Junior Rob Agudo has been producing music for six years. He began in middle school, making tracks using the Apple application GarageBand on a Mac computer.

Now, he is a sponsored DJ and producer under the name RoughStylez. He has played gigs and events in downtown Austin and is managed by Red Bull.

“I applied for it online, and I just got lucky,” Agudo said.

Red Bull sponsors Agudo through their culture sponsorship program. This program “gives wings to creative people and their ideas in many areas” such as music, film and art. Artists can apply for a sponsorship by going to the Red Bull website and filling out their form, including a proposal for what capacity they would like to work with them in. Red Bull assists Agudo by helping with promotion and funding his performances.

“If it’s my personal event that I want to run, they’ll help me get all the gear together and stuff,” Agudo said.

Agudo plays both shows Red Bull finds for him and his own events. In addition to playing shows, he has posted some of his tracks to SoundCloud, which can be found under the username RoughStylez or at soundcloud.com/rob-agudo. Agudo said that he draws inspiration from and listens to other DJs and producers like Calvin Harris and Hardwell.

“There are a lot,” he said.  “There are so many great artists out there.”

Agudo also produces beats for students at school to rap over. He has produced beats for junior Mason Arvallo to rap over. He said that Agudo would send him beats to listen to through email and he would tell him what he thought about them from there.

“Rob’s beats are good and he’s a good person to be around working with.” Arvallo said. “Rob makes feel good beats that you can just vibe to with other people.”

When Agudo collaborates with students, he begins by sending them a track. If they don’t like it or want something else, Agudo sends something back to them. Then, the student raps over it to produce their own track.

“I treat them like any other artist, professionally.  If they want something else, I’ll shoot something else back at them,”  he said. “We find a common ground.”

Agudo said that he would like to both DJ and be producer for as long as he can. He said that he would like to thank everyone that has supported him as an artist over the years that he has been a producer and DJ.

“I couldn’t have made it this far without them,” Agudo said.