SHREDnews

By: Katie O’Halloran, Guest Writer

You don’t often hear of a group that goes from busking in the streets of Santa Monica to opening for Demi Lovato at Winterfest, to being featured in the pilot episode of Suge Knight’s new show “Unfinished Business” (a Dick Clark Production), and finally to being nominated for two StarShine Magazine Music Awards in less than one year after forming. This, however, was precisely the case with up-and-coming acoustic/pop/hip-hip duo Shytown.

Consisting of Chicago-natives Eric Johnson and Danny Jacobson, Shytown’s members had experienced a notable amount of solo success prior to forming the group; among other feats, both received significant commercial and college airplay, and Danny had opened for The Roots at Indiana University. However, it was when they were introduced to each other by the music director of one of the nation’s largest radio stations, WBBM, and began working together as a team that things really started to heat up.

After joining forces, the pair was given the opportunity to perform at Chicago’s B96 Pepsi Summer Bash, an event at which artists like Rihanna, Gym Class Heroes, Akon, Ne-Yo, and T-Pain also performed. Eric then rode this momentum to Los Angeles to work with several California-based producers and, while there, met Sean Kingston. The two collaborated together and wrote what would become Kingston’s song “Shorty Got Back” (produced by Danny), which went on to receive commercial airplay in several major markets. Soon after, Eric was contacted by HOT 105.5 FM and was asked to open for Soulja Boy; he did so in front of 5,000 + people at the US Cellular Coliseum. Danny, who was still in Chicago, decided to join Eric in L.A. so they could work more closely together. Their music began to take an increasingly acoustic-based direction, and they formed a new group dubbed Shytown. After adding a third member, Tarah New, and performing with a live band in the early months following its formation, Shytown has since reverted back to the duo of founding members Eric and Danny as Tarah is now pursuing a solo career.

The group recently shot its first music video, which can be viewed on their MySpace page, for the song “Back in the Day.” Currently, Shytown is in the studio working on its debut album. If early demos “Angel” and “In Love” are any indication, we can expect the 2010 release to be chock-full of summery, hook-driven catchiness. However, the recording process has also seen Eric and Danny work with Laze & Royal, a buzzing production team signed to Warner Bros. Records by American Idol judge Kara DioGuardi. This alliance has brought an even more polished, popish element to their forthcoming material as they strive to launch Shytown into the competitive Top 40 market. Keep an eye on the group’s MySpace page for specifics on the release date, a new batch of songs including the soon-to-be-released “Call You,” and another music video in the new year. If you’re in Southern California, you can also catch Shytown performing regularly at Universal CityWalk Hollywood over the next few months.

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/shytownmusic