 John Ondrasik had been active in the Los Angeles music scene since the 1980s, but did not adopt "Five for Fighting" as his stage name until he signed with EMI Records in 1995.His first album, "Message for Albert", came out through EMI in 1997 but EMI's American division closed shortly after "Message" came out.After EMI's collapse, Ondrasik briefly signed with Island Records, but then "PolyGram, Island’s parent company, merged with Universal and he was lost in the shuffle."