A few months later, Duda and his younger brother, supply chain management senior Patrick Duda, are excited for the future of their hip-hop/electronic group, who recently were signed by MTV and Sony/ATV’s “Extreme Music.”

When MTV called them back in November, Patrick Duda said it took a while for the news to set in.

“It wasn’t as big as a deal to us as I would have thought,” he said. “Once we decided to go for it, and once we started telling other people, it started to sink in. Now we look back at it and it’s like ‘Wow, we’ve come a long way.’”

Matt Duda, who graduated from MSU last year and goes by the name “Moe-T” within the group, said it’s been a six-year process from starting the band to getting signed.

“I actually started out doing my own singular thing around ‘06, ‘07,” he said. “I just performed at local bars and things like that … I realized (my younger brother) was better than me at rapping, and I was better at producing.”

Patrick Duda, who goes by the name “Packi” in the group, said The Specktators was initially a side hustle.

“We were both going to school, both working and everything,” he said. “Then it just got bigger and bigger, and now we’ve gotten to the point where it’s something that we want to do for the rest of our lives.”

It initially took Patrick Duda a while to get over the hump of realizing music was becoming his career.

“The only thing holding me back at the beginning was putting myself out there and telling people ‘This is my music, this is what I’m doing,’” he said.

Matt Duda handles the production and Patrick writes and raps the lyrics, something that he’s always enjoyed.

“I’ve always loved hip-hop and I’ve always loved writing,” he said. “Getting into college, I looked into journalism and English and things like that because it was a big interest of mine.”

Graduate student Josh Trexler, who is a friend of Patrick Duda, said he’s seen the group improve since they first started.

“Obviously they have their strengths, Patrick is writing the music, Matt is mastering the music,” Trexler said. “From listening to it when they first started, they’ve gotten infinitely better at what both of them do.”

Now that The Specktators have a deal, Patrick Duda looks forward to seeing what the future holds.

“We’ve been working our way up constantly trying to do the right thing, build a fan base,” Trexler said. “And now signing with MTV gives us a new platform that we can reach a whole new audience with.”