In 1992, Ed Roland started a band with some of his friends in Stockbridge, Georgia. That band would transform into what we know as Collective Soul. Through lineup changes and various solo projects, Collective Soul still stands today as one of the most influential bands of the last three decades. Now, they’re releasing an album of songs recorded live from the past two years of touring. We had the chance to speak to bassist Will Turpin and learn more about Collective Soul Live, solo projects, and long desert drives.
Collective Soul Live comes out next month. You all cherry-picked songs from performances from the last two years. What was your line of thinking when you chose those songs?
It’s obvious that you have to pick certain hits. There were a lot of shows there, it’s not like we listened to every show and said, “there’s something special there.” We depend a lot on our sixth man, Sean Grove. He engineered, coproduced, and mixed for us over the last 10 years. We met them in 98, so our relationship with Sean goes way back. He has seen a number of live shows too. Through us just telling Sean, “hey, I think we had a great night in Canton Ohio, and I think we had a great night out here in California. Check that Florida show, I think that was a great night.” We kind of started there with Sean and then he filtered down. You listen to a baseline of all shows, which is easily over 100 shows. He listened and tried to see what we remembered. It sometimes panned out through the recorded version. Sometimes it’s like, “well I don’t think it was that great that night guys. I’m not sure which of her how much you had to drink.” Sean filters it down for us. Once Sean finished up the master list that didn’t more too much for him which songs he had already filtered it down to.
When you listened to your songs, and listened to the feedback, did you agree?
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, we had some questions for him, and things that he had to go back and listen to. Some of the things he sent us to listen to were options. It was more like, let’s see which option was the best: the show over here, or the show over there. It was filtered down from over 100 shows, but we still had options and exit talk about and discuss. In general, it’s Collective Soul Live. We still feel great about what we do. We still feel that there’s a magic there. There’s only so much we can do. We do what we do. It’s not going to vary too much from show to show. We’re splitting hairs artistically.
I would imagine that after listening to the songs over and over again, and then having to pick the best one out of all of those over the last two years might be difficult.
I guess “best” is not even be a word to use. We just let Sean filter it down. By the time it gets to us, he has done a little mix to it, and we are like, “yeah that sounds great, awesome!”
Sean is the key in the mix to keep it from being “The Best of Collective Soul” and making sure it was Collective Soul Live.
Yeah. We would never get to the end if it was only us picking the songs over 100 shows.
You all are working on songs for your 10th studio album, coming out in March/April. Tell me about that. There’s inspiration everywhere. How you guys pulling it together to focus to put out a new album.
You know it’s 23 after when we started back in 94, and Ed’s song writing is still prolific. I feel that when we get together and do our thing, it’s nice. It’s magical. We still get that feeling when we create something, “wow, dude! That is good. That feels good.” It kind of all starts there. We can talk about the evolution of the band as well. We have two new guys: We have Johnny Rabb and Jesse Triplett. They inject a new blood. It’s their second record with me, Ed, and Dean. They inject a new force and new ideas that we aren’t used to working with. That is fun and interesting as well.
I know Jesse debuted with you guys back in 2014. It’s been three years. You all still call him a newbie then?
Out of 10 records, it’s his second one, so…(laughs)
Aww he’s a littlun…aww
It’s not “newbie”, but we have all these experiences and memories. I’m trying to explain how cool it is to be recording with Jesse! We love his energy. It inspires us!
He brings in a rejuvenation?
New blood can be like that, for sure.
Very nice. You’re also a solo artist. You have a band called “The Way.” How do you balance between Collective Soul and your solo projects?
Well, I just pretty much focus on Collective Soul, and whatever time’s left goes to solo projects. (laughs) I have to get the songs out. With me and my solo lower, most of the stuff starts with me on piano and vocals, which is a lot different from the way we create with Collective Soul. I need an outlet to do things other than Collective Soul, but the primary focus, career-wise is still Collective Soul. I can’t deny these songs. I write songs all the time. Circumstances that I see someone else go through, things going on every day in life. I’m excited about my latest solo album. That will be out I imagine early February. My birthday is February 8th, so maybe we will do that. Happy birthday to me! I’m putting out a record! I’ve got a lot done. Graphic design is done. The mastering will be complete by mid-next week. I’ve been listening to mixes from guys. My solo record is called Serengeti Drivers, and it’ll be done soon. I’m excited about that too.
Serengeti Drivers? That’s an eloquent name. Where does it come from? Did you drive on the Serengeti?
(laughs) I never have driven on the Serengeti! When a lot of the songs were coming together and I was putting together the beginnings of what would be a new record, I was having this recurring dream about being in the desert walking, not driving. I would see a friend, and they would be driving and having fun. I would be in the desert saying, “what the hell are you doing here?” I wouldn’t even ask myself what I was doing there. It was a recurring dream. That’s where the name came from. It would be like, “Who are these Serengeti drivers? Hey I know them!”
What do you think the dream was trying to tell you? Maybe you should act upon it.
Maybe I did! It was supposed to be the name of the record. It really all tied together, in terms of the artwork and the songs. Maybe it was all tied together anyway.
I think you should just take the car out onto the desert and drive.
I do enjoy Land Cruisers. I have a Land Cruiser that has been modded. I enjoy Toyota Land Cruisers, which would be the best one to pick if you had to pick a car for the Serengeti.
I think for your birthday should take your Toyota Land Cruiser out driving in the desert and blast your album – all after Collective Soul of course.
Video it live!
You’ve been at this for a very long time. Do you consider yourself classic rockers?
I think there is another name for us. It’s not “classic”. It’s on the tip of my tongue! I guess we’ve entered that time. There’s a zone we’ve entered after 23 years of being in the public eye as far as rock ‘n roll goes.
Do you feel any older than you did back in 94? Is anything different?
Physically yes, mentally I don’t do as many stupid things. I guess I feel different in a lot of ways.
Is there anything that you would change from the last 20 years?
I wouldn’t change a thing!
I am enjoying your southern accent. How do you feel your “Georgia-ness” has influenced Collective Soul?
I think one thing about growing up in Georgia, the guys in Collective Soul, we gravitated toward each other because we all listened to a lot British invasion stuff – stuff that wasn’t necessarily as popular around the area. We gravitated toward each other in our high school days, because we are the minority listening to REM, U2, INXS, the Police. We were a lot more like classic rock fans, which is why we gravitated towards each other here in Georgia. I don’t think Collective Soul, in general, as a southern sound, even though we are totally inspired by the southern sound. I don’t think we have a southern sound. I think the fact that we actually like things that weren’t created in Georgia is what helped us to gravitate toward each other – because of that fondness of those songs. It helped shape our sound, if that makes any sense.
I can see where it’s a novelty – something that you don’t hear every day.
Yeah, because we wanted to be different than a lot of the things that were going on. By the way, i remember the term that I was thinking about before: Legacy. We are a “Legacy” band.
You googled that while we were talking.
No! I heard it, and it made sense to me. It’s not a classic rocker, because that describes an actual genre of sound, which we don’t really fit into. I’ll take it. I’ll take whatever.
Well, you guys are definitely Legen – wait for it – dary. Thank you so much for taking some time to speak with me today!
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