Oklahoma City alt-rock outfit Aranda has come a long way from its first gig, which saw brothers Dameon and Gabe Aranda playing air guitar and lipsynching for their grandparents.

Aranda has been nearly a lifetime in the making, but it almost didn’t happen after a record deal with Sony fell apart in the early 2000s. The group neared total dissolution when an upstart rock label made a new offer. Soon, the group was sharing stages with the likes of Shinedown and Papa Roach.

“The band was pretty much broken up,” Dameon Aranda said. “It was something out of nothing. We weren’t expecting anything, and it’s worked out great.”

That opportunity came on the heels of his work as a songwriter alongside Color Me Badd’s Sam Watters.

Two of the tracks from Aranda’s 2008 self-titled debut, including “All I Ever Wanted,” subsequently were covered by Kelly Clarkson on her 2009 album, titled after the song.

“She called me and made sure she had permission to do it,” Dameon Aranda said. “I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? This is awesome!’” That speaks to the range the group enjoyed with its earlier material, recalling anything from All-American Rejects to Spoon. That focus was narrowed into something harder with the new album, Stop the World, which will be celebrated Saturday at Diamond Ballroom.

“We got pushed a little bit into the active rock scene. I love this album, but it was a little bit of stretch for us to go this heavy,” Dameon Aranda said. “It was almost like doing a caricature of yourself. It was us imagining that we were in a heavi er group than we actually were.”

Just like before, the entire project was almost shelved before release; luckily, Aranda found a way to make it happen, and reactions are the most positive the band has received. Dameon Aranda is glad that the years working with his brother are paying off.

“There is something special when we are together. That’s why we kept it going,” he said. “It’s like the Thunder: It takes a while to find that chemistry, but once you do, it’s time to go after that brass ring.”