O.A.R.’s career has blossomed over the past 12 years, from a quaint Maryland basement to three sold-out shows at the renowned Madison Square Garden. The band’s most recent studio album, “King,” reached new heights of success when it hit number three on the iTunes chart the day of its release, as well as reaching number 12 on the Billboard top 200 chart. The Bite chatted with saxophone player Jerry DePizzo about the long journey of success the band has had and his craving for the Florida sunshine.
What is the best thing that has happened to you while you have been on tour?
Man, that’s a great question. Let me think. You know what, let’s go to another question, and let me think about that as we go through. With 15 years of touring there has been a lot of cool stuff.
What do you enjoy most about being onstage?
Being on stage is the most natural calm that I feel to be honest with you. Probably the serenity of it. I walk around in everyday life, and I’m always trying to read what is going on and see where I fit into everyday life, and when I get on stage it’s just like, “Wow this is where I feel comfortable.” What I enjoy most is that it gives me an opportunity to really just be me.
Throughout the years, do you feel that your music has changed? If so, how would you describe that change?
Absolutely, I’d say it has definitely changed, but it has mostly evolved. It has grown, it’s matured, much like I have. I met the guys when I was 18 years old at Ohio State University. I was at a completely different point in my life. I was just soaking it all in and trying to make sense of it all. Now that I’ve got a couple of years under my belt doing it, it seems we’ve always worked hard to grow and adapt…I would say our music has definitely evolved and developed more layers of dynamics to it…You go through life, you experience more. You become deeper, and there’s more texture.
If you could give advice to someone going into the music business, what would it be?
I think what really thrives is having a unique identity, something that sets you apart from someone else. My first piece of advice would be to let your freak flag fly. Be your own person. That is what is going to get you noticed—if you are different from everybody else. The second thing I would say is there is no magic potion. There’s no secret to it; it is really just talent and hard work. Focus on your songwriting, write good tunes, be your own individual and work your [butt] off. If you do that, you will be successful in the music business and any other business to be honest.
What’s your favorite song to perform live?
Let’s see, I’ll go by different stages or evolutions of the band. The early stuff, like the early early early stuff, I like a song called “Night Shift.” It is really happy, and once you play the opening chord everyone starts bouncing up and down and is just having a good old time. I love that song. It’s a lot of fun to me. Then we started to branch out and get a little weird with songs. There is a song called “Whose Chariot.” I love that one because it’s probably the most emotion to date in an O.A.R. song. Again, it’s really unique in itself. Let me think of the new stuff…We just wrote a new song called “Peace,” and we are probably going to play it when we come to Orlando in a couple of days. It’s just a really, really special song. It just talks about how everyone needs that little serenity in their life. It’s kind of a song that says to try and go out there and find that moment of serenity, find those people and those things that are going to get you there, because we all need it.
What is your favorite city to play in and why?
I love playing in…Well, I preface this with saying that I am really excited to go to Florida. Especially in November…I am looking forward to getting a tan. I’m very pale in Ohio right now. Let’s see, I love Charlotte. It’s just a place I really dig. I have really great friends there, and I love hanging out at Lake Norman. That’s a blast for me…That’s just one place that rings true to me, and it just feels like I’m going on vacation, but I’m going to play a show. So that’s a pretty special place for me.
Have you thought about the first question?
A really cool thing happened this summer. We were out with Andrew McMahon and Allen Stone, two good friends of ours who were out on tour with us. We were always looking forward to doing cool covers, so we did “Born to Run,” which is a Bruce Springsteen song, in New Jersey in front of a lot of people. As a saxophone player, he has had a lot of influence on me…Everyone should be able to play Bruce Springsteen [songs] in New Jersey in front of a lot of people. It’s absolutely insane. That’s the freshest on my mind.
