Oar The Band

Rockville-Raised O.A.R. Has An Extended Family

By Aaron Carter

When the uber-successful band O.A.R. rolls into Merriweather Post Pavilion  today, they will be returning to the region where they forged their now nationally-famous sound.

O.A.R.—which stands for Of a Revolution—originated in Rockville with the founding members attending Thomas S. Wootton High School . Those school ties continue to shape the band today, including in its connection to a family of Wootton alumni making their own mark on the world.

Rod Baharloo, brother-in-law of O.A.R. frontman  Marc Roberge , just completed his initial foray into documentary filmmaking. Rod's sister Nasim, is married to Roberge. Rod and Nasim's brother Ryan has a band of his own—called Diji Parq —and contributed his own musical talent to the O.A.R.'s latest album. Their father, Ahmad Reza Baharloo, is a well-respected international journalist most well known for his role with Voice of America .

“Film is my father’s passion,” Rod said in a telephone interview. Father and son recently collaborated on " Devolution ," a documentary about the land of their ancestors, Iran.

The film attempts to reveal the influences that shaped present-day Iran. A daunting task to be sure, Rod said he spent more than 4,000 hours editing the film. It is scheduled for release in late August.

“Once you look back, it feels great to have created something of your own,” Rod said.

Though not a member of the band, Ryan Baharloo has had a hand in creating music with O.A.R. He has a writing credit on the band’s new single “Heaven.”

When Ryan was a student at Wootton he was always different when it came to music, brother Rod said.

“He becomes the music he is making,” Rod said. “He has a serious gift.”

The creativity that the Roberge and Baharloo families possess inspires each to achieve new heights, Rod said.

“We motivate each other,” he said. “It’s not about competition, it’s about motivation.”

Nasim and Marc Roberge have an infant son, Hudson Roberge, and his uncle can already tell music is in his blood.

“He already has an ear for music,” Rod said. “He already knows how to use an IPod.”

“Mark’s talent has definitely passed on to him.”

Best Band Ever: O.A.R. » Clutch Blog

In the world that each and every O.A.R. songs lives in, beers are cold, hats are white and the girls don't mind waiting. Because, good people, there is some long-awaited chilling out to be done.

In every O.A.R. song, the curtains come down on the rest of the world so lead singer Mark Roberge can enchant you with lyrics like "When I'm chillin outside with the people I know. / I feel home, / And that's just what I feel," while the rest of the band snake-charms you to sleep with three chords.

"A lot of people said that a band like this couldn't put people in this room and have everyone feeling good," Roberge said during a sold-out show at Madison Square Garden in 2006, as reported by the New York Times .

They're a band designed for either hanging out or chanting (which is the two main interests of O.A.R. fans), not because they don't demand anything else, but because they forbid anything else. Problems? Issues? Warts? The door's that way, friend.

Even songs like "Are You Low," where Roberge repeats "I'm low, I feel low / take it slow / try to live high / you end up low" a bunch of times for three and a half minutes, sound like he's talking about his stash.

Of all the many things O.A.R. stands for, the band's central message seems to be, "Seriously--no, seriously: You can do this, too."

Look at them. They look like the guys who sold wine coolers in high school. And you couldn't write "I've been walking for about a thousand years / My feet are tired of crying all the painful tears," from "Run Away to the Top of the World"?

O.A.R. built a fan base out of people who want to feel like they're at a frat party where their friends grabbed guitars and drums, did a couple whippets and happened to all know the same song. The band's turned an accessible and a low-maintenance sound into a rallying cry.

It's not that they make it look easy, it's that they make it actually easy. Yeah, they jam in concert for dozens of minutes at a time, but trying to tell a hazed-up audience that a jam didn't sound good is like telling a German shepherd the steak that dropped on the floor wasn't medium yet.

But something about that style--refuting the phrase, "if it were easy, everybody would do it"--is just perfect for our times. After all, that's how America elects its politicians.

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