WASHINGTON — Growing up in Rockville, Maryland, doesn’t guarantee a rock career any more than a Suitland childhood guarantees a career in men’s formal wear.
But that doesn’t stop O.A.R. frontman Marc Roberge from cherishing the glorious coincidence.
“Every time someone says, ‘Where are you from?’ I’m like, ‘Rock-ville.’ I just love saying it,” Roberge jokes with WTOP. “Nothing wrong with smooth jazz, but what if it was called Smooth Jazz-ville? It just wouldn’t be good for our band.”
No matter the town, it’s the “growing up” part that Roberge and O.A.R. guitarist Richard On stressed as they recently visited Capitol Hill for Arts Advocacy Day, an annual event sponsored by Americans for the Arts, the Congressional Arts Caucus and 85 national co-sponsors.
“We’re trying to bring awareness among Congress [that] we need funding,” Roberge says. “We need arts programs, arts education — we need the opportunity for our kids and our friends’ kids and our cousins’ kids to have, at the very least, the opportunity to expand on their artistic endeavors. To be able to grow up with the opportunity to play violin or work in a creative writing class or dance or any of these things. … It’s just a very scary thought that these opportunities are dwindling.”
Roberge, 36, says he’s seen the benefits with his own eyes, thanks to O.A.R.’s annual support of the Children Scholarship Fund, which sends kids to arts-friendly charter schools.
“When we first met them, it was ballroom dancing,” he says. “They would leave that and their minds were wide open and ready to learn … because they had already expressed themselves that day and gotten it out … I really do think there’s a connection between going through your daily life expressing yourself, your mind open — boom, next to the sciences, next to mathematics, next to the English language, whatever you want to study. I just really do think there’s a connection there.”
He also knows the importance of the arts through personal experience, as O.A.R. initially formed during an eighth-grade talent show at Robert Frost Junior High School in Rockville.
“We met in school; our first show was a talent show at school, it was all connected to schools … and I just don’t think I’d be working in this field if it wasn’t available to me,” Roberge says.
Roberge and On teamed with drummer Chris Culos and bassist Benj Gershman to perform a punked-out version of Eric Clapton’s “Wonderful Tonight” and a cover of Pearl Jam’s “Porch.”
“I was too nervous to stand up,” On tells WTOP. “We all sat on stools.”
Once they entered Wootton High School, it was a piece of creative writing that inspired the band’s name, O.A.R., which stands for “Of a Revolution.”
“That name came from a short story Marc wrote while we were in high school,” On says. “Marc came down into the basement and said, ‘What do you think of this phrase?’ And it was ‘____ of a Revolution.’ The reason I say ‘blank’ is there was a word there, but at the time, we just decided that no one else was gonna know that word except for us. And to this day, no one knows except for us.”
The first word remains a mystery, but what was the “revolution” about?
“The revolution was a revolution for four guys in a basement that just learned how to play their instruments, just learned how to be a band, just learned how to write songs together,” On says. “It wasn’t a musical revolution. We weren’t re-inventing the wheel or rock ‘n roll. We found a type of music … that was our own, that we enjoy playing, that was our little revolution in the basement.”
After graduating high school, the band members agreed to attend Ohio State University, where they picked up saxophonist/guitarist Jerry DePizzo.
“We were too young while we were here (in Rockville) to play anywhere that was legit. All the venues that we played were at like 1 in the afternoon, before the club opened, in front of our parents,” On says. “So we really cut our teeth in Columbus and touring around Ohio, but all those songs came from when we grew up here. What we realized is those songs translated so well. It wasn’t just about here; they were songs that everyone felt about their hometown. … So in that sense, I think it was something that spread very rapidly because everyone could relate to it.”
Two decades later, O.A.R. has knocked out eight albums, from their debut “The Wanderer” (1997) to their latest album, “The Rockville LP” (2014), an homage to their hometown.
“We wanted to express that Thanksgiving-coming-home-weekend feeling,” Roberge says. “That feeling of walking into your backyard and seeing someone you haven’t seen in five years, and instead of them coming up to you and going, ‘Hey, why didn’t you call me? Why didn’t you text me?’ it’s all good, they just give you a hug and ‘It’s good to see you’ and you just pick back up. And that’s really what it’s all about for us in Rockville. … I think Rockville DNA is all through it and us.”
No matter how far they roam, something keeps bringing the Rockville boys back to the D.C. area. During a recent Sundance show called The Way of the Rain — organized by Robert Redford’s wife, Billie — the band met Bob Lynch, CEO of Americans for the Arts. He invited them to join Arts Advocacy Day, as 550 supporters from across the U.S. came to promote pro-arts legislation.
“I think of myself when I was a kid, and I think if I didn’t have music or the arts to inspire me, then I really don’t know what I’d be doing. I think I’d be pretty lost,” On tells WTOP. “I want my kids to grow up in an environment where public education embraces the arts and they have the same opportunities to be inspired by the same things that I did when I was growing up … I would hate for them to not know what they’re supposed to be doing because they never knew the arts existed.”
While the O.A.R. boys spoke with lawmakers on Capitol Hill, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer surprised Roberge by asking him to sing an impromptu song.
“This is a person who, for whatever reason, he asks you to do something, you just do it. I think that’s why he’s the whip,” Roberge jokes. “I’m sitting there and he says, ‘Well why don’t you sing a song?’ And I’ve never sang a cappella in a room anywhere, let alone that room.”
The song was “Peace,” which the band just performed in Times Square for New Year’s Eve.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kd1QuInbV-8
“To be really, bluntly honest with you, things like that just blow my mind. I mean, I was there; my wife was five feet away from me, we’re on the big old screen, there’s confetti in the air, and I cannot believe it,” Roberge says. “I see folks up there sometimes in these types of situations and maybe they’re just in work mode and just not really looking at the scope of what’s going on as far as your luck meter. So we just feel as lucky as can be. … To be able to play songs as a job is lucky.”
Or, if you’re born in Rockville, luck might have nothing to with it.
It might just be written in the (rock) stars.
