Before O.A.R. came to play a concert at Brandeis, justArts called up Benj Gershman, the band's bassist, to talk about the current tour, the group's high-school beginnings and exactly why that game of poker was so crazy.justArts: Let's start off talking about the format of the Sony PlaySation 2/M.L.B. 06 tour. What is different about this tour than the others you have been in?

Benj Gershman: We are gonna have some locker room type set-ups in the front to play some PlayStation games and MLB games so there are other things for people to be involved in besides the show. We'll be around hanging out and playing video games, so there's a chance for people to get to meet us, or whatever. The show itself will have a video screen onstage. But it will just be fun as always.

JA: As a band that got its beginnings as group of high-school friends, what sort of inspiration do you give for aspiring musicians at Brandeis?

BJ: We've been together since high school and we started playing for our friends and people that we were close with. I would hope that people would see that you don't have to sign a major-label deal right away to keep a band going. I think that we are an example of that. I just think that there are a lot of different ways to do it. We're not the only model to follow if you want to follow someone's model. But there are definite advantages to doing it yourself for a long time and building up a support network on your own instead of looking outside for help. But there is a point where it does help for people to reach outside to gain more of a fan base.

JA: What was it like playing as a frat band at Ohio State

BG: The reason why we played at frats was because we were friends with people in frats. It wasn't that we were a frat band or anything like that because we played for people that we wanted to hang out with. But we grew out of that and grew through the Internet and Napster.

JA: What do you think of music pirating?

BG: For us, it allowed us to get out to fans who otherwise wouldn't have been able to get a copy of our CD because we didn't have a distribution deal. I'm on the fence about music pirating. I think that music and entertainment is a little pricey, but I don't think that people have the right to just take anything that is copyrighted.

JA: Stories of a Stranger was a much tighter departure from the band's typical free-wheeling sound. How much of this was a conscious decision?

BG: A very conscious decision. We wanted to become tighter as a songwriting unit and more mature as a band. A lot of the stuff we had put out was our live recordings. Putting out a studio album that we were proud of was something that we hadn't really done yet. So it was a chance to put all of that together.

JA: Was the band at all worried about alienating the fans more accustomed to a jam-band-type sound?

BG: I don't know. I guess there were some worries, but at the same time no one is going to love what you do all the time. So you don't do it for them, you do it because it makes sense for you at that time in your life. That's one of the reasons why we did it. Not for anyone else. It was just out of the need to grow as a band.

JA: So many of your songs are inspired or seem to be inspired by stories. What is the story behind "Crazy Game of Poker"?

BG: I didn't write it, but the story generally goes that Mark and Chris were in Israel and they wrote the song about the ups and downs in life. Just learning from and getting past the obstacles and also growing from them. The different games are the different stages in life. That's a rough version.

JA: After so many years playing together, how close do you feel to your roots as a group of guys from high school who began playing together?

BG: I feel very close to it. My family and I are really tight, and everyone in the band is tight. It's not the type of people we are to forget about any of that.