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Preview by Joshua Maloni
GM/ Managing Editor
For someone who hails from Atlanta, Georgia – some 950 miles (or 1,530 kilometers) from Toronto – Collective Soul bassist Will Turpin sure knows a lot about Canadian music.
In a phone interview last week, Turpin referenced Edgefest – CFNY-FM’s long-running outdoor summer music festival – as well as I Mother Earth, The Tea Party and The Tragically Hip. He did this having just traveled through Banff, Alberta, on the way to Kelowna, British Columbia, where Collective Soul would share the stage with Our Lady Peace.
“When they first came out, their first record was the same year as ours, 1994,” Turpin said. “When they first came out, there was a very influential radio station in Atlanta called 99X. And so, Our Lady Peace played a festival with us, probably ’95-’96, that was the first time we met. And then, conversely, Collective Soul was in Toronto all the time.”
A strong record market in Southern Ontario brought Collective Soul back to Canada with frequency. “We became great friends with those guys. We're just southern boys; laid back; and they're just really cool Canadians. So, the friendship goes back to the ’90s.”
“We really had a blast,” Turpin added. “Some of those memories still to this day, in the year 2025 – it sounds like it's almost not real – but some of those memories are some of the most fun work we’ve ever done. It was just a golden moment for all those bands. What a great moment that was. If I could relive that summer, I would do it.”
While the calendar has changed, the chemistry between the two bands has not – as evidenced on their new tour.
“The show is on fire, between us and OLP, where I could tell the very first night in Calgary. I was like, ‘Oh, this is the first night? This tour is going to be flying by the time we get over to the East Coast.’ So, buckle up. Get ready for a rock show!” Turpin said.
Technically speaking, OLP is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2025, while Collective Soul marked the same milestone in 2024. Though it’s rare for a band to stay together – and continue to find success – for such a long period of time, Turpin said the occasion really wasn’t a big deal for him or his playing partners.
“I don't know what it means. (It means) I'm getting older (laughs)!” Turpin said. “We're always thinking about what's next. It's not like we ever feel like we made anything or accomplished anything. I know we have accomplished a lot in our career, and we put a stamp on the Collective Soul legacy, but we're always still thinking about what's next. That's not in our nature to stop and go, ‘Look what this means.’ It's just not in our nature.
“It does mean that we're in a small group. There's not a lot of bands who can say that. So, outside of knowing that we're very fortunate to be able to create music for a living and do it for 30 years. Other than that, it's just, ‘Hey, man, we're a rock band. What's next? What are we going to do next?’ ”
For Collective Soul, “next” means writing and recording new songs.
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The band shot to fame starting with 1994’s “Hints Allegations and Things Left Unsaid,” which featured the hit “Shine”; ’95’s self-titled album, and smashes “December,” “Where the River Flows” and “The World I Know”; ’97’s “Disciplined Breakdown,” with “Precious Declaration” and “Listen”; and ’99’s “Dosage,” which brought “Heavy” and “Run.”
Following a short break from 2009-15, Collective Soul released five albums and one EP over the next 10 years – including last year’s “Here To Eternity.”
In a press release, frontman Ed Roland said, “People ask me if I have a hobby, but for me, it’s just music. I mean, I don’t know what else to do, because that’s what I love to do. I live in the studio, but then the time comes when I go, ‘Well, now I wanna go play live.’ I just love the creation of music, and the process of finding out what’s going to happen with it next. That defines it all for me.”
When asked to identify Collective Soul’s inspiration, Turpin said, “The same thing that always inspired us to create: It's just in us. It's an innate thing that's in us.
“And yeah, we do have some friends that choose not to create. But then we've got a lot of friends who still create just like we all do. (Tonic’s) Emerson Hart is still writing songs just like he was 30 years ago. There's a handful of bands. It doesn't change for them.
“And then there's some bands, the creative thing doesn't happen for them anymore. I've talked to people about it, and they’re like, ‘It just doesn't happen. It dried up,’ or whatever.
“But with us, it's still very fluid, and it's still about what pops in our head, and is it deserving of the world to hear it? Does the world even give a crap? And, inevitably, we always decide that, ‘Yes, I think people care.’ And we decide to go ahead and record more.”
Collective Soul, “Here To Eternity” (Photo courtesy of ABC Public Relations)
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For their latest album, the recording process took on special significance for Collective Soul, as it took place inside Elvis Presley’s California home.
“It was literally through a friend whose good friend had bought the Palm Springs house, basically on the court steps. It was auction-style, and this is probably 20 years ago when he bought it,” Turpin said. “It was a time capsule. Nobody had touched it since Elvis left. And our buddy, Tim, who had owned it, he had slowly started to just fix things up, but not renovate, because he wanted to leave it the way Elvis had left it.
“And when we knew we had this connection to Elvis' house, it was almost immediate as far as the light bulbs in our brain. You could almost physically see light bulbs above our heads going, ‘Oh, how can we get in there and record a record?’
“But it took us about three years to talk him into it, and find the time and schedule it. And man, it was amazing. We were in Elvis’ house. Set up a really cool scene and a cool vibe.
“We think all that stuff matters, the vibe and the theme when we're recording. We believe all of that matters. I think the record’s going to hold up. I think what we did at Elvis's house was inspired – and it was inspired, in part, by just us getting together as a band – but it was also inspired by Palm Springs and being at that house. It was really cool.”
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With so many songs to choose from each night on stage, Collective Soul’s setlist creation is “a great problem to have,” Turpin said.
“We have to not even think about (all our choices),” he explained. “You don't really start with a master list of all the tunes. … There's a few cornerstones, so to speak, that are going to happen. And we're not too pretentious to be like, ‘Oh, we can't play our hits, because we got other songs.’ … But we can't play all the hits, with that being said.”
“We basically start with the cornerstones,” Turpin noted. “ ‘How are we going to start the show? What's that going to look like? How do you want to end the show? “OK, ‘December’ is going to go right in here somewhere. Let's put ‘Shine’ in the first third this year,” ’ and then we just try to see which songs kind of fit our vibe, and we toy around with a bunch of different songs – because, obviously, we do have a large catalog. And we've never been known for filler. That goes way back to the ’90s. Collective Soul is not known for filler. …
“But it's a great problem to have – and it's not really a problem. It's actually a luxury. If I had to spin it, I would tell you it's more of a luxury than a problem.”
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