OAR

Moe:

We’re back stage here with Chris of O.A.R. How’s it going man?

Chris:

It’s going good man. We just got here, I’m really excited. We’ve got some gorgeous weather out here.

Moe:

Oh, it’s beautiful out.

Chris:

Yeah.

Moe:

It’s the first day of your new tour, is today the first day?

Chris:

We just started our new tour today. So excited about it… A big summer.

M:

Supporting the new album that comes out next month.

C:

It comes out July 15 th , yes, and actually our single is called Shattered. And we’re actually getting some radio play already, which is exciting. It officially goes to radio tomorrow and fans can get it online. They can get it starting June 16 th on iTunes and stuff like that, exciting.

M:

How’s this album compare to your others?

C:

It’s a little bit of everything. I think by calling it all-sides, it really is capturing the all encompassing thing of O.A.R. It’s got the rock, the lighter stuff, it’s got the reggae, it’s got a little bit of everything. I think the song writing is really strong. I’m really proud of all the guys in the band, our song writers… You can really see their growth. But also the musicianship side of stuff, we feel really comfortable in the studio. That was always the thing. I think our audience really gravitated to our live stuff, and they liked the studio stuff, but they didn’t think it compared to that energy. It’s was only natural. We’ve played a couple of hundred shows a year but only made a handful of CDs. It’s still a lot of time in the studio, but for us we’re still learning.

M:

Is that why you guys have encouraged the taping of your live shows?

C:

Absolutely. But not just that reason alone. We’re proud all our stuff that we do in studio but as far as our live shows, that’s our bread and butter. That really is what we do best, and where we feel the most comfortable. I think by encouraging taping of the shows it creates more of a community interaction, you know for people who wanna come out and see us multiple times. It keeps us on our toes to create new set lists, and change the arrangements, and jam-out, and have fun. It’s also fun for the audience because it gives them something to talk about. It’s not the same show every night, not the same version of the same song every night. It’s a lot of great things.

M:

Talking about live shows, how’d it feel standing on the stage at Madison Square Garden, at a sold-out arena, at one of the most important influential venues in the whole world?

C:

Yeah, it was pretty much the highlight of our career. I can’t lie. It’s just weird because when we started this band, god, we started it 12 years ago in my basement, you could never imagine, you could never think of playing Madison Square Garden. I mean, all the things you could dream about, that’s just ridiculous to think that. So, to be standing on stage, it was so surreal. To be honest, it’s the only time I’ve ever been nervous playing.

M:

Really?

C:

Yeah, we’re really comfortable with what we do. Every night we go on stage, we get really excited about before we go on, and walk on, and that’s just what we do best, we’re comfortable. Going on in Madison Square Garden man, it was a whole other thing. It was a whole other ballgame man, I can’t lie.

M:

I saw that. You could see the vibe in the place, it was just awesome.

C:

Yeah. But, as soon as we started, yeah, we felt comfortable again. But it was the only time I’ve been nervous.

M:

So what was the most memorable part of that performance? Anything stand out in your mind?

C:

You know… It flew by. Most of the shows, some nights take a little longer than others, but that night flew by. I remember it being a little more lit up inside, just because we were filming it for DVD. You could see people. We can always usually see the front row, a couple rows back, but now look at and actually get a gauge of just how many people were there, and it was freaky. No, it was cool, ‘cause you could look out, we had a lot of our family there. I could look out and see my parents, my grandparents, and aunts and uncles, and cousins, and friends, and all these people who traveled from all over the country to watch us in New York. That was the coolest part.

M:

Yeah, it had to be amazing for sure. So, with the new album, I know that you’re with a major label now; you were with an independent label before. Are we go to be seeing the independent O.A.R.? Or are we going to see a new incarnation?

C:

We’re always independent O.A.R., man! No, see, here’s our deal. We started as a basement band, you know, when we were in high school. We went to college to really try to make it. We went to the biggest school in the country at the time, Ohio State University, and we went for four years. Not everybody graduated, but a couple of us did.

M:

You did right?

C:

Yeah, I did. Woo-hoo!

M:

Ha, there ya go.

C:

Then we started the band and we’ve been touring full time for eight years. So we’ve been a band for 12 years and everything been a real slow growth, but it’s been growing upwards steadily since the beginning. It’s given us time to learn and make the best decisions and really pay attention to what’s going on around us. And I think we really us that to our advantage, because if something happened over night, I don’t know if we’d know exactly how to deal with it correctly, and not to say that most people don’t, but who knows. For us, we’re really happy that we got to surround ourselves with great people. Our manager Dave Roberge, our singer Mark’s older brother, he started an indy label for us when we were in college. It was really just something on paper so that we could get a distribution deal, so we could get our CDs in stores like Best Buy and stuff. It wasn’t even a real label. But he grew it into an actual full functioning label with a full staff, moved to New York City, opened up office space, pretty amazing. And from what this label, Everfine Records, was able to do, it raised us up enough profile to actually get major label attention. And we had sold enough CDs on our own that when we went in to talk to a major label; we did have a little bit of leverage. Not to say that it was all in our favor, but to be honest it was a business decision to go with a major label. We just wanted to get our music out to more people. And so when we signed with, it was Lava Records, which was under Atlantic Records, which has since folded, now we’re moved over to Atlantic Records, but it’s all the same thing. We did sort of a joint-deal Everfine Records and Atlantic, so that Everfine would always be a part of us. It’s synonymous with us, it was created by our manager for us, by us. Everything about it, the mentality, will stay there. And they’ll continue to oversee most of our live releases while the major label will put out our studio releases. Sorry for the long answer.