O.A.R.’s Marc Roberge On The Rocks

O.A.R. saxman Jerry DePizzo talked with Pollstar earlier this year and described how members have been able to remain friends throughout the years.

This time the focus was on O.A.R.’s latest live set. Not only is the November released Live On Red Rocks O.A.R.’s first in-concert package depicting the band performing with a horn section, but it’s also the first live album/DVD showing the band in an outdoor setting. 

The first release on the band’s Black Rock Recorded Music imprint, included in the CD/DVD package is “Standing On A Burning Hot Sun,” a 40-minute documentary of the band’s 2012 “Summer Crush Tour.”

Roberge talked with Pollstar while he and his O.A.R. comrades were in a Bethesda, Md., recording studio writing songs, a setting that prompted our first question.

Do you usually compose in the studio?

Over the years, I think, the manner in which we write tunes often comes in waves. I’ll do a few months of just writing at home and then we’ll do writing in the studio. Then we’ll just do it on the road during soundtracks. We try to take advantage of whatever is inspiring us at the time. Right now we’re really into getting together as a group and just playing it … as opposed to hammering it out at home.

Other than the set list, what’s different about Live On Red Rocks compared to O.A.R.’s previous live albums?

First and foremost, this package is only our second DVD so filming it was different. The first one was Madison Square Garden which was an arena show and basically an indoor achievement of something that was happening in our career that was really a moment.

And this is similar in the fashion that it’s Red Rocks, so it’s another moment in our career, an achievement. It’s an outdoor venue within the mountains. What’s different about it is the fact that it’s video, shot with 12 cameras and provides a look at us in our outdoor shows.

Regarding Live At Madison Square Garden and Live On Red Rocks, are these recordings part of a trend for the band, that is, recording live performances at famous venues?

(laughs) I hope so. I look at it like this: As long as we are able to, and people come out to see us and we have the privilege of playing these shows in venues, we will document them the best we can. So one day we can prove to our kids that we really did do the things we told them we did.

It’s also the band’s first live recording with a horn section.

While I was writing a lot of these songs as a teenager, I was a fan of ska bands, everyone who was having horn sections, and I wanted that sound as well. When it became the right time, we brought them out two summers ago and let them train with us for awhile and just played. This year we wanted to document it. We have an eight-piece band out there – a horn section and Mikel Paris on the keys, who has been with us for about six years. That was an amazing thing because they bring so much energy, so much excitement to our show and to the audience. They’re young guys and they appreciate every single moment they have out there. Everything down to catering, the dressing rooms, everything is exciting. It feels like we’re doing it all over again for the first time. That was a huge impact on the show at Red Rocks, having the horn section.

As a singer, what does it feel like on stage to have the horn section kick in behind you?

I imagine in any situation where you’re in your zone, you know? In my head I always heard them; I would always write songs hearing that full sound. And when it comes in, it doesn’t even shock me. It just kind of feels perfect. I don’t know if we’ll always have a horn section. Year by year we change. But right now it’s exactly the sound I wanted to have. Jerry, our sax player, works really hard charting. I never once told them what to play. They just kind of know and it’s really cool.

How much time did you and the band spend on working out the show and its logistics before the concert took place?

I feel like we’re still dealing with the logistics. This album is done as independent as it gets. We started out our career making albums in studios similar to the one I’m in right now – recording, printing, making the album ourselves. But with this release, we are the record label. We had AXS TV, which was a huge, huge weight in this to actually make it happen, as far as the filming goes. Partners like Jeff Juliano mixing, our crew … I’d say we prepared six months before it and we are still dealing with it now. It’s all in-house production. Basically, it’s an independent record. It’s Black Rock Recorded Music’s first release and we’re really proud of it. We don’t have the marketing muscle of some of our major releases but we take a big sense of pride in the fact that we could put this thing together and get it out there with AXS TV.

Plus you have a pretty dedicated fan base that will help spread the word.

They are. These types of things, I think you take for granted. When you’re doing a major studio release, you don’t realize how much work goes into letting people know the product actually exists. When you record it, everyone’s there and you think, “Oh, the whole world [knows about it].” But months go by and you realize you really have to work hard [at marketing]. It makes you come to a real appreciation of starting in the music business and being able to do it on your own.

While performing at Red Rocks, were you able to forget about the cameras and concentrate on the music?

I was able to forget about the cameras. I never seemed to have that on my mind. I really, really focused on the fact that [this] is my therapy, that is my time. I need those two-and-a-half hours every night, so I can let it all out. I’m just doing the same thing I always do, and just having the cameras capturing it.

I filmed a documentary during the course of the summer leading up to it that caught a lot of that stuff that leads to the shows. But once I’m on stage … I used to say, “I close my eyes when the show starts and I open them when it’s over and I really don’t know what happened.”

(The documentary) is a 40-minute film called “Standing On A Burning Hot Sun.” When I was growing up, [for] my friends and I, going to a concert in the summer was a tangible memory, something I can still smell and taste. I still remember to this day, sitting in some mom’s minivan, who we picked up and in what order, and what we did at the concert.

I started looking out at the audience and I saw that these folks were doing the same thing I did. And that the summer concert experience is similar in everyone’s culture. Wherever you come from, you can always kind of rely on summer’s tastes, sounds and smells and all what that brings back. I wanted to dig a little deeper into that, talk to the fans, talk to the musicians, other folks that were doing what we were doing, and get the idea of what summer music is like. It’s something that you can’t describe in words but it is a feeling. I think we really nailed it and we’re proud at it. It’s my first shot at a film longer than five minutes.

When you and your bandmates were looking over the footage and choosing what would make the final cut, did you ever encounter particular scenes that might be considered “Spinal Tap” moments?

I don’t know. We used every bit of good footage, usable footage … There are some Spinal Tap [moments] in a sense that we are, at times, blindly cruising across the country in a bus. Having done this [for] over 10 years … we still act like 18-year-olds. That’s about as Spinal Tap as you can get. You take any band and put them in a room, they’re all going to act like teenagers. That’s what’s cool about rock ’n’ roll. Yeah, we do have that kind of dazed look every once in a while, but I don’t hate on it. It’s part of the job. It’s kind of like dumb luck. You’re driving around going, “Seriously, this is my job?” And it’s okay to be dumb because you make it by being dumb.

With so many live recordings under the band’s belt, do you prefer live recordings to studio work?

We’re really trying to find the line where live recordings and studio recordings meet for us. I think we’re a band that does very well after we can play a bunch of shows on the road and hone our craft, hone our songs into these adventures. Kind of like repetition but repetition in front of a crowd. Then we get into a studio and we do repetition with no crowd, and we get a different product.

What we’re trying to do is find that line where we can combine all those things. I think every band wants to do that, to bring that live energy into the studio. And we’ve gotten closer and closer with every recording we’ve released. I don’t see us stopping until we can, hopefully, capture that kind of energy. That’s why we do this, because of the energy we get from the live shows. We try to bring it into the studio, but there’s some push-and-pull because it’s a completely different environment.

You can talk to a ton of musicians who would probably say the exact same thing. “We really want to bring the live experience into the studio.” Well, I really mean it. We need to, and our fans expect that.

What do you do, personally, to warm up for a show?

A few years ago after experiencing some issues with singing, I got a voice coach that taught me some warm-ups that helped me avoid any surgery or anything like that. He taught it to me, and for years after that, by doing this vocal routine –warm-up and warm-down – I was able to fix all the problems I had and maintain a stronger voice. I warm up, not as much as I should, but when the throat gets cooking, I start laying off, getting lazy.

But for Red Rocks, that whole day I was a little bit nerved, not to perform, but for my voice. So I was warming up a bit. I’ve watched our drummer Chris [Culos] practice all day, every day, for years and years. Everyone is practicing all the time, so I’ve got to keep up.

What’s involved with warming down after a show?

Basically doing the same scales, whichever, a lot of people have different routines. For me a [warm-down] routine is much shorter, much quieter, much calmer, more relaxed version, a five minute thing. I just do a few scales … just to ease back down. Drink some water and call it a night. Water has become my best friend of all time.

Do you do the warm-down routines as soon as you walk off stage or is it something you do before you call it a night?

I come off stage and do it pretty much right away. We don’t do meet-and-greets after the show because I’m pretty beat. I try to take care of it. I want to have a good time but I also want to work for a long time. You see singers all over the place with vocal problems. It’s very real and it’s your job. You’ve got to take care of it.

When you watched the completed DVD for the first time, was it difficult to refrain from being overly critical of the yourself and the band’s performance?

Yeah. Completely. I’ve watched it so many times during the editing process. But Jerry’s the one who really spent hours pouring over every frame editing this thing while I would just check in every once in a while. I probably won’t watch it for a long time, and then I’ll catch it on TV. Sometimes I get a little too… I can’t watch it because I just want to get out there and play. I can’t sit on the couch and watch a live concert. I’ve got to go to the concert. It’s like a football player that’s injured or something. He just wants to get out there and play.

What’s your favorite live album?

That’s easy. And it’s not because it sounds amazing [but] because it is amazing – Babylon By Bus (Bob Marley & The Wailers). I think when we were coming up as a band, we would listen to that album. It’s not that we could relate to the music and the message. It moved us, don’t get me wrong. But I think it was more about that. It seemed as if every person in the audience was in this band. It felt like I was there. It was meant for me and meant for everyone there. The music was for the people. Babylon By Bus was a good live album but it also kind of guided our band in a way.

How long will you and O.A.R. wait until the next live album?

I think we should wait about two or three years. We record every single show. If we run into some slick venue, some crazy experience, we’re going to do it. If that happens … we just might have to give it away. I don’t know if we can keep selling it.

While O.A.R.’s 2013 calendar is still coming together, the band does have two shows on the books – Feb. 1 in Scottsdale, Ariz., at Birds Nest, and March 30 in Teton Village, Wyo., at Jackson Hole Resort. For more information, visit OfARevolution.com.