Paddling upstream with O.A.R.

By Shannon McAleenan

With the same line-up they started with in high school, O.A.R. has gone from small-town Maryland jammers to international stardom, with a heaping pile of help from college student word of mouth. Within a week of its release, its latest album, All Sides, reached No. 13 on the Billboard 200 Chart and No. 3 on the Billboard Digital Albums Chart, making it O.A.R.’s best debut of its 12-year career. Before the guys hit the road for their fall tour – final stop, St. Augustine Amphitheatre on Oct. 4 – drummer Chris Culos chatted with Drift about their roots, digital music and Playstation.

Drift: O.A.R. has kept the same lineup since 1996. How have you guys maintained and avoided the infighting that sometimes comes with rock bands?

Chris Culos: Basically, we were friends early on, before we formed the band together. I think that has always helped us. We do a good job of keeping things open, and if we have a problem, we talk about it sooner rather than later. We just try and keep a balance ­– I mean, we started off in high school and then went to college together, and now we’ve been touring for so long together; we’re all at a different stage in our lives. We had to adapt to it. Maintaining that we’re friends first has been key.

D: Any story behind your full name Of A Revolution?

Culos: Yeah, there is a story. When we formed the band we were 16 years old, and Mark had written a short story that all of our songs at the time were based off of – either characters or little side stories that were part of the tale. We took the name of the band from a sentence in that short story. We thought it sounded cool. It was significant to us at the time. We were 16 years old and had all been messing around in a couple different bands. When we formed O.A.R., it was the finally the music we’d been wanting to make. It was a new direction for us.

D: The band is well-known for admitting that, like the Grateful Dead, you’ve benefited from your fans recording and trading your music. Has that open access solidified your fan base?

Culos: Absolutely. It’s something we’ve embraced since early on. I think it’s helped us tremendously. We’ve only been on a major label for a few years now, and the opportunities have been great. But, I think the biggest thing that has ever happened for us and for our success has been word of mouth. Whether it’s been online with file sharing or like what you were talking about with allowing the taping of shows, it’s been great for us. Whole communities of people have formed who’ve been excited and interested in participating in what it is that we do out on the road. Even if they don’t come see us on the entire tour, they have access to listen to the entire tour. It’s been great on so many levels. The easiest thing, on the surface, is that is keeps us wanting to change things up a little bit. We change our set lists every night. We do new versions of songs. Eighty or 90 percent of the set, you’re going to get something different than the night before. And that gives people a reason to want to tape the show and to hear other versions. Also, it gives the audience something to talk about, critique.

[FOR THE COMPLETE INTERVIEW, PICK UP THIS MONTH’S ISSUE OF DRIFT]