Last year, Issiah Avila was invited by Fontana Deputy City Manager Phil Burum to tour Stage Red in downtown Fontana, a historic 1930s-era theater that’s been renovated and now serves as a venue for entertainment acts in the Inland Empire.
The Grammy Award-winning DJ, who goes by his moniker IZ Avila, was impressed by the 300-seat, state-of-the-art performance venue relaunched with Fontana-born rock star Sammy Hagar.
After walking through it, Avila came up with a way to put a spin on the space.
“I thought, what if we created a vinyl experience similar to a cigar lounge, where you can come in, pick your own record, and listen to it at your own turntable station, or you can give it to the DJ and be like, ‘Yo, can you play song 2 on side B?,’” Avila said in a phone interview.
He pitched the concept to his friend Scott Hagen, the CEO of Victrola, the 125-year-old company that modernized record players and is still one of the largest manufacturers of turntables and vinyl records. Hagen toured the Fontana venue and told Avila that it reminded him of “Fifth Avenue Minneapolis, where Prince used to play.“
“It was the perfect marriage,” Avila said. “We started dialing in the concept of what it needs to look and feel like from the moment you walk in, and that’s how it was born,” Avila said. “Thankfully, I have a decent-sized record collection to be able to facilitate a true vinyl lounge.”
Red Stage Fontana is now hosting the Victrola Record Club, a vinyl listening experience held on the second Wednesday of every month, and will expand to include every last Wednesday of the month as the summer approaches. The first 21-and-over event was hosted by 935 KDAY radio personalities CeCe Valencia and Avila, with the next scheduled for April 8. The two will continue to co-host the record club with rotating DJ sets and surprise live performances.
Avila, a four-time Grammy Award–winning songwriter, producer, drummer/percussionist and DJ from the Inland Empire, has written and produced for icons such as Janet Jackson, Mary J. Blige, Snoop Dogg, Gwen Stefani, Anthony Hamilton and Earth, Wind & Fire. He’s worked with Usher for 17 years as a musical director and helped produce the R&B star’s Super Bowl LVIII halftime show performance in 2024.
“When I was coming up, there were very few places that we could go to and be inspired musically,” Avila said. “Being able to bring that momentum and energy back home to cultivate experiences for my community is extremely important, and that’s also a driver for why I’m doing what I’m doing in Fontana with Stage Red.”
Visitors at the vinyl club are led through a side entrance rather than the front to create a sense of exclusivity. As guests make their way upstairs, they’ll find a Victrola Record Club sign, leading them to a room with plush couches, set up with LED lights, personal vinyl listening stations with headphones, and shelves of records spanning genres from The Beatles and Led Zeppelin to De La Soul and A Tribe Called Quest for personal listening or to hand to the DJ as a request.
“I wanted to make it a full experience for those who are music lovers,” Avila said. “It’s one of those things where it’s not a club, but when you hear your favorite joint, you might want to get up and move a little bit and dance with people you never met before, like local business owners, other entrepreneurs and meet other people who are creative.”
The curated space features Michael Jackson posters, Hagar memorabilia, and books on vinyl and DJing. Some of the stations feature QR codes that guests can scan, which take them to a Victrola Record Club site where they can get discounts on vinyl albums, turntables and other equipment they can order and have shipped to their homes. There is also a bar inside the vinyl club that serves complimentary tequila tasters and carne asada fries with admission.
Avila said that one of the things that has disappeared in the streaming age is the experience of picking up a physical record, getting lost in the details of the artwork, and learning the names of producers in the liner notes on the inside.
“When you read the liner notes, you start to learn who produced what, who wrote what, where it was engineered and where it was recorded,” he said. “Music actually thrives when the experience and everything that goes into it is appreciated. It’s a learning experience … we start to remember why we fell in love with music. That’s exactly what we’re providing at the record club, when people come in and pull the sleeves off the vinyl.”
From Super Bowl to homecoming
While cities nationwide are finding homes for vinyl clubs, Avila thought the best home for his project was in his hometown. Avila grew up in Rialto; his musician father signed five-year-old Avila up for drum lessons at Lier Music in San Bernardino, on E Street, across from the original Orange Julius.
He said his father would drag Avila and his brother Bobby Ross Avila to gigs, letting them perform during their father’s group’s downtime. His brother signed a record deal at 13 on RCA Records, and Avila followed at 14, signing with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis. By 19, he went on tour as Macy Gray’s drummer, and he got into music production.
In 2003, his brother, Jam and Lewis, were working out of a Los Angeles studio called The Village Recorder when they got word that Usher was looking for music for a new album. When Usher arrived at the studio, Avila said he thought Usher looked a bit surprised to see two Mexican American producers working on an R&B album, but when they played him the music, they connected.
“When you get an artist in front of you, you have to be able to play something that captures their attention,” Avila said. “We just hit it off from jump, and when Usher got to really understand my brother and me, we became the best of brothers, and we continue to make music. ‘Confessions’ came out, and it sold about 1.3 million in its first week, and we had five songs on there.”
Usher released “Confessions,” his fourth studio album in 2004, and it was a massive hit, earning him eight Grammy Award nominations, where he won three for Best Contemporary R&B Album, Best R&B Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal for “My Boo,” and Best Rap/Sung Collaboration for “Yeah!”
In 2009, Usher reached out to the brothers and asked them if they wanted to get together for a show he was performing at San Manuel Indian Casino, now Yaamava’ Resort & Casino. After a few rehearsals, they got an offer from management to work on a world tour. While hesitant after getting comfortable in a studio, Avila agreed.
“I got to see how people around the world experience the music my brother and I created with him,” he said. “It was something that I’ll never forget. As a creator, you never know how far your music’s going to go, then once it does, how it will affect and inspire people, so to see that in real time was just a game-changer for me.”
After the tour, he took on the role of Usher’s musical director and worked with the R&B star during his Las Vegas residencies at Caesars Palace and Park MGM. Then, after the residency stints, he got another call from Usher, this time asking him if he’d be interested in working on the halftime show for Super Bowl LVIII.
“I was like, ‘Hell yeah!’” he said. “Getting the opportunity to do that and having an artist like Usher trust you with a monstrosity of a show like that is a huge sign of gratitude and respect. I knew it was going to be complex and challenging. I didn’t know it was going to be Mount Everest.”
Avila described the show as backbreaking, emotionally, mentally, and physically, and said it made him question his judgment about whether or not it would resonate with people. However, with a good team and his own 35 years of experience; input from rapper Lil Jon and, of course, the talents of Usher, he says the complex performance all came together.
Avila said that the most rewarding aspect of the show was seeing his children and parents watching from the stands and watching the live result of something that he’s loved and chased all his life. The next day, Usher called an exhausted Avila and told him that they had broken the record for the most-viewed halftime show, setting the record for the most-watched show in history at the time, averaging 129.3 million viewers.
“I’ll never forget, after that show, I had a conversation with Usher, and I said, ‘I just want to tell you thank you. I don’t know if you really understand what this means to my people,’ he said. “Being Mexican and doing Black music is very uncommon at this high a level, and everybody told my pops he was crazy, but here we are at the end of the day, putting on one of the biggest shows in the world.
“It allowed me to say that you can think outside the box and reach for the moon; it doesn’t matter what you are or what you look like, as long as you chase what you love. I told him this is what it looks like when we work together.”
The Monday after the Super Bowl, Avila said he was so exhausted he stayed in his pajamas in his apartment for two weeks, recovering and reflecting on the monumental achievement he’d been a part of with his team and Usher.
He says he also realized he wanted to share his experience with the folks back home.
“After having that much time with Usher and coming out of the Super Bowl, I felt like it was time for me to transition into a different creative space, and that’s when I really got inspired to figure out how to bring my love for music back to my community and how I wanted to be back in the IE to do something impactful.”
The Victrola Record Club- Vinyl Nights
When: 7 p.m. Wednesday, April 8. Also held on the second Wednesday of every month.
Where: Stage Red Fontana, 8463 Sierra Ave., Fontana.
Admission: Free with an RSVP at stageredfontana.com, though capacity is limited.