A duo of Eden Prairie-based musicians called “The New Monarchs” expects to have a song featured during an upcoming episode of “Gossip Girl.”

The New Monarchs include Sean Hogan and Taylor Nelson, both Eden Prairie High School alumni. Their first CD, “Blueprints,” was recorded at Eden Prairie High School’s box office last year. Both met while in jazz band at the high school and joined a band called “Kids Eat Free.” As they graduated EPHS and moved on through college, Hogan and Nelson kept in touch while tinkering with their music, eventually settling into the electronic style their band has today.

Some of the songs off of “Blueprints” are featured on the band’s Myspace page (www.myspace.com/thenewmonarchs). According to that site, when Hogan graduated from University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire in the spring of 2008, the band began recording “Blueprints,” eventually putting together a product that ranges from “energetic dance tunes with irrefutable hooks to droning experimental pieces with grave undertones.”

“It’s a lot like ‘The Postal Service,’” said Taylor, when describing the band’s sound.

Other influences include “Radiohead,” “Nine Inch Nails” and “Daft Punk.”

Hogan noted that he took the band name from an AP history book chapter.

“It was a chapter heading, and I always thought it sounded cool.”

Next chapter

In the age of iTunes and Myspace music, attempting to strike it big in the music industry is a far different process than just a few years ago. In the case of “The New Monarchs,” the band joined local independent music label Soupbowl Records about a year and a half ago after Nelson connected to the label’s president through a class at McNally Smith College of Music.

Taylor noted that their label did a licensing campaign and sent about 30 copies of the album to different companies. It happened to work out that one of the largest licensing companies (that handles songs for shows like “Grey’s Anatomy” and “House”) picked one of their songs for a “Gossip Girl” episode.

Last year, CNBC interviewed the woman behind this form of music marketing – Alexandra Patsavas, owner of Chop Shop Music Supervision and music supervisor for shows like “Grey’s Anatomy,” and “Gossip Girl.”

During that interview, Patsavas noted that she’s always on the lookout for new songs for Grey’s and could get 500 submissions a week from bands.

 “The Internet has certainly made music supervision as a profession a much easier job, in a way. Local bands are no longer local to your zip code,” she said, during the interview.

 “The music still has to be great,” she added.

According to Hogan and Nelson, their song will be used twice in the Gossip Girl episode, though they could not reveal in what context or scene.

 “It will definitely be noticeable,” said Nelson.

The New Monarchs: (From left) Taylor Nelson and Sean Hogan make up the band “The New Monarchs.” Their song “Kiss Me At the Gate” will be featured during the Monday, March 16 episode of “Gossip Girl,” on the CW. Nelson and Hogan, both graduates of Eden Prairie High School, took the name of their band from a high school history textbook chapter. The duo performs electronic based indie-rock, similar to that of the “The Postal Service.”