Initially known as remixers to indie luminaries such as Washed Out, Phoenix, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Death Cab for Cutie before creating their own electro-pop, RAC -- short for Remix Artist Collective -- is the brainchild of producer/multi-instrumentalist André Allen Anjos. Born and raised in Portugal, Anjos studied piano and guitar while growing up. He continued his studies in the States, studying music business at Illinois' Greenville College, before settling in Portland, Oregon. Frustrated with the quality of remixes dominating the scene in the mid-2000s, Anjos founded RAC with the help of Seattle's Aaron Jasinski and Netherlands-based remixer Chris "Crookram" Angelovski; later additions to the collective included Andrew Maury, a remixer/producer/engineer out of Brooklyn, and Portland's Karl Kling, with whom Anjos founded the electro-rock band the Pragmatic.nn RAC cultivated a distinctive approach to remixing, opting for reinventing artists' songs instead of grafting dance beats on them. This style was evident from the collective's first official remix, a reworking of the Shins' "Sleeping Lessons," which the group included as the B-side of a U.K. single. From there, RAC worked with Surfer Blood, Foster the People, and Bloc Party, among others, and in 2008 the music website Stereogum released a collection of Anjos and company's work to date. That year also saw the release of their first EP, Nintendo vs. Sega. Anjos began releasing original RAC songs in 2012, when the single "Hollywood" -- which featured Penguin Prison's Chris Glover -- arrived in the summer of that year. After signing to Cherrytree Records, in October 2013 RAC released the Don't Talk To EP, which included "Hollywood" and "Let Go," a collaboration with MNDR and Bloc Party's Kele.nn Featuring collaborations with Tokyo Police Club and Tegan and Sara, RAC's debut album, Strangers, was initially released as two EPs early in 2014; it arrived as a full-length that April. RAC continued a busy release schedule in 2015, releasing the Master Spy soundtrack as well as a slew of singles that included the Little Boots collaboration "Magic Hour" and "Back of the Car," which featured Nate Henricks and spawned a remix collection that arrived that October. In 2016, RAC was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Remixed Recording, Non Classical for a reworking of ODESZA's "Say My Name"; the following year, Anjos was nominated in the same category for his remix of Bob Moses' "Tearing Me Up," this time winning the award. In 2017, he returned with RAC's second full-length, EGO, which featured collaborations with artists including Rivers Cuomo, St. Lucia, Classixx, and MNDR. ~ Heather Phares