Who are the hottest hitmakers in the city right now? RedEye wanted to know. So we put the word out to local DJs, radio hosts and production veterans to find some true beasts behind the soundboard. Here’s a tiny taste of what’s out there. Synthesized drum roll please:
Augie Schmidt and Dan Monahan, Audio is King
Intro: Schmidt referred to his production team as a pair of “suburban kids” from Elmhurst, but Q101 radio host Chris Payne considers the 20-something duo a rising force to be reckoned with on the rock scene. Client list: Plain White T’s (above), The Frantic, Company of Thieves and themselves (Last Fast Action.) The goal: “I’m going to lose my indie rock cred,” Schmidt said. “But I want to do more pop. Think about it … when you say Top 40 pop, everything falls into that category. A couple years ago, you would have said Kings of Leon were indie. I could say I like rock, but ‘pop’ gives you freedom to create three minutes of something a lot of people will love.”
