O.A.R. had been looking forward to visiting South Florida May 1 – soaking up some rays and bringing their feel-good musical vibe to the people of West Palm Beach – but the show almost didn’t transpire. The airline had lost the band’s guitars and equipment, throwing their 2:30 p.m. SunFest time slot into jeopardy. Thankfully the good karma O.A.R. spreads came back to them and intervened. By 1 p.m. they left PBIA with their equipment in tow and fulfilled their sun-drenched quest to rock the crowd.
According to Richard On, the O.A.R. (Of A Revolution) lead guitarist and backing vocalist, the band’s two favorite elements of SunFest were the sun and the crowd. “We got out there, man, and everyone showed up. West Palm Beach showed up! The sun and the crowd and the vibe and everyone was dancing – we all got terribly sunburned but it was well worth it.”
PBG Lifestyle caught up with On a few days after the show to learn how O.A.R. went from a small regional band in the Mid-Atlantic to a one of the best high-energy touring bands in the country. The vibe of their music and stage presence leaves audiences with a personal connection and closeness that seems to elude other bands.
According to On, “It started with the live music, because at the time that was all we had.” While home studios are today more common than ever and stars can be born overnight via YouTube, this was not the case during the band’s advent, and they lacked the funds to purchase studio time and record an album. “The only way for us to actually spread our music and to get a sense of the artistry and passion we were putting into it was through our live shows.”
Growing up in the ‘80s and coming of age in the ‘90s, numerous bands including The Cure and Led Zeppelin influenced On’s musical direction. But it was the high-energy performances of Pearl Jam that made O.A.R. want to deliver that same level of passion to their audience, combined with the pulse and vibe of Bob Marley to inspire music that simply felt good. This comes across in their live performances and is the main reason O.A.R. has become known as one of the best live bands touring today.
Back when the members of O.A.R. were hectically juggling roles as full-time students and a full-time traveling band, “we’d go to Toledo and Cleveland and Cincinnati and hit up all the local regional cities. We’d get there [and] play for the first time … the show would sell out and everyone knew all the words. And we were just like, ‘How?’”
They asked some kids after the show how they knew the lyrics, and the unanimous response was “Napster,” the once-infamous file-sharing client that has since become a legitimate music-subscription service. “Napster was a huge help in spreading the music without us actually going to a lot of these places.”
For everyone who wasn’t “digitally active” in 1999, Napster was the original MP3 file-sharing software and made it possible for musical enthusiasts to easily locate and acquire live shows and songs using the Internet instead of physically mailing CDs or digital audio tapes to one another. Although this free dispersion of their music did not bring immediate monetary rewards, it increased the band’s popularity and carved out a place for them in the national musical consciousness. “We were really able to get our music into a lot of places [where we] hadn’t ever expected people to hear us.”
Spreading the O.A.R. gospel nationally proved easier than envisioned. To develop their recognition countrywide, the band enlisted their college-age friends attending West Coast schools to distribute free CDs of the band. “We had this little O.A.R. team thing going where friends would take CDs with them and … hand out 50 CDs to any of their friends,” On recalled.
“The next thing you’d know they’d be like, ‘I need 50 more’ so let’s try to sell them … for like $2. And then they’d be like ‘I need a 100 more or 200 more.’ Next thing we know … fraternities or music venues in those areas … were flying us out to play Tuscon, Arizona, before we even played Ohio State. I think it was the help of an early street team that really helped us expand to the West Coast and get out there.”
Look out for O.A.R.’s new album King, which is set to be released August 2.
