San José State University. Photo: Bobak Ha'Eri, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2008-0817-SJSU-MLKlib.jpg)
Bad Robot Productions. Photo: Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1221olympicblvd.jpg)
Southern California Institute of Architecture. Photo: Airhead888, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pavillion.jpg)
San José State University. Photo: Bobak Ha'Eri, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:2008-0817-SJSU-MLKlib.jpg)
Bad Robot Productions. Photo: Coolcaesar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1221olympicblvd.jpg)
Southern California Institute of Architecture. Photo: Airhead888, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pavillion.jpg)
director entrepreneur manager musician dj record producer music video director
McFedries grew up in Davenport, Iowa. He played football in high school and also enjoyed basketball. At sixteen, he moved with his family to Los Angeles, which became the base for his later music and technology work.
He began DJing at nineteen after leaving college. His early work in Los Angeles connected him with the club, remix, and independent music scenes that preceded his rise as DJ Skeet Skeet.
McFedries attended San Jose State University on a football scholarship but left without completing a degree. San Jose State, founded in 1857 as California's first public institution of higher education, developed a longstanding connection with the technological and cultural life of Silicon Valley and the wider San Francisco Bay Area.
His education was followed by practical work in music, digital media, and technology rather than a completed university qualification.
McFedries began performing as DJ Skeet Skeet in Los Angeles and developed a reputation through club appearances, parties, remixes, and festival performances. In 2007, he joined Shwayze and Cisco Adler in the musical project Shwayze. The group's 2008 debut album reached the top ten of the Billboard 200, while “Buzzin'” and “Corona and Lime” became nationally recognized singles. McFedries also became the first DJ to perform the complete Vans Warped Tour schedule in 2008.
His music work expanded into touring, production, and artist development. He performed at Lollapalooza and Coachella, worked with artists including Katy Perry, Chris Brown, Ke$ha, 3OH!3, Bonde do Rolê, Sky Ferreira, Azealia Banks, and Steve Aoki, and opened for Katy Perry during her 2011 California Dreams Tour. During this period he worked in A&R at Photo Finish Records, helping connect recorded music with artist development and label operations.
In 2012, he adopted the name Yung Skeeter and released original tracks including “Stand Again” and “I Like It Loud.” He also directed music videos for Steve Aoki's “Control Freak” and NERVO's “We're All No One,” establishing a parallel career in visual production. His work included executive production on BANKS's debut album Goddess and production of “Wallace” for Azealia Banks's Broke with Expensive Taste.
McFedries subsequently moved more deeply into technology and digital culture. He was an early Spotify employee and served as an Artist Advocate, working at the intersection of artists, audiences, and the streaming platform. He also worked as an entrepreneur-in-residence at Bad Robot, the Los Angeles production company founded by J. J. Abrams.
In 2016, McFedries co-founded Brud, a media and technology company focused on digital characters and story-driven virtual worlds. Brud created the virtual performer Lil Miquela and other digital personalities. After Dapper Labs acquired Brud in 2021, McFedries became chief executive of Dapper Collectives, a unit established to develop tools for decentralized autonomous organizations and community-owned media. He also co-founded Friends With Benefits, an online creative community organized around digital culture and decentralized technologies.
McFedries helped create the group Shwayze, whose 2008 self-titled debut album reached the top ten of the Billboard 200 and produced the charting singles “Buzzin'” and “Corona and Lime.”
He became the first DJ to perform the complete Vans Warped Tour schedule in 2008.
As a co-founder of Brud, McFedries helped create Lil Miquela, a widely known computer-generated virtual performer and digital media personality.
He helped develop Dapper Collectives as a unit focused on tools for decentralized autonomous organizations and community-owned media.
(Second Shwayze album, released through Suretone and Geffe...)
2009Shwayze
(Debut album by the group Shwayze, on which McFedries cont...)
2008Goddess
(Debut album by BANKS, executive produced by McFedries und...)
2014Broke with Expensive Taste
(Album by Azealia Banks on which McFedries produced the tr...)
2014Corona and Lime
(Single by Shwayze featuring McFedries; it became one of t...)
2008Buzzin'
(Single by Shwayze featuring McFedries as part of the grou...)
2008Stand Again
(Original track released by McFedries under the name Yung ...)
2012I Like It Loud
(Original track released by McFedries under the name Yung ...)
2012McFedries has argued that digital communities should give creators and participants greater ownership of the value they produce. His work with Brud and Dapper Collectives reflects an interest in community-owned storytelling, digital identity, and decentralized forms of organization.
He has also connected technology with cultural production rather than treating it solely as an engineering domain. Music, virtual characters, online communities, and blockchain-based organizations appear in his work as related methods for creating and distributing stories, attention, and creative value.
McFedries served on the Board of Trustees of the Southern California Institute of Architecture, an independent Los Angeles school known for experimental architectural education and engagement with emerging cultural and technological practices. He has also been associated with Rhizome, the New Museum's digital-art affiliate, whose work includes commissions, exhibitions, scholarship, and preservation of born-digital culture.
McFedries has described his outlook as combining technological optimism with skepticism toward centralized systems. His public work and interviews present him as interested in experimentation at the boundaries of music, digital art, entrepreneurship, and online community formation.
Quotes from others about the person
SCI-Arc director and chief executive Hernán Díaz Alonso described McFedries as a visionary working at the intersection of technology, society, and culture when McFedries joined the school's Board of Trustees.
McFedries collaborated with Shwayze and Cisco Adler in the group Shwayze, whose 2008 debut album brought him national attention as a performer and producer. He worked with Katy Perry during her 2011 California Dreams Tour and maintained professional connections with artists including Steve Aoki, Azealia Banks, and BANKS.
He co-founded Brud with collaborators in digital media and later joined Dapper Labs after the acquisition of Brud. His technology work also included collaboration with D. A. Wallach at Spotify and the development of Friends With Benefits as a creative online community.
