O.A.R. has been touring and making Birmingham stops for nearly 20 years. From the band’s earlier, more jam-heavy days, which featured hits like “That Was a Crazy Game of Poker”, to its more modern recordings like “This Town,” “Shattered” and “Heaven,” their near annual stops in the Magic City are well known for their energetic stage show.
Lead vocalist Marc Roberge spoke to Weld about The Rockville LP, the jam scene, an upcoming Lynyrd Skynyrd tribute show the band will be a part of in Atlanta and nearly 20 years of making music.
Weld: You’ve been doing this for nearly 20 years. I know it seems like yesterday — and it does to me, too — but what’s changed the most?
Marc Roberge: Geez. This is something that’s dawning on me, too. I feel like it comes up almost every day at home, just out of disbelief. “Wow, this is incredible that we can keep doing this.”
Then in your writing, you’re sitting there going, “I feel the same.” Everything feels the same, but you just learn how to navigate things and events that try to throw you off course. So over the course of 20 years, you’re together in this family, this band. You’re cruising along. Something happens, you guys all adjust together. The next thing you know, time goes by. What’s changed? It’s hard to even recognize, because it’s been such a “together” kind of road, and we all kind of keep it the same while we navigate it together.
You don’t feel the changes because you’re in this bubble.
Weld: You’ve added some instrumentation along the way, but no one has really left. What’s the secret to keeping that core together for so long?
MR: It all relates. What we’ve tried to create from the first day when we were 16 years old, getting together as a group was never something we said, “We’re going to be like this. You have to wear this. You have to play this.” It was always a “be yourself” environment.
As that environment grew and we added band members, from three to four to five — Michael Paris comes along and that was nine years ago on keyboards, then John Lampley and Evan Oberla and the horn section, that was coming up on three or four years ago — I think people really feel comfortable and we don’t challenge you to blend in. We just challenge you to be yourself. That’s how we relate.
So I don’t think people want to leave and we don’t want to get rid of people, because when we bring in folks, it’s because we’ve done our due diligence, we’ve thought about it. It’s something we want to do.
Weld: Do you want to be considered part of the jam scene, or do you care?
MR: Yeah, I mean, that’s cool. I would love to be considered part of any scene where people want to have fun and enjoy our music. That’s awesome. I think in the beginning, we had no idea where we fit in. When I came up, my older brother Jeff was in a band called Foxtrot Zulu, which was very much a jam band, very much in the “scene”: Disco Biscuits, Foxtrot Zulu, Strangefolk – all these really cool jam bands. So I came up watching that, and that’s why I went out on tour and wanted to be a touring musician; I’d watch my brother and his band in my mother’s basement, eat all the food and have a great time.
They were awesome guys. I loved them and their music. That was a huge inspiration for me to do this in the first place. When we started playing, we emulated them in a sense of, we stretched out our songs, I got to tell stories on stage, we were writing and developing music live during concerts.
That was something that we just did naturally. This whole band, this whole thing was just a part of our lives that we just considered a long-term thing, and we stretched it out onstage. People would say, “Oh, they’re in the jam scene.” And I think the jam scene got psyched about that for a minute, and it kind of became this vibe thing where we could go play festivals but we were always the underdog. And I quite liked that. I enjoy being challenged. We never knew what genre we fit in. We’d have songs on the radio, and we’d have songs here and there. To be accepted in any scene would be awesome. It’s not that we don’t care, it’s just that we’re not really looking for acceptance, you know?
Weld: Your live show is obviously an important part of what you do – how important is the success of the live show to your success as a band in 2014’s industry climate?
MR: I have no idea what’s going on in the industry. It’s hard to keep track of; it’s definitely getting smaller by the second. It’s so boiled down and there are so few artists that get the exposure at the mainstream level, so you know, no one really knows that a lot of bands exist. Your job is to go out there and play live music and bring it to them. That’s the most important thing of our band; a huge part of our operation since we started has been our live show. Because of the jam bands that we watched – bands like Dave Matthews Band. Pearl Jam was the biggest inspiration. That’s our job; that’s our job, to go play live music. Our job isn’t to be pop stars; that isn’t the world that we came up in.
Relevance? We have no idea. We just keep doing what we’re doing. We’re having so much fun doing it – we’re just trying to create our own world, you know?
Weld: Because you guys have been so reliant on the live show, have you even noticed the shape of the recording industry?
MR: Ohhhh yeah, we’ve noticed. [Laughs] Listen, from a business standpoint, you need to rely, wholly, on your touring and your merchandise; your business outside of record sales. Unless you’re selling millions of copies, it just doesn’t matter in the sense that, you’re not expecting it.
We’ve noticed that completely. We came up because of Napster and a couple of other important factors; so we really got to see the whole arch. Now, I don’t think downloading is a big thing anyway; I think downloading is now out. Streaming is it, right? So that’s it. We’ve seen it go from selling tapes in parking lots at high schools for five bucks, making CDs, switching over to Napster – we’ve gotten to see the whole arch of that. It’s been fun.
Weld: It’s why I wanted to ask, as your band’s lifespan has been over the course of those huge changes, and now we’re back to vinyl.
MR: Exactly! We’re redoing all of our old albums on vinyl.
Weld: Oh yeah?
MR: Absolutely! So this is a big thing; you’re the first person I’ve told this; now that I’m telling you, I’m realizing it. Yeah, we’re going to go back and remaster everything and eventually put it into a product that’s killer on vinyl. We’ve got a really great engineer and a good hookup, so we’ll see what happens.
Weld: The Rockville LP was released earlier this year, and it’s much quieter. What inspired that gentler approach?
MR: I think The Rockville LP just felt really right from the time the second piece was written. The piece was written in a couple of hours and it was a very smooth, fun process in Nashville. We sat back and said, “Okay, now let’s write the rest of the record. We’ve got a group of songs that really make sense for where we’re at as a group.” Really honest songwriting about what we’re seeking and really all that is is, like everyone really wants to get through tough or weird times and have a fresh view on life again. That’s what the piece is about and we said, “Let’s make the rest of the album a celebration — a celebration of where we came from.” That’s the Rockville area in Maryland.
Quieter – it’s quieter, I think, because it’s really focused in so many different ways. I took the helm on producing the album and, for the singles, I teamed up with guys like Nathan Chapman and Gregg Wattenberg who totally helped create and anchor this thing. I think it’s a totally different personal touch this time around, from songwriting to engineering; the engineer of the album is a longtime friend who did all of our early records. It was just a really familial, familiar thing.
Weld: You just finished a tour benefiting Habitat for Humanity – how successful was that project?
MR: It was awesome. We reached our goal, which was very important, especially when you go through a summer tour – you’re not sure how many people are going to come to shows. Things change. So you set a goal of money to raise for Habitat and you’re doing it right there with some money from the tickets, and we reached it. And that was awesome. People are awesome for donating. We got to do three or four builds, we got to do events, we got to meet families every day on tour. That was huge for us! I mean, you need to be reminded constantly. We were at a build in the city that we’re from – you’ve got to be reminded constantly that it’s important to band together. Being alone and being on your own is cool sometimes, but I think we create really good things when we do it together, and Habitat really showed that to us all summer. It was a really good growth period for me personally.
Weld: What is the most memorable night you’ve had in Birmingham?
MR: Oh my gosh, I’d have to say Sloss, obviously, because so many memories of mine are there. When we came through there in the early days, there were all of these stories that go along with venues and Sloss had so much interesting background and history. Gosh, those are probably some of the most memorable nights; getting lost out there. That was pretty scary. [Laughs]
Weld: When you leave Birmingham, you’ll head to a Skynyrd tribute in Atlanta. How did you end up on that bill?
MR: So this is one of the biggest honors that I’ve ever had, right? For me when I was growing up, bands were it. I love artists like Bob Dylan, but the band dynamic was huge for me. These are bands that I listen to – the first tour that we ever went on, the first band we were able to watch from the pit and look up at a big stage was them. And we turned around to take a picture, someone took a picture for us, and behind us, a couple of the guys ran up behind and photobombed us.
So we kept that picture and a couple of weeks ago we got that phone call and we’re like, “What?” So that was cool to be given that opportunity and for Don Was to be involved as executive producer, you’re in the best hands around. I’m completely at their mercy – whatever they need, whatever they want. We’re going to do one song and enjoy the show.
Weld: What song are you doing?
MR: That’s up for debate right now. A lot of people are vying for the same song.
Weld: Any chance you test in out in Birmingham before you go over?
MR: Oooooh yeah. [Laughs] I’m sure we’ll be doing it all day.
Weld: What are your top three Skynyrd songs?
MR: For me, “Tuesday’s Gone” brings back a lot of memories of being home around my friends. “Free Bird” is a big part of your life and “Simple Man” is something I love. Those are my top three…”Sweet Home Alabama”…the hits.
Weld: Have you guys ever done [R.E.M.’s] “Don’t Go Back to Rockville” live?
MR: No, man, but when you grow up in Rockville, there’s like five things: F. Scott Fitzgerald is buried there, Zelda Fitzgerald stayed at the institute up the street and R.E.M.’s “Don’t Go Back to Rockville,” which is not about Rockville, Maryland. We think it’s about Rockville, Georgia, but we don’t know. I’m going to ask Stipe if I ever see him again. He was actually around one time and I didn’t have the courage to ask him.
O.A.R. returns to Iron City on Sunday, November 9. Andy Grammer will open. Doors open at 7 p.m., while the show begins at 8 p.m. General admission tickets are $35.