Founders Michael Marino and Jonathan Marino established In Cahoots, Inc. on June 15, 2005.
The founders landed their debut at an early age listening to a musical genre called House Music, which graced the radio waves in the mid to late 1980s after the hours of 10:00 PM. While every other grammar-school student was listening to nursery rhymes and in bed by 8:00 PM, Mike and Jon were making off like they were sleeping and listening to 107.5 WBMX FM and the “Killer B” WBBM FM B96 in their headphones while their Ma patrolled the hallway. Deeply inspired by the music, the two brothers began making their own mixes together in their bedroom at the ages of six (Jon) and nine (Mike) years old. A few years later, Mike and Jon began making dance music mixes for road trips for their traveling soccer team.
Having a limited capacity to make music, a tight budget and no recording equipment (other than a boom box), the two brothers slowly, but surely added production gear to its list of assets as more funds became available. This meant working odd jobs around the house, paper routes, cutting lawns, DJing at the Berwyn Youth Commission and DJing events that did not even involve dance music. The brothers debuted their talents at several house parties in the Chicago suburbs. While at a house party, the duo was introduced to Jibby Streetz, the leader of local boy band sensation Zero Tolerance. Mike and Jon provided their equipment and DJ skills to their live performances. However, the boy band did not last long and the brothers had to find another avenue to penetrate the market. In order to do this, they needed better equipment. They accepted unwanted jobs for money, which generated enough cash flow to purchase and acquire the recording equipment necessary to gain more exposure. Eventually, the brothers began acquiring music to play on phonograph record, despite the new popularity of compact discs, since it was the only medium to purchase this type of music. The two also knew that they needed a distinguished name for branding purposes. Touring the community as the “2Fonzanoons,” the duo branded themselves at various clubs, school sponsored events and many other occasions.
