The next time you see a commercial break, look a little more closely and you might find a local connection. 

A duo from Austintown formed a group called Munnycat, and their sound is featured in commercials for everything from Target to J.C. Penney.

It wasn't too long ago that hanging out at Wedgewood Pizza was part of the routine for Khaled Tabbara and Katianne Timko. They're both from Austintown and left for Los Angeles to chase a dream in music. They had their own projects, their own music, but a funny thing kept happening.

"Almost every time we would do something separate, they'd always be like, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was great, but what were you doing with that other thing we saw?' They always wanted to see the music we made together," said Tabbara.

So when music licensing company Marmoset came calling about a year ago, they joined forces and Munnycat went full speed ahead.

"From the very first second, we're concepting the song, writing all the lyrics together, sitting next to each other at a computer, programming every beat together," said Tabbara.

"Let's make it sound as cool, as lush, as interesting, as thumpy, as fun as we possibly can," said Timko.

Quickly, the commercials started coming.

"The first one was the St. Petersburg tourism board, and they took our song 'Feeling Alive'," said Tabbara.

"We got the Target ad and I think that that made Adidas pay attention. We get the Adidas thing and then that makes Cadillac pay attention. And then we get Cadillac, and they're like, 'Oh, JC Penney over here wants to use that shot,' and we're just like dying," said Timko.

J.C. Penney was the big one, but the funny part is they didn't even know about it until it was already running.

"My friend from Ft. Lauderdale called and said, 'I just heard Munnycat on a JC Penney's commercial.' And I was like, 'Oh my god that's so cool. She must be wrong.' And then I got a phone call from my two friends from Chicago," said Timko.

"We got a Facebook message and I started getting Tweets. People are going, 'Your song's playing in Hawaii on a commercial.' I was like, this must be real," said Tabbara.

And they keep coming. Two musicians from Austintown, with a sound reaching across the globe.

"I've been in rock bands where you're playing for 30 people in a new bar and you're pumped that that many people show up," said Tabbara. "But to have it hit hundreds of millions of people in an afternoon is something that, as much as my inner punk rock kid is like, 'Oh, it's a commercial.' It's the coolest thing in the world that that many people get to hear our song in a new way."

"We never feel like we're working," said Timko. "This Munnycat stuff, we have to schedule in time for it, but it's not like, 'Gotta go to work.' It's like, 'Oh my gosh, this is our job, this is what we're doing.'"

And they're doing it well; living out the dream one commercial at a time.

Both of them pointed to that Midwest work ethic for their success. They kind of had to learn how to do everything themselves in the business, so now they can just keep making music and enjoy the ride.