O.A.R. evolves in its ongoing revolution
Rock-pop band O.A.R., perhaps best known for its recent hit, "Shattered," has made the dream journey through music. Starting in a band member's basement, the group moved through the local pub circuit in Maryland and Ohio and eventually landed on the charts with huge hits and album sales. Wednesday O.A.R. will play Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. In advance of their show, O.A.R. drummer Chris Culos chatted with the Times Herald-Record.
You're going to be playing at the site of the 1969 Woodstock festival on almost the exact day of its 40-year anniversary. Did Woodstock have any influence on your band?
That's quite an honor. Obviously, Woodstock is probably the most legendary concert that ever happened. There's no way you cannot be influenced by that. The whole concert experience has kinda been passed down through the generations. Woodstock kinda epitomizes what the summer concert season is — friends getting together and sometimes traveling very far because they have a love for music.
How did you come up with the name O.A.R. (Of a Revolution)? Were there any other contenders?
We started our first band in the eighth grade. In 1992, we saw Pearl Jam Unplugged on MTV and we recorded it and watched it every day. So we got together and formed a band called Exposed Youth. We hadn't loved, we hadn't lived and all that stuff, so we wrote songs based on books. We wrote some songs based on a short story called "The Wanderer." There was a line in that story that said "... of a revolution," so Marc (lead singer Marc Roberge) came down into the basement one day and said, "Of a Revolution, that's going to be our name." And we said all right, because this music we're making is our own musical revolution.
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Four of the guys in the band, including you, were high school buddies. Riding around the country, do you guys ever get sick of spending so much time together?
In that sense we're really fortunate, because a lot of bands we meet and hear about are either put together by a label or audition or something. There's such an ego involved that it just amplifies when you get people together. That's probably one of my favorite things, that we started a band to make music for the rest of our friends and we continue with that thought process. We spend more time with each other than with our own families.
I know you guys do a lot of interviews, so what's one question that reporters have never asked that you'd wish they did?
I'd like people to ask a little more about balancing work with family and home life. A little Skype (Internet telephone) action helps. It's really just letting your family at home know they're just as much a priority, if not the No. 1 priority, and you get home as much as possible and spend quality time together. You have to call more often than you normally would. And when I get home I like to take my dog to the dog park across the street — me and my dog, we take serious walks.
The band went from playing in bars and having a college, cult following to a big national following. Is there anything you miss about being smaller?
We've really tried to keep ticket prices as low as possible, but there's nothing like being able to buy a ticket for $7 and walk into your local bar and we're on stage playing in front of a crowd that doesn't know us yet. There's something about being the underdog. We feel like we're really at our best when we have something to prove. For the most part, now if we're playing a concert people know O.A.R. and they've bought tickets and want to hear certain songs. That's not the underdog situation. Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade this for anything in the world, but there are times when we say, "Let's win them over." We're still playing with that idea in mind.
What: O.A.R., with Matt Nathanson opening When: 7 p.m. Aug. 12 Where: Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, 200 Hurd Road, Bethel Tickets: $35 reserved, $20 lawn For more information: www.bethelwoodscenter.org