"When you're in the South,
you don't just go riding down a strange dirt road," says Ed Roland, sounding
as if he's ominously reciting a line from To Kill A Mockingbird. "You have
no idea what you might be getting yourself into." Such was the case when
Collective Soul set up shop in a glorified shack deep within the kudzu-blanketed
woods of their Stockbridge, Georgia hometown. After some 20 months of being
on the road, the quintet was looking forward to writing new songs and scratching
out some demos. The well-sequestered cabin proved the perfect setting.
"The house is on about 40 acres of land," says the singer/guitarist Roland,
who had actually made his home in the cabin. "That way we could make as
much ruckus as we wanted to without disturbing anyone. I mean, Dean and
I grew up two miles from this place and never even knew it existed. We
heard it used to be this little gambling house where some local boys would
go to play cards." With an open-ended schedule, the band turned the kitchen
into a performance space and began what they expected was pre-production
on what would become their third Atlantic album. "The mood was perfect,"
says Ed. "The songs were sounding really good so we kept right on recording."
Before they realized, they'd cut 20 songs. With one more creative outburst
and some help from venerable The Memphis Horns, final touches on the album
were completed at the House of Blues studios in Memphis. On this third
step of their creative journey, Collective Soul strikes a tonal balance
between the more song-oriented character of their "HINTS ALLEGATIONS AND
THINGS LEFT UNSAID" Atlantic debut and the more riff-based signature of
their self-titled second album. Confident handling of fine brushstroke
guitar work and communicative performance is readily evident, as is what
Rolling Stone has called, Ed's "flair for McCartneyesque melodic detail"
and "deft popcraft." As a songwriter, Ed found himself basking in the fade-out
of a long-term personal and management crisis. The sense of desperation
that had dogged both Ed and the band since their first experiences with
success had just begun to lift. "I write from how I feel," says Roland,
"and this time I was dealing with more emotional things than I'd ever dealt
with in my life. It was painful to write these songs, to be honest. But,
in the end, it felt more like therapy."
"In a way, Ed's lyrics speak
for all of us," says guitarist Dean Roland. "What he was writing reflected
how we were all feeling at the time. It hit home and made us that much
more passionate about what we were doing." "I'm sure the record would have
been a lot different if we didn't have to deal with those things," says
drummer Shane Evans, "but maybe that's also what makes it special." Produced
by Roland, the resulting "DISCIPLINED BREAKDOWN" shifts moods from the
bold, arresting likes of "Precious Declaration" to the quiet, reflective
"Maybe" and dramatically hushed "Everything." "These songs allow themselves
to be read in many different contexts," says Ed. "They can be experienced
as angry and disappointed or liberated and free or hurt and just generally
sad."
It's been almost three years
since Collective Soul climbed from their hometown rehearsal cellar to watch
their first Atlantic release, 1994's "HINTS ALLEGATIONS AND THINGS LEFT
UNSAID," begin its exhilarating ride. The year had started out unceremoniously:
Ed was still working at the local Reel To Reel recording studio; Dean and
bassist Will Turpin were taking classes at Georgia State University; guitarist
Ross Childress was pulling shifts at the RevCo pharmacy; and Shane was
winding out his unemployment since the lay-offs at nearby Fort Gilliam
ended his maintenance job. As "HINTS..." took off, the group took to the
stage before the mud-soaked throngs and MTV cameras at Woodstock '94 and
played a marathon string of arena concerts with Aerosmith. "Our heads were
spinning," says Childress. "It was all so surreal we could hardly absorb
what was going on." The group's first single, "Shine," earned RIAA gold
and was named Billboard's #1 Hot Album Rock Track of 1994, while winning
the Billboard Music Award for "Album Rock Song of the Year." Looking back,
what initially rang as a runaway, out-of-the-box success was the sound
of a band merely gearing up to reach its true potential. "We're grateful
for what 'HINTS...' did," says Ed of what was essentially his songwriting
demo. "We were very shocked. I'd been hoping to sell just enough to be
able to make a real Collective Soul album." Following "HINTS..." and the
unanticipated year in the spotlight, the group was finally able to hit
the studio to polish off their first fully realized band effort - a bracing
collection of guitar-driven tracks. To underscore its "debut" status, they
titled the 1995 set simply "COLLECTIVE SOUL." Accolades and airplay accompanied
the album on what would become a 76-week run on the Billboard 200. "Collective
Soul makes every note count," declared a Musician cover story. "'Deceptively
simple' is a dreadful cliche, but the music truly is simple riff-based
rock, and it's deceptive because the songs are so catchy and the arrangements
are clever. All of them." Early that year, Collective Soul embarked on
an eight-week sold-out opening stint on Van Halen's U.S. arena tour. The
group then directed the conviction and energized performance honed during
opening-slot gigs to their headlining tour. "It was our stage," says Ed.
"It was like having your own car, as opposed to borrowing your parents
all the time... anything goes." Their summer-long U.S. tour, which was
nominated for Pollstar's "Club Tour of the Year" award, was followed by
a month-long headlining tour of Europe.
From the concert stage to
the television studio, the band brought their enthusiasm before the cameras
for multiple appearances on the Late Show with David Letterman, The Tonight
Show with Jay Leno, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Fans began tracing
the bands movements through a newly launched set of internet websites,
among them the "Smashing Young Men" fan site. (If you happen to check it
out, note that Shane now denies Cheech & Chong are his favorite actors.)
Along with their other '95 highlights was the chance to contribute a track
to "WORKING CLASS HERO: A TRIBUTE TO JOHN LENNON" ("Jealous Guy"). "We
were very proud to be asked to be a part of that album," says Ed, one of
the group's five Beatles devotees. "The hardest thing about it was settling
on just one song to record." A remarkable year was capped off when "COLLECTIVE
SOUL"'s "December" single was named Billboard's #1 Hot Album Rock Track
of 1995 and won the Billboard Music Award for "Album Rock Song of the Year"
- giving Collective Soul the distinction of being the only band to earn
the award two years in a row. "December" went on to set a rock radio record
with nine weeks at #1. The band also topped the rock chart with "Where
The River Flows" and "The World I Know" (also an alternative & adult
alternative #1). After earning RIAA platinum with "HINTS...," the band
would go one better in January of 1996, with the double platinum certification
of the self-titled second album. By September, seemingly in response to
the subsequent double platinum achievement of "HINTS...," "COLLECTIVE SOUL"
surpassed the triple platinum mark.
The Roland brothers grew
up in a musical, but strict, household where listening to the radio was
monitored. As a kid, Ed heard little rock 'n' roll other than that of Elvis
Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. For their father, a Southern Baptist minister,
pop and rock music had no place in the Roland household - at first. "The
brunt of those restrictions were on Ed because he was the oldest," remembers
Will. "By the time Dean was a bit older, he could listen to pretty much
anything he wanted. Sure, there were certain records Mr. Roland didn't
want in the house, but he could play those at one of our houses. It was
never a problem." At age 13, Ed encountered "ELTON JOHN'S GREATEST HITS"
- it was the album that convinced him he'd become a songwriter. "Elton
really introduced me to rock 'n' roll," says Ed. "I remember seeing him
when I was young and thinking, 'Wow, that's what it's all about.' He was
jumping around and having a blast. I love that. As far as rock 'n' roll
goes, I guess I'm an old fashioned kind of guy." Ed took his growing passion
for music from Stockbridge to Boston, where he studied guitar at the Berklee
College of Music. After a year, he returned home to begin work at the Reel
To Reel recording studio, owned by Will's father. During more than eight
years there - much spent as the facility's head engineer - Ed earned his
technical know-how working behind the boards on demo projects with an continuing
stream of regional rock bands. With his unlimited access to the studio,
Ed also spent long hours cutting the catalog of songs he was writing on
piano and guitar - the one-and-two-take recordings that would eventually
become "HINTS..."
Nine years younger than Ed,
Dean didn't take up the guitar until he was 19. "When the inspiration hit,
it hit hard," says Dean, who had never played in a band prior to his joining
Collective Soul in early 1993. "Playing guitar was all I wanted to do.
Being in Collective Soul was part of that excitement." For Ed and Dean,
their blood relationship isn't vastly different from the one that bonds
the band as a whole. "We're all that tight," says Dean. "As a kid, I was
at Will's house as much as I was at my own. And Shane and Will have been
best friends forever and Ross hung out at the Turpin's all the time because
he lived right across the street. We've been connected that way for as
long as I can remember." Will first met the Roland brothers at the local
Baptist church, where he was part of Mr. Roland's choir. His relationship
with Ross goes back to Cub Scouts and Little League. He and Shane played
together in the marching band drum line for three years. "It's kind of
funny how our growing up together has made it so we even think alike,"
says Will laughing. "There are times we'll all show up to dinner wearing
the same shirt. We're individuals but we communicate on this weird unspoken
level. Musically, it makes for the ideal situation. Our strength is our
chemistry." In high school, Ross, Shane, and Will were constantly in and
out of bands with each other. "We'd play some of our own songs and covers
from bands like REM and U2," says Will. "But we also spent a lot of time
listening to Van Halen and Led Zeppelin and watching Rush videos." After
graduation, Will began pursuing percussion studies - primarily on marimba
and timpani - at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Though not an official
member of the group until early 1994, he'd often join the band on stage
as a backing vocalist or add percussion tracks to songs Ed was working
on at Reel To Reel. The day he joined Collective Soul, he went out and
bought his first bass. "It made real good sense because Shane and I knew
how to lock in rhythmically from our snare drum days in marching band.
I watched him learn almost everything he knows." Shane, in contrast, started
his musical pursuits when he was ten-years-old and got a bass guitar for
Christmas. Though a concert band drummer throughout middle school and high
school, he was always being recruited by friends to play bass in various
basement bands. In 1989, when the opportunity arose to play drums with
Ed in his pre-Collective outfit, Marching Two-Step, he grabbed it. Ross
began playing guitar at nine when his parents got him an acoustic guitar.
By junior high he was playing electric guitar and music had become an obsession.
"I spent so much money on records that my dad was worried about me," says
Ross, who was listening to everything from Ozzy Osbourne to Run DMC. After
high school, he played with a number of rock bands - including one that,
in late 1992, opened a show in Atlanta for Marching Two-Step. Within a
week, Ross was the newest member of the band that would soon become Collective
Soul. As much as things have changed since those early days - from arena
gigs to munti-platinum albums to their four #1 rock hits - one thing remains
constant: the attitude. "We want to work hard and keep playing music,"
states Ed. "That's what we've always wanted."
Rock
n World Biography
Named
from a line in Ayn Rand's book The Fountainhead, this Stockbridge,
Georgia band seemed to have found instant success with Thier first
album Hints Allegations and Things Left Unsaid, put out by the band.
The album saw immediate airplay on local Georgia radio, and thier single
shine
became a top request.
Yet
the band tried for along time to land a record deal, leading lead singer
Ed Roland to deside to put together a demo highlighting his song writing
talents.
With
the heavy airplay of Shine, an exect form Atlantic Records took
in interest in the band, flew to Georgia to see them play. Soon to
follow the band had a record deal, and were remastering Hints Allegations
and Things Left Unsaid, for its Atlantic Records release.
The
Single shine got major airplay on VH1, and the band landed the opening
slot on the Aerosmith tour.
The
followup record the self Titled Collective soul, featured two successful
singles, December, and The World I know.
Thier
third release was in 1997 with Disciplined Breakdown. Despite
not fairing as well in the charts this album proves that Collective
Soul is not a one trick pony, and are one of the best song writiers, and
premier bands of the present music generation. Expect great things to come
from this band.
