The Record Company was born out of a late-night hang in 2011, when Chris Vos (vocals, guitar), Alex Stiff (bass, backing vocals), and Marc Cazorla (drums, backing vocals) spun classic blues records like John Lee Hooker’s Hooker ’N Heat and swapped stories of their favorite concerts (Iggy Pop & The Stooges, among them). Energized by the evening, the three musicians reconvened the next day for a jam session at Stiff’s Los Feliz home. Before long, his living room would become the band’s epicenter as they wrote songs, performed for friends, and, eventually, recorded and mixed their debut album, Give It Back to You.
Blending the soul of Delta blues with the power of classic rock and roll, the trio recorded much of the album live, giving songs like “Off the Ground,” “Rita Mae Young,” and “On the Move” a raw, immediate feel. They also incorporated slide guitar, pedal steel, piano, and harmonica, showcasing both their range and reverence for tradition while infusing it with modern energy.
Released in February 2016, Give It Back to You spent 42 weeks on both the Billboard Top New Artist Heatseekers chart (where it peaked at $5) and Nielsen’s Alternative New Artist chart. The LP went on to break the Top 20 of Billboard’s Alternative Albums chart and reached #23 on the Rock chart. Fueling its success was the lead single “Off the Ground,” which rose to #1 on Billboard’s AAA radio chart and cracked the Mainstream Rock Top 30, while its follow-up, “Rita Mae Young,” landed at #12 on the AAA chart.
Also bolstering the band’s profile were a host of high-profile engagements, including appearances on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Conan, and CBS This Morning; a much-talked-about performance at Bonnaroo (named as one of the festival’s “5 Best Country and Americana Moments” by Rolling Stone Country); and their first headlining tour of the US. The following year, The Record Company joined John Mayer on tour, opening for the star at arenas across the country.
In addition to earning a GRAMMY® nomination for Best Contemporary Blues Album, Give It Back to You and The Record Company also received plenty of accolades from the press. Entertainment Weekly hailed, “The scuzzy, 10-track set meshes the group’s biggest influences—the early electric blues rock ’n’ roll of John Lee Hooker, staccato lyrical delivery akin to The Stooges frontman Iggy Pop, and Rolling Stones-style grooves.” Paste praised the band’s “Raw emotion, dedication, honesty and hard work,” while Rolling Stone declared, “The blues may be nothing new, but the Record Company wring new life out of old traditions.”
"Give It Back To You was about the formation of a new friendship that led to the accomplishment/start of a dream we all were afraid might pass us by,” said Chris Vos. “10 years later, we’re still so grateful to have found the music we had always been looking for, and that it’s taken us from live recording sessions in our bass player’s Los Feliz living room to stages all over the world.”
In the years following Give It Back to You, The Record Company has released three more albums—including their best-selling 2018 follow-up, All of This Life (featuring the hit “Life to Fix”). Their broad appeal has led them to share stages with an eclectic mix of artists—B.B. King, Social Distortion, Grace Potter, and Trombone Shorty among them—while their music has appeared in an array of films (including the 2016 blockbuster Bad Moms), hit series (Suits, Nashville, Shameless), and video games (MLB The Show 22). In 2023, they returned with their broadly acclaimed fourth album, aptly titled The 4th Album. Fans can catch The Record Company on tour through the rest of the year, with their anniversary shows to follow in 2026.
