In Defense of Ska Ep 57: Lili Trifilio (Beach Bunny) & Jeremy Hunter (Skatune Network)

In 2020, Chicago indie-pop group Beach Bunny released their debut LP Honeymoon to much acclaim. One of the people that fell in love with the album, was Jeremy Hunter, ie Skatune Network. It was one of their favorite records of the year. Just a month earlier, they’d recorded a cover of an earlier Beach Bunny tune, “Prom Queen.” After Honeymoon was released, they considered covering another Beach Bunny song. Instead, they recorded the entire album. 

Jer did this project in secrecy, not even telling Beach Bunny’s singer/songwriter Lili Trifilio until it was nearly finished, earlier this year. And then on Valentine’s Day, they surprise-released it to the world—Beach Bunny’s record in its entirety, but all ska, and titled Honeyrude and complete with some delightful ska easter eggs that reference The English Beat, Bob Marley, and The Specials. 

On this episode, we bring on Jeremy Hunter and Lili Trifilio to talk about Honeyrude. We talk to Lili about what inspired the original record, learn about Jer’s process of transposing the album to ska, and get her reaction to the record. We analyze this album from all angles to understand what makes ska unique, and why a ska cover of a non-ska song is so infectious when it’s done right. 

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