O.A.R. (Of a Revolution)

Part 1

0:00So how is it pronounced or OAR of a revolution? What do you guys perform? Well, the band's name is of a revolution. And obviously that's a mouthful to say. So a while back we decided to shorten it down to OAR. And unfortunately people took that as or. So that's where all the discrepancy has come from. But the band's name is of a revolution. We've shortened it to OAR like REM or USA or POD or whatever you would have it. And so that's where we go as these days. Where does it come from? Well, other revolution comes from a short story that Mark wrote as a phrase that was taken out of a short story called The Wander. That he wrote and continues to write. And back when the band was formed, the guys were like 15 or 16 years old,

0:4796, there was a 95, 96. Mark and Chris had just gone back from studying abroad in Israel for a couple of months. It was kind of a changing time for them in their lives. And they were starting to play this new style of music. And it was a very personal thing for them. And they wanted to have a name that meant something to them. Not only personally, but that would be able to be applied to hopefully one day a larger audience. Okay, you say new style of music. You guys describe this Highland vibe, roots rock. What exactly is that? Well, the name itself was something that when our first high school article, I was ever written about us when we were in high school, they used that phrase, island vibrate rock. And we stuck with it because it kind of captured just the fact that we can jump around different styles.

1:39And then at the time, you know, that that revolution part of it, you know, for us was the fact that we were like, oh, we can play whatever we want to play. We can go from a rock song into a country or into a reggae or whatever it was. So, you know, we just felt that like the island vibe is kind of comes from the fact that we like take our own like interpretation of maybe reggae music. You got that island feel to it, but it's not exactly reggae, you know, and that roots rock kind of feel that like folk kind of acoustic rock or whatever it is. It's kind of a little bit of everything, but without actually, you know, being stuck in a one category. Yeah, fair enough. You can hold it. For you being from Maryland, how did you guys enter the Ohio State and me, Jerry?

2:29I guess by luck, honestly, at the time we weren't doing anything like we are now in this scale. You guys hungry? Yeah. There's desserts too, good desserts and stuff. Well, in high school, we weren't doing anything on a large scale. We were just basically either playing for ourselves in the basement or for a couple of our buddies in the basement and, you know, a bi-monthly show at the local bar. And we recorded our CD for our friends. It wasn't really like, hey, let's go in and record our first CD. You know, our first CD is actually a collection of two different times we were in the studio.

3:14Like we put the first four songs with the second five songs and like, hey, is this an album? No, definitely not. It was just like our friends wanted something to listen to. So that being said, we always kind of knew in the back of our minds, like this is something we want to do, you know? It doesn't matter what scale it's on, but something we wanted to do. So we, when we started looking at schools, you know, Mark and I had been friends since, you know, we'd grown up together. And we wanted to, you know, get a school together. High estate looked good. I mean, it was like a huge school. It was, you know, where some of our other friends were going to be. And it was just like, you know, we were like, man, this would be a great place to get everyone at.

4:00And Richard our guitar player transferred out after his first semester. So we had him out at school. Meanwhile, while we were out there, we'd met Jerry in the dorms. And at the time, I mean, we were basically a band on CD. We weren't playing anywhere. So Mark and Richard, when he got out to school, would play acoustic shows. And, you know, sometimes like sit in with like little bongos and stuff like that. But it wasn't anything that big enough time. But the CD, that's when it started spreading, you know, most rapidly, I think, you know, especially because of Napster and whatnot. But we would bring Ben's, our bass player up, you know, to visit us because he was still in high school. This is the longest story ever. I'm sorry. What's going on? I'll wrap it up. I'm sorry. Yeah, Ben's was still a senior in high school. So when he was looking at schools, anyway, he, you know, he would come up and check out the school while he would come up and play with us.

4:52And he liked it. We convinced him to come out there. And so following year, he was out there. We met Jerry and started playing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So I just sold over 50,000 copies of your CDs when you guys were in school. Do you guys all finish school or do you just decide to leave and choose music? You know, I wish we, I wish I would have finished school. But we kind of sat down in the end of our junior year and we're like, okay, let's see, we got, we got this great thing with the band going. You know, we also committed the school. So let's just make a pact between the five of us that we're going to give it, give ourselves four years at Ohio State. So 97 through 2001. And then after that, we were going to do and go in tour full time. So that's basically what happened is we stayed four years at school, whoever finished, finished whoever didn't, didn't.

5:37Mark and Chris actually finished school. They were the hard working and fortunate once while the rest of us are destined to go back at some point. Yeah, yeah, definitely. You know, it's weird, you know, we're really blessed because we get to do something so cool for a living. But, you know, I still kind of kick myself in the ass every day for not finishing school when I had the opportunity. Yeah, makes sense. You guys were in school. Like I said, you sold 50,000 copies and you start to realize that maybe people outside of Ohio and maybe Maryland were starting to listen to you. Yeah, you know, we, for about two or three years of school, we basically were week in warriors. We went out, you know, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and toured within like a six-day period. We had a tour within like a six-hour radius of Ohio State. And then during the summers, we'd go out and do like little mini tours like two weeks at a time while doing a record like Souls of Flame in 98.

6:26So yeah, you know, we understood that, you know, we were always fairly smart about our decisions and things and realized, you know, early on that, you know, if we weren't doing school, we probably would have been able to go out and tour full time at least. But it was cool. I mean, also, you know, while we were doing, you know, weekend shows within like six-hour radius, maybe once or twice a semester or a quarter, I should say. So a couple times a semester, we'd fly out somewhere like Arizona or back, you know, to the East Coast or New York or wherever it was because it started spreading a little bit. You know, Arizona was one of the first places that we actually went out to. I was like Vegas. We went to, you guys were obviously doing fine on your own. Why Simon's lab? Well, you know, we got the touring side of things down pretty good. You know, we're able to kind of go out throughout the country and, you know, draw a good amount of people, at least in our opinion, and be successful at that.

7:24And as far as independent as an independent band goes, you know, we sold a good amount of records as well. But, you know, we also wanted to take that to the next level and expand our audience. And, you know, we felt that signing a record deal with the major labels, the way to do that, there's kind of an, in our opinion, a glass ceiling as far as radio and significant record sales. You know, you need a push. You need people behind you that have experienced that part of the business before. And major labels is where you find those resources. How does lava work with Everfine? You know, the way I always explain it is that lava takes care of, you know, overseas all the major things. You know, I mean, they take care of all radio. They take care of like all major publications and things like your VH1s and MTVs and things like that.

8:16And your major distribution, while Everfine goes in and fills in the cracks, they're the foot soldiers. They're the kids, the street team and the people that are coming out and making sure that, you know, CDs are stocked in the shelves every day, you know, when we're playing in a certain area, making sure that people are aware that we are going to areas and things. And also, you know, pushing our back catalog as well, our previous four releases on Everfine Records, you know, those are managed by them as well. Oh, you know what? No, that's one thing that there isn't a different, which is the nicest thing, which is why we wanted to go with the label like lava.

9:03Because, you know, we've always said we were ready for the next step, which was to go to a major label, but we wanted to, you know, make sure it was the right time and the right thing for us. And basically that meant that we had to be sure that we were going to be able to build on what we'd already done. Um, was I saying, oh, we were just, we wanted to make sure that we were going to be allowed to like build on what we've already accomplished, you know, and stuff having to change anything. We don't want to like go and have to like re, you know, change our image or do a new sound to, you know, anything like that. We just wanted to bring it to a bigger and a broader audience, you know, through the, like what Jerry talked about, the major resources that a label has.

9:49So, you know, lava, lava, I'm sorry, let us, you know, continue what we were doing and what that was was going in and find a studio of our choice, find the producer of our choice, record the songs of our choice. You know, basically get to go through the same motions that we would have done on the, on ever find, you know, like we had in the past. The only time this time, you know, was different is that, you know, while we wanted our freedom to do what we wanted to do, I think it was also, we wanted, we went with lava because we trust them so much. We like valued their opinion and everything. So we wanted to hear what they also have to say, which was a little bit different, I think, which was nice to be able to, you know, get some feedback from them, especially in the case of like our single, you know, going and re-recording

10:38Hey Girl, which was something we hadn't considered doing and at first we thought we were crazy for doing, but, you know, it made sense, you know, to revisit a song that's always been with us and a song that had, our only song that had ever been at radio before and it was like, Hey, you know, this is the best example that we have. It's already proof that it's worked at one radio station, you know, we could take the song to every radio station and we said, Hey, we'll give it a shot and we recorded it and, you know. Boy, Hey, Girl, I'm not crazy. I'm a poker. Well, like that's probably because I'm a soccer song with college kids. Yes. To be honest, I think the first thought is, is a length of the song. I mean, it clocked in at like the shortest version is like nine minutes. Like, yes, we could have made a shorter version and the song does get longer and longer every night.

11:25And we've played it in the past up to like 25 minutes, 30 minutes long live, you know, just going crazy. But honestly, yeah, definitely the three and a half, whatever minute radio single, that's just the standard. You know what I mean? It is kind of the idea of like, you know, we can do the song, Hey, Girl, that we've already, you know, just talked about a minute ago and we can do a version of it that we wanted to do. And since we have how many versions on record and how many different versions we do because we play it every night differently, you know, we kind of put together our favorite parts of the song until like a short condensed version and, you know, we're happy with it. But I also think in a way it was kind of like, we didn't want to have to like take steps backwards.

12:14Like, because this is our first major labor release, didn't mean we wanted to change anything. We wanted to go about recording this as if, you know, there was no major label. There was no anything involved. It was just us going in and recording a new album. And so, you know, I don't think, Hey, Girl, is making us take a step back. But I think maybe poker and by going and like editing it out and taking away from parts of the song just to get it done, it would have definitely compromised it. Can you explain the whole or in the Bahamas? Yeah. No, that's cool. Basically, you know, we figure that kids are going to go out and go on spring breaks anyway and why not come out and have one with us, basically, you know, it's going to be in the Bahamas. It's going to be where, you know, a lot of people would go normally. And so it's basically going out and hanging out on the beach for a week and then going and checking out a couple of O.A.R. shows while you're down there.

13:04And, you know, we're going to do some things like going and hanging out with the audience that comes down and things. So, you know, it's going to be, it's just going to be a fun, crazy college, you know, spring break weekend and it's going to be capped off with a couple of O.A.R. shows. You know, I don't know, it's around, it's probably, it's comparable to, you know, a normal spring break package. I around, imagine, it was around a thousand bucks or something like that. It depends. Yeah, like you, you know, because a lot of people go out with like, you know, a bunch of their buddies down the spring break and, you know, if you, you do that, you'll get a group rate, I believe. How do you guys feel about it? Are you guys on the forehead?

13:50Well, yeah, you know, when we were an independent band and, you know, especially when we were in college and just, you know, starting out, we didn't have radio play, we didn't have distribution, you know, we didn't have any of those traditional means that people use to get music out there. So, the internet made sense because it was immediately accessible to anybody, you know, around the country and around the world too, you know. So, you know, it worked out real nice for us, you know, for people at that time going and downloading the records and things. These days, you know, we provide ample resources for kids to go out to the live shows and tape the live shows and bring those home and to listen to them and if they want to put those up on the internet and distribute those, you know, that's a great thing. But, you know, I think we've also learned a lot being in the business and we've seen how, you know, file sharing and illegal downloading has hurt the industry, you know, and it's, you know, our band and, you know, every other band out there has been directly affected by people going and burning music off the internet.

14:49And it's not something that I saw when I was at college doing it because, you know, I have to be honest, I did it just like anybody else I knew. But, you know, now, you know, we've been through the major label, we've kind of run through the gamut a little bit and we've seen that it hurts the industry and, you know, we prefer people to buy the records, not only ours, but other people's as well. And, you know, utilize the opportunity to go to the live shows and download those if you want or go on the internet and take our live shows off the internet. You know, I'd rather see both and see, you know, the different sides of each because the band on a record and the band live are, you know, two different sides of us. So, you know, that's the way we kind of tackle it and, you know, have the complete experience that you need both.

15:40But, you know, live experience, you know, is a great thing. It's kind of our bread and butter. You know, we go out and we tour nine months a year around the country. And, you know, it's a great time. And, you know, we love to see people come out to the shows and have fun with us. Yeah. And honestly, because we felt like we could be honest and upfront with them, you know, because we've always been kind of the band that, you know, approachable in this area. You know, approachable in the sense of like, we want to be involved, you know what I mean? We feel like we want to make, you know, our audience, you know, feel like they're involved, you know, because, you know, Mark said something a couple weeks ago that I was good about.

16:36Like, you make, you know, you make somebody a fan, you know, the band, you know what I mean? You make them feel like part of it. You know, they're not going to turn their back on it as easily as like, you know, just like a passing, you know, phase or fed or whatever it might be. But, you know, we've always, you know, we always check our message board. We always talk to people at shows to get feedback, to hear what's going on, what they like, what they didn't like. And, you know, along those lines, you're just kind of like, you know, we felt like we should tell them it wasn't like explaining ourselves in the sense of like, guys, all right, we're going to do this. What do you think? It was more line lines of like, you know, we're signed to a major label. And why don't you guys do hear about it from us because it's going to come out and, you know, and people are allowed to post, you know, their thoughts and their feedback.

17:23And, you know, 95% of it was good results. You know, I mean, probably a lot more. No, I think you summed that up great. You know, the band always keeps our ear to the ground and listens to what our audience has to say because, quite frankly, we wouldn't be doing what we're doing. And definitely at this level and, you know, possibly at all without the audience behind us with their support and things. So, you know, we see it as, you know, they have input, you know, to a certain degree. I've got some pretty cool interest in band. So, what's your name? I'm saying name. You guys tell me to think of them or what the first name is? I'm not Dave Matthews. Yeah, yeah, the good damn good band. Yeah. Definitely definitely an influence, I would say.

18:11Damn good band. All around. They tackled it and were successful on every angle of the music business. So, you got to respect them. Bob Marley. Bob Marley. Inspirational? A profit? I don't know. Yeah. I was thinking about it the other day. Like Bob Marley is probably as close to a modern day profit as I imagined you would say, or at least, you know, a visionary if you want to knock them down a couple of days. Down a couple of notches on the pole. That's all what happened to Jason Jackson. I'm not going there. Yeah. Our president? Okay. Britney Spears.

18:56So hot. There's one iconic though. She's like hit the level of Marilyn Monroe, like Madonna, Britney Spears. She's like transcended her music career and is really a cultural icon at this point. And every teenage boy is wet dream, I imagine. Actually, every man is wet dream. He's like it's in my back pocket. John Mayer. Damn good fucking musician and songwriter. I'd say. John, we did the club circuit with John before he exploded into the massive pop icon that he is now. But yeah, man, that guy, I mean, you always kind of saw it. Yeah, you always kind of saw something special, John.

19:43Yeah, you know, it'd be a neat thing. I think the tides would be turned and John wouldn't be opening up for us anymore. I think we'd be opening up for John this time. Yeah, or opening up for the band. Yeah, like he has County Croes going on before him, which is amazing. I mean, that guy, you know, congratulations. He's really done a hell of a lot in a short amount of time. OAR. That's my lifeblood, man. I don't know. It's my best bodies and, you know, a damn great way to kind of sustain yourself through life and it's fucking an amazing way. I like what you're here to say about OAR.

20:31Or play the poker song. Is that what it's like in all the shows? No, no, like, it depends. You know, I mean, you have shows where it's like poker. Then there's the other one where it's like, play Earthward. You're like, what? You know that song? Wow. You know, so it depends. Night by night. You guys love playing covers? What's your favorite one to do? I mean, Sunday bloody Sunday is really cool, I think. My favorite covers is kind of like watching Mark and Richard do the acoustic ones, like Blackbird or Mark Does Redemption Song, which is really, really good. I've been with him when he was getting him to do Tiny Dancer. Oh, yeah. Did Gabe Dixon come out on tour with us for the summer keyboard player? He's phenomenal. Gabe Dixon on the Gabe Dixon band.

21:17Ladies and gentlemen. And he would play Tiny Dancer, which was just, God, nailed it. Perfect. Perfect. No, man, I just sat there with my jaw down to the ground. That's cool. Yeah. That's awesome. Thanks, guys. No, thanks. That's awesome.

Part 2

0:00O-A-R, a lot of people confuse your names, say or... Yeah, well... Do you guys get mad at that at all? We used to, but... Definitely. Hey, I agree with you. Let's play the first single off the new record, sounding a little different than your older stuff, but we'll get into that in a few seconds. This one's Love and Memories. Cool. 88.3, CJIQ.

3:50You just heard Love and Memories, O-A-R, on the phone with Ben from the band. Now, I heard that song, I was just flipping through the channels, oh, I guess, a couple of weeks ago now, and I was watching Leno, and I was like, whoa, that drummer looks familiar. Whoa, those guys look familiar. And then I found out it was you guys. Sounds nothing like I could have ever imagined. Where did you guys come up with thinking of changing the sound around like that? I was on the record, I think, as we've had over the past ten years. Specifically, we co-wrote it. Yeah, definitely.

4:39When you say Glenn Ballard, co-wrote it with you, what do you mean? Was he actually in the studio? Was he producing it too? He wasn't producing. They mark Richard, I think Jerry might have been there too. On School, is he just changing a couple of words around or maybe a couple of chords? No, I think kind of the music stemmed from Glenn's idea. Well, I like it, man. It sounds cool. It's a new direction for you guys. We're totally happy with where it got to. It could collaborate with him. And it's getting you guys on the radio too, which is pretty cool.

5:26Yeah, we're happy about that. I mean, there's other songs on the record there. Exactly. Well, yeah, well, we've played some songs from the new record in a bit, but I also want to go back, and, you know, for the O-A-R fans like myself, want to hear some old stuff too. Sure. Well, play Hey, girl. However, I was kind of expecting to hear it on this record too, since it's on like every record you guys put out. Yeah, actually we wanted it because we feel like, you know, the record like, what the...

6:13That's okay. Which one do you want to hear? I know there are four versions of it. Which is your favorite? Play the first one, man. Cool. I'm from South Souls of Flame. Soul of Flame, going back a whole bunch of years. After I like to read,

7:0188.3, CJIQ, you just heard, Hey girl, O-A-R on the phone with Ben from the band.

10:48The new CD stories of a stranger out in the stores now. It's got a sticker on the front to head over to MySpace.com. Yeah. What a cool tool in the industry, don't you think? My cool thing. Are you guys big on the whole internet thing, like even the illegal downloading and stuff like that? I'm not even kidding.

11:37But?

13:02Yeah, definitely. You mentioned Dave Matthews, and I'm just thinking Glenn Ballard there as well, because I know they work together on what album was every day. Is that how you guys got in touch with them? Are you guys big Dave fans too? No, I'm just stems from, he came out on all. So, hold him that he was into.

14:14Want to play another song? My favorite one on the record is Wonderful Day. It also shows up on the live seat that you guys put out a couple of years ago, 34th and 8th. Yeah, man. Was it changed it all around from the live version? For people that haven't heard the new record yet? Yeah, we, the live version, break down. Well, here it is, 88.3. 88.3, CJIQ, you're listening to the backstage pass. My name is Matt Schichter.

18:11On the phone with Benj from OAR, you're shared Wonderful Day off their new CD Stories of a Stranger. It's got that honey bunny line in it. Just reminds me of good old OAR. Yeah, man. You know your honey bunny in a song, you know it's going to be OAR. Hey man, that's all about having that love in your life. Matt Nathanson's guest on the record. I'm a big fan of his. I'm sure a lot of people that know your music have also come across his at some point. What does he do on the record? Where does he show up? He helped co-write some songs. Actually some of them I don't think even ended up on the record, but he did some backup. And he has a lot of them.

19:03Alright. Those ever see the lead of the 80 you think? Like a B-side's record or something like that? That's pretty cool. I understand bands want to put out the best CD possible and the best product possible,

20:07but I never understood like you just mentioned 12 songs on the record and you recorded 20. There's room on a CD like when I make a mix CD you can throw 18-19 tracks on there. How come bands don't do that? Well, one of the reasons for some of the songs were that they didn't fit that we felt had a thing.

21:31For sure. What's your favorite track on the new record? 5250. 5250. Let's play that and let's also play a crazy game of poker since I'm sure people still shout that out at every single way. Very nice. Two of the longest songs. Well, it'll be a good time. People will just sit there and jam out in their car. Bye, boat. A small portion of your nighttime. That's your sacrifice for me.

22:51And you were born. Got me begging for your storm. 88.3, CJIQ. You just heard 5250 off the new OAR record, stories of a stranger and a classic OAR song,

39:06crazy game of poker. Sitting here on the phone with Ben from the band. We do this thing every week called Five Questions, just five quick questions, one word answers. iPod or CDs. Landon or McCartney. Alcohol or marijuana. Or. Song you've written your most proud of. Play down. And one word OAR. Fun. Cool. Let's close it up with that song, Lay Down. I love that tune too. So let's play that. Thanks so much for stopping by. I really appreciate it. Thank you for having me. Always. Anytime. You like an angel that is just for me.

40:15Up last your heart let your mind go free. And it's too loud on the earth today so let's. From my mask I got those blessed angel that is just for me. I catch a dream there's a lot to see. But it's too loud on the earth today so let's.