A huge upcoming tour and a huge upcoming record? What more could you expect from the huge band, O.A.R.? The tour and the record, among other things, are sure to be awesome, so check out the dates to find out when O.A.R. will be in your town! You won’t want to miss it! Tour dates can be found following the interview.

Meagan Messina was lucky enough to interview Benj Gershman from this hit band as he took a break in recording to talk about what’s going on with O.A.R.

Meagan Messina: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview! Could you introduce yourself and tell me what your role is in the band?
Benj Gershman: My name is Benj Gershman, I play bass in the band O.A.R.

MM: How did you guys form as a band?
BG: Well, O.A.R. formed kind of in stages. We officially became O.A.R. when I started playing music with Richard, Marc, and Chris back in Rockville, Maryland. They had been in another band and Chris and Marc were friends before that. We formed just by starting to play together and we just never stopped. O.A.R. evolved and Jerry DePizzo joined the band when we got out to school at Ohio State, and that’s kind of a quick trip through the 10 years up to now, kind of how and what O.A.R. is.

MM: How did you guys get the name O.A.R.?
BG: O.A.R. is actually a phrase, the letters stand for a phrase from a story that our singer Marc wrote, the story is called The Wanderer. O.A.R. stands for Of A Revolution. And it was kind of an idea in a story about positive change and for us it meant doing something we really enjoy and spending time with our friends. It just felt good, it was a good thing that came around in our lives, that was the revolution. And later we started the political one where we took over small countries – no I’m just kidding.

MM: For the few who haven’t heard your music, how would you describe your sound?
BG: O.A.R.’s sound is I would say island vibe roots rock, if you would ask one of us. That’s the simplest, easiest way to put it.

MM: So you guys are recording now, right?
BG: Yes, we are.

MM: How’s that going?
BG: It’s going really well. We’re just kind of going through some demos. Just working, you know, trying to deal out some new songs.

MM: What’s next for you guys?
BG: We got a whole tour ahead of us. Our next show is in Tempe, Arizona, we’re playing the Tempe Music Festival. Then we go out on the road, we’re going to be playing with a great band called Ludo, and you can expect us to have some fun on the road basically playing old songs, trying out some new songs, keeping shows energetic and spontaneous. It’s gonna be fun. It’ll be a good tour.

MM: What is life on the road like?
BG: I would say life on the road is a lot like summer camp. Summer camp with a few responsibilities. You have to make sure you have a good show, and you have to take care of yourself and all those kinds of things because that’s your job. It’s a lot of fun, we’re out here with our friends. We’re having a good time doing something we love with our friends.

MM: Do you play pranks on each other on the tour bus?
BG: Yeah, we play pranks a lot actually. That’s kind of a standard with us. We have these bands that go on tour with us and we end up becoming close with them, you know friends, and we mess with them more than we prank each other. At the end of a tour we usually will do something between the other band. I remember we took a bunch of deli meat and put it on Army and Me from D.C., they’re friends of ours. So we just kind of mess with people, it’s, like I said, summer camp. There’s certain rules, you can’t go in someone’s bunk or something like that, but there’s ways to get everybody and have a good time.

MM: What’s your philosophy on music?
BG: Oh boy. I don’t know, I don’t have one. That’s a big question. You’re quite good at what you do! I think music is a language and it’s a way to communicate with people. Philosophy on music, I really couldn’t answer that too well, I’m not a good philosophizer. 

MM: Is there anything else you’d like to add or say to your fans?
BG: Thanks for supporting us, we really appreciate everybody who has been a part of what we do! We take it to heart!


Meagan Messina is an interviewer with Musiqtone. You can contact her at meaganmessina@musiqtone.com

(C) 2007 Musiqtone. All Rights Reserved. Any part of this interview cannot be used without written express consent from both the representatives of O.A.R. and Musiqtone.