INTERVIEW: Dean Roland breaks down Collective Soul’s big year
Photo: Collective Soul consists of, from left, Johnny Rabb (drums/background vocals), Will Turpin (bass/background vocals), Ed Roland (vocals/guitar), Dean Roland (rhythm guitar) and Jesse Triplett (lead guitar/background vocals). Photo courtesy of Lee Clower / Provided by ABC PR with permission.
Collective Soul, the alternative rock band that first hit the scene in the mid-1990s, is celebrating three decades of musical excellence in 2024. To mark the anniversary, the guys have released a new double album, Here to Eternity, and they are touring across the United States with Hootie & the Blowfish and Edwin McCain.
Today’s Collective Soul consists of Johnny Rabb (drums/background vocals), Will Turpin (bass/background vocals), Ed Roland (vocals/guitar), Dean Roland (rhythm guitar) and Jesse Triplett (lead guitar/background vocals), according to press notes. Recently Hollywood Soapbox had the chance to talk with Dean Roland about the process of making Here to Eternity and how Elvis Presley’s house helped influence the making of the double album. Here’s what he had to say …
On the excitement of celebrating 30 years …
“We released a new record last week, feeling good about it, got a tour coming up, made it through 30 years of being a band. That might be the biggest accomplishment, I think.”
On what day one of the new album looked like …
“We had been touring. I think our last record came out in 2020 or 2021, I think. That time gets mixed up. We had a couple of friends who own the Elvis Presley estate in Palm Springs, and we knew that we were going to record a record somewhere, whether we did it in Atlanta or we took our gear somewhere else. We just threw it out there. ‘Hey, would you all be cool if we set our studio up at the Elvis house and record?’ They were like, ‘Yeah, go ahead,’ so we did that for six weeks. Once we got in there, we didn’t intentionally set out to do a double album, but once we were in there and we kind of hit the momentum, we just kept going and made the most of it and came out on the other side with a double album.”
On when they knew they had enough songs for a double album …
“I think we just ran out of time. We were just cruising. Almost like when you’re in a mode of working and having fun, you lose sense of time and all that. It was on more of a macro level. We were all there. We were all living in a house near Elvis. One was the Burt Lancaster house that Burt owned, and one was the Elvis house that we kind of split up. We were just having fun, recording like we did many years back where we would just go live together, get together and record. We just lost track of time and woke up. It’s like ding, ding, ding, OK, guys, it’s time to go guys. You’re done.”
On the differences between recording in the same room vs. remotely recording …
“We’ve been doing that [recording in the same room] for the past two records. When Jesse, our lead guitar player, and Johnny, our drummer, joined the band, it just re-energized and put new blood in the band for Ed, Will and myself. The chemistry, musically and personally, worked. We try to track as much live as possible, so when we got to the Elvis house, we set up in the living room. And everybody found their spots, and we just went for it, man. We had fun with it. We recorded remotely in the past, but given the opportunity and my preference, yeah, let’s get in a room and just play it, figure it out. You have that immediacy of eye contact. Is this working? Is that working? It’s instant, and that’s so much more fun. I feel like it creates a healthy degree of urgency to the music.”
On whether they tested the songs on the road …
“We had played a handful of the songs last year on tour, and then while we were recording this album, we took a week off and went and just played some shows. The Elvis house is in Palm Springs. We did West Coast shows, so we were able to test out some of the new stuff live.”
On the power of staying independent …
“We’re independent. We’ve been independent since 2000. We made a conscious decision to leave Atlantic Records and go out on our own. It’s up to us at the end of the day. You listen to people. We have our inner circle that we’ll play the music for and get the feedback on. You just have a go with how you want to present the record, the first impression. This record, it’s a difficult one to have a first impression because there are 20 songs, and there’s a variety.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Collective Soul’s new album is Here to Eternity. They are currently touring with Hootie & the Blowfish and Edwin McCain. Click here for more information.
