By Jennifer Eisenbart
Editor
When Chris Vos’ wife, Valerie, woke him up screaming last week Tuesday, the farthest thing from his mind was that something momentous had just happened.
“I was sleeping soundly at 6 a.m.,” said Vos Monday, adding that’s normally what he is doing that time of day, as a musician and a member of the group The Record Company, a band out of Los Angeles.
His first thought?
“I think our house is on fire,” he explained.
Instead, Vos’ group had been nominated for a Grammy award in the Best Contemporary Blues category – for the group’s debut album, “Give It Back to You.”
“My reaction was shock and silence for a while,” admitted Chris, who knew the album had been submitted for consideration.
“But honestly, none of us expected to be nominated,” he said.
Chris Vos has been making music since he started his first band as a student at Burlington High School. But it’s a far cry from his upbringing on The Vos Farms in New Munster, where he grew up helping the family’s dairy farm business.
He chose BHS over Catholic Central because of his interests in music and art, and has been hooked on music ever since.
“I’ve never quit,” he said. “I’ve played music every day.”
Life, though, took Chris through a few twists and turns before the formation of The Record Company. The move out to L.A. actually had nothing to do with Chris’s music.
“I didn’t move out here with any idea of ‘making it,’” he explained. “I moved because my wife got a job at the L.A. Times. It was a tremendous opportunity, and I wasn’t going to stand in the way.”
Valerie Vos now works for the “Ellen” show.
Chris and friends decided one day to try a recording in band member Alex Stiff’s living room.
“We listened to the playback that first day of recording,” Vos said in a press release from Concord Music Group – their record label – “and decided right then and there that we had to be a band.”
The group’s debut album, Chris said, draws from numerous sources but puts the emphasis on the “roll” of rock and roll.
“We try to bring a lot of energy to what we do if we can, and we play from our hearts,” said Chris, who is the group’s lead vocalist and adds in guitar and harmonica.
The album is the result of pulling the best work they had produced in Stiff’s living room and giving it to Concord for the group’s debut.
“We thought we’d put together the best 10 sings that worked together,” Chris said. “These are those 10.”
That includes the song “Off the Ground” – a No. 1 hit on Triple A radio outlets – and “Rita Mae Young,” another Triple A top 10 hit.
The group recorded the album, using music Chris, Stiff and Marc Cazorla had all written. The group mixed it as well.
“We had had our hands on every step of it,” Chris said.
The end result is the potential for a Grammy. The point to Chris, though, is getting to make music – what spurred him to pursue the music scene in L.A.
“I just wanted to make the kind of music I loved to make,” he said. “I didn’t care if it was in fashion or not.”
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