BAND CALLED THE OAKS GROWS MUSIC WITH A MISSION
Its first CD, which features original music, raises money to aid Afghanistan.

Debbie Barr | Special to the Sentinel
Posted November 12, 2006
ADVERTISEMENTS


When it comes to making music, Ryan Costello of Winter Park and Matt Antolick of Winter Springs are marching to the beat of a different drum.

Costello and Antolick, co-founders of the band The OaKs, believe in creating music with a message and a mission.

Their first compact disc, titled Our Fathers and the Things They Left Behind ($10, Jupiter Studios), uses original music to further humanitarian aid projects in Afghanistan, where Costello, 28, recently worked to help refugee families find creative ways to cultivate the land for survival.

In the process, he connected with Afghan fathers, mothers and children who made a lasting impression on him.

"I experienced all these different things that I felt like people in America don't get to experience but need to become aware of. Music is one of the best ways to express thoughts," Costello said.

Half of the sales from the album will go toward funding two programs in Afghanistan sponsored by Global Hope Network International, a humanitarian and aid organization with a branch in Orlando.

The nonprofit agency heads up the Hope Center for Agriculture and Nutrition based in the capital city of Kabul, where Costello worked as director of agricultural development from 2003 to 2005. The agency also runs a program that teaches Afghan widows employable skills, such as jamming fruit and making quilts.

The 10-track CD was pieced together from song ideas Costello began working on while in Afghanistan.

When Costello returned to Central Florida a year ago, he and Antolick, 31, set those impressions to music.

The lyrics of the songs are meant to inspire introspection, selflessness and the search for truth "woven into the kind of music that just moves us," Antolick said.

Antolick and Costello embodied these themes in two anchor songs telling the story of Hugh Thompson, a helicopter pilot in Vietnam who risked his life to save Vietnamese civilians during the My Lai Massacre in 1968.

"We felt like it was a great story that needed to be told, but we also felt like it was the perfect vehicle to illustrate the concepts we wanted to talk about," Costello said.

"The message is just the search for truth; the struggles along the way are just part of it."

In the song "My Heart Is Weighed and Found Wanting, Kabul," Costello writes about "the dark parts" of himself that surfaced while in Afghanistan: his struggle to stifle his own selfishness amid the suffering around him and his fight to avoid desensitization to it.

"Even having 'given up everything' to go to Afghanistan, I'm still sitting in the middle of all these refugees, and sadness and need, and being selfish. . . . I'm still having to push away the selfish parts of myself and learn how to help people," Costello said.

In the divider track of the album, the band has interwoven music with audio of Afghani men and women speaking in their native Farsi accompanied by the everyday sounds of children crying, laughing and playing in the background.

The audio for the track, titled "Survey for a Distribution of Winter Clothing," was recorded by Costello on videotape while he was assessing needs and handing out winter clothing to squatter households in the poorest regions of Kabul.

The audio is a poignant reminder of the similarities all people share in the small, everyday activities that make up life, Costello said.

Antolick added that hearing the voices of Afghani families transported him directly to Kabul.

"This track in particular evokes a lot of imagery for me. It's really emotional and inspiring because I feel like I'm there," Antolick said.

Costello and Antolick became fast friends and bandmates during their college days at the University of South Florida in Tampa.

After graduating and going their separate ways to experience "real life," they joined up again last year.

"When we started to write songs together, there seemed to be such a deeper message and concept to it," said Costello, a social worker at the Children's Home Society in Orlando.

Antolick works as a musician at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center.

Beginning in January, the musical duo spent eight months working around their day jobs to piece together the album in Costello's living room.

Costello provided vocals, guitar and keyboard tracks for each song, while Antolick laid down tracks for percussion, drum set, marimba and vibraphone. Naomi Schalm of Orlando contributed backup vocals.

Now that the album has been recorded, Costello said the band has expanded to six members to begin live local performances.

Newest members include Greg Willson on guitar, Jeremy Siegel on bass, trombone and mandolin and Tim Cocking on keyboard, harmonica, accordion and trumpet.

The band will promote the CD during shows, which will also include a combination of audio, video, photos and Afghan artifacts collected by Costello.

Costello and Antolick will begin pounding the pavement to partner with local retailers to sell the CD, available at Park Ave CDs in Winter Park and Orlando.

"People really do want to do good. This gives a clear outlet for that. Here's a clear channel for change," Antolick said.

The OaKs will be performing at the Anti-Pop Musical Festival on Wednesday at the AKA Lounge, 68 E. Pine St. in Orlando. A festival pass costs $10, and the doors open at 8 p.m.

To listen to tracks or find out more, go to theoaksband .com.