a YouTube channel with nearly 200,000 subscribers, and several viral videos. 

Jeremy is our guest on In Defense of Ska. They have shocked countless people outside of the ska scene who’ve assumed the music is dead, and can’t fathom how Jeremy has so many fans. SkaTune Network has also become an entry point for ska that has brought thousands of people to the genre. Additionally, Jeremy also plays trombone in the band We Are The Union and creates original music as “Jer.”

On today’s episode, we walk through Jeremy’s career in ska, focusing on several key moments in their life, including the Talent Farm, their introduction to Community Records, and joining We Are The Union. We also discuss Jeremy’s time at Waffle House, winning PUP’s “Free at Last” cover competition, and that controversial TikTok video they made that argues why you should pour your milk before your cereal. 

If you’d like to support us and listen to early access, ad-free episodes with bonus content, check out our Patreon! 

If you like our theme song, go download the EP Lives by Slow Gherkin. They wrote the opening and closing songs for our podcast. You can get both tunes from their Lives EP. Also, check out Dan P and the Bricks two LPs. They provided the mid-roll ad transition music. 

Support the In Defense host Aaron Carnes by purchasing a copy of his book, In Defense of Ska. The 2nd, expanded edition of In Defense of Ska will release in Oct 2024. 

Co-host Adam Davis has a band called Omnigone. Their latest record, Against The Rest released on March 31, 2023. 

The In Defense of Ska editor Chris Reeves runs a record label called Ska Punk International. They have new releases coming out all the time.

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