Interview With Chris Culos of O.A.R

by Erika Waddell

O.A.R. (Of A Revolution) is considered one of the top touring acts in the country. Widely known as a jam band with a huge collegiate following that has flown slightly under the pop-culture radar, the rock-reggae quintet has sold 750,000 albums and played to over 800,000 people, often sharing the stage with Dave Matthews Band. Their new album, "Stories of a Stranger," is due out in October. Courttv.com's Erika Waddell recently spoke with band's drummer Chris Culos.

Q: When was the first time you decided you wanted to be a musician?

A: Well, my dad was a drummer, so I started to learn to play drums when I was very young. The first time I wanted to form a band was when I saw Pearl Jam play an MTV Unplugged show. We were in eighth grade, [O.A.R.'s lead singer and guitarist] Mark [Roberge] and I were best friends, and we taped it and we watched it everyday after school.

Q: What other careers have you thought about going into?

A: In college I studied political science. I didn't know if I wanted to go to law school, but I interned at the state legislature, and I was a page for a couple years, so maybe something in politics. Now I think it would be nice to be a teacher.

Q: What is the best part about being a musician?

A: I get to travel around with my best friends. But I think just performing live on stage is my favorite part. It makes it all worthwhile. I try not take it for granted, but when we're out on the road all the time it's tough to be away from family, and some days are better than others when you're out for a couple of weeks. No matter what's going on in your life, when you actually get to play that show at night for two hours that's really what makes it worth it.

Q: What's your favorite part about touring?

A: When we're playing in the summer, if we get days off, we get to go out and play golf. A lot of times, promoters, if you're selling tickets, they will set you up at a golf course, and that's a nice perk.

Q: Describe the first concert you ever attended.

A: I'm embarrassed to tell you [although] it was awesome at the time. My mom took me and Mark to see Extreme. That was in seventh grade and this band Saigon Kick opened up for them.
Q: Name one musician you've dreamed about playing with.

A: That's a good question. Well, we just played with Dave Matthews Band, we opened up for them and one of the guys, Boyd Tinsley, the violin player came out and played with us, so that was pretty cool. I think it would be fun to play with like Eric Clapton. That would probably be a dream, just to see him play guitar on stage.

Q: So how do you feel about being compared to Dave Matthews Band?

A: It's a huge compliment. When you first start off you feel uneasy about being compared to anybody, but I think it's really not a bad thing being compared to probably the best band there is. I really think they're the best live band. And, aside from their music, how they operate as a business -- that alone is something that any band should be open to modeling themselves after.
Q: What do they do that's different?

A: They have this empire they built, almost building it themselves completely, keeping everything in-house. I think the biggest thing we've learned is to surround ourselves with good people, quality people, not just people that you're friends with.

Q: Where's your favorite place to play?

A: Well, I think it has to be The House of Blues in Chicago. I mean first of all it just looks cool. It's an intimate venue, but it's not tiny, it's probably 1,200 or 1,300 people, but it just has these majestic looking balconies, it's really comfortable. Anywhere in that place is a good seat. And the sound is great.

Q: When you guys tour, you do a fair amount of covers. What is your favorite cover to play?

A: "Sunday Bloody Sunday" from U2. That's probably my favorite, which I like playing because we like to play it with a little more edge than U2. We have fun playing that song, and the crowd loves it.

Q: What other covers are you thinking about?

A: A couple of guys wanted to do "Sledgehammer," Peter Gabriel, that would be kind of fun, "All My Loving" from the Beatles, and maybe "Wish You Were Here" from Pink Floyd.

Q: Since your fan base is made up of a lot of college kids, what is your stance is on downloading?

A: It absolutely helped us from the beginning. All sorts of file sharing and downloading basically was instrumental in leading to building a fan base for us, or at least spreading the word, because at the time we were struggling to get gigs. We were trying to start up our own thing, and if you can't tour, how do you get your music out to all these places? Well, on the internet you have access to get music from literally anywhere in the world. So, word of mouth and file sharing was huge for us, because it can spread without having to actually go and play at the place, and when we would go and play a city for the first time, we found that people were already familiar with the music, and were singing along, and were actually turning up at the shows.

But now that I can also sort of see the dark side of it, there are factors that I disagree with. Not like I'm taking something like Metallica's stance on the issue, but this is a job, and we all put in countless hours of time and energy to making an album, and making the songs, and then the artwork, and the whole product. The dark side of downloading music is when you don't give back to the band in any way. And I'm not saying you have to buy the CD every time, but in our case we found that people downloaded the music, then burned CDs and passed it on to their friends, they were giving back to the band by coming out the shows, by spreading it on to other people, maybe then buying a CD, or then buying a T-shirt. Supporting the band in some sense is important.

Q: What were your feelings when you heard about the Sony "payola" scandal?

A: The problem is that it's sort of an industry standard. It's this little thing that was kind of kept quiet, but it was really the way the radio world was run. It's kind of sad that you can't get on the radio without having to pay money. But in this day and age it 's sort of the way it's done, and it's a shame, because you know I remember being a kid, and hopefully it was a little different, but I remember you could call a radio station, and request a song, and it would actually get played. That day is long gone.

Q: What is the worst thing you think that record companies do to musicians?

A: How much time do you have? I mean there are a lot of things. The business is run by people with business degrees, and not necessarily people who have a love for music anymore, or understand that artists try to create a piece of music and put it out for people to hear. It's basically a business about how many units can be sold. It's the same feeling I got when I went to college at Ohio State University and feeling like you're one out of 60,000 people, and you're basically just a number, and you lose that personal side of it. Most major labels are dealing with, "we need a hit." It's not like, "we need a good quality artist or a good record."

Q: Are ticket prices for concerts too high?

A: Definitely, absolutely. The whole ticket and concert industry is weird because sometimes [tickets] are just not selling. I think it got weird when businesses like Clear Channel basically got into the beer and hot dog industry instead of music. They don't care how many tickets they sold, they'll give away thousands of tickets just so people are at the venues to buy the food and the beer, because that's where they make the money.

Q: We have a feature called "Backstage Riders" on our website Thesmokinggun.com, and we expose the backstage demands of some big-name acts. What does O.A.R. like to have backstage?

A: I wish I had some cooler things to say, but I don't think we have anything too extravagant. We have a lot of water, towels, soda, peanut butter and jelly, pita and hummus, beer. We usually like Amstel and Heinken, Jack Daniels and vodka is usually on the rider, and like Gatorade and things like that, deli tray, food tray not like green M&M's, or fresh flowers or anything. No, you know what, actually I have my own private rider, and I only wash my hair with Evian water, and there must be fresh flowers in my dressing room.

Q: Really? That's so modest.

A: I thought so. I'm just trying to scale it down.

Q: What has been the highlight of your career?

A: There's been a couple. Opening up for Dave Matthews Band was one. Being able to play on late night television was really cool. We got to play on the Conan O'Brien show, and on Dave Letterman, and I think that this new record that we're putting out is going to be a highlight. It comes out in October and it's called "Stories of a Stranger."

Q: What is one thing about being a working musician that you wish you knew when you started in the music business?

A: That's a good question. The best advice we ever got was don't expect anything, but be ready for anything. And that's something we always try to apply.

Q: Was there ever a lesson you learned in a really tough way?

A: Yes. It's not just a party. When we started our first tour we'd play a show then go out and party, go out for drinks, and it ended up not being fulfilling at all. Every night is the same thing, you wake up, you're tired the next day, the show suffers, your personal life suffers. Looking back, we do a much better job knowing how to have fun.

(Published on CourtTV.com August 4, 2005)