recess Senior Editor Yoav Lurie got on the phone with Collective Soul’s bassist Will Turpin who will be performing on the main quad for Last Day of Classes along with fellow rockers Dean and Ed Roland (guitar and vocals), Shane Evans (drums) and Joel Kosche (guitar). Here’s what the back-again rockers have to say.
Recess: The last time you were playing, we were all still in high school—what gives?
Will Turpin: We were signed and had our big success in ’94 and from ’94 through 2001 we released five records plus the greatest hits album with a couple new songs on it. Our contract was done with Atlantic, so we were just kinda physically and mentally exhausted. So we kinda just split up for a while. Ed moved to Phoenix, I stayed here in Atlanta, Dean and Shane went to LA. And we got space and cleared our heads—chilled out for a bit. We went through some personal issues: a couple divorces and things like that. But, in the Spring, 2003 we started getting back together to record, which is where a couple of these songs for Youth were created. So over 2003 and 2004 we slowly got back together and started playing and started recording and came up with a plan to release our record on our own record label; our own little independent thing.
R: What inspired the move to start your own label?
W: We explored going back with a major label and talked to a couple labels, but in the end we decided that having our own label and having one artist—us—on the roster was the smartest move to make. It was a little bit of a risk, a bit of a gamble, but with the record industry in such turmoil right now, we didn’t feel comfortable going with any major label. And all the tools are out there today to outsource everything that a major label does, so even though we are technically an independent we actually have the same setup that a major label would, except for the fact that we can take care of things much more efficiently. Sometimes it would take a week of red tape to get a decision made at a major label. But if there is a decision on our table we can easily talk to the whole board of directors in 30 minutes; I mean, the board of directors is us and our manager.
R: In four years you’ve gotten older—as have many of your fans—but you call this album Youth. Has the average Collective Soul fan changed in that time?
W: There are fans that have liked Collective Soul that have always liked Collective Soul, and they’ll always be with us and always be interested in what we’re doing. We just try to remain what we think is cool and honest to our art and we hope the fans come. At our shows, the demographic is pretty wide, so there are probably some new fans, but there aren’t really holes in our audience.
Our audience is eclectic: there are teenagers there, colleges students, twenty-somethings, thirty-somethings, there’s also forty and fifty-year old rockers out there and some of those people are bringing their kids now too. In general our first fans are getting older, I guess that’s automatic, but it’s not like you’ll go to a Collective Soul show and leave thinking one thing about a Collective Soul fan. It’s all across the board.
R: You took off for four years and came back plus one. What’s the deal with this Joel character?
W: He was a friend of ours, he’d worked with us and been our guitar tech on the second, self-titled record and through all of our recordings with Atlantic, Joel was the guitar tech for the sessions as well as a consultant: a musical consultant. So when our first lead guitarist decided to leave, he was a perfect fit. He’s our buddy; I mean, he’s seen over 100 Collective Soul shows, so he knows what our vibe is and how we like to do things, so he fit right in. It’s good to finally have the record out, because we toured with him for about a year before it came out and he didn’t really have anything with his name on it. We’re glad he’s able to come kick some ass for us.
R: What are your plans for the rest of this summer tour?
W: We want to tour extensively through the summer, we should get all over America. But we plan on trying to get over to Europe in the fall and then we have to go back to Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and Japan, all those places.
R: Sounds like a rough life. You like being a rockstar, don’t you?
W: It’s got its ups and downs. It’s really not a lot different from other jobs in many aspects. But, the one aspect that’s awesome is whenever you get an opportunity to do what you love for a living, you can’t complain too much. The schedule can be very overrated. We’ve been doing this for 10 years. I started when I was 23, and back then touring was a lot more fun. I’ve been to so many cities, especially in America; I mean, drop me in any major city in America and I’ll know where I am and how to get somewhere. But, living out of a suitcase in general isn’t a very choice lifestyle.
R: So when you come play Last Day, are you going to be playing mostly new stuff or can we expect some old favorites?
W: No there are just too many good songs to ignore; I think we’d be doing people a disservice if we didn’t play our older songs as well. We’ll be playing six new songs from the Youth record on this set. Our set right now is lasting around an hour and forty-five minutes.
R: What can we expect y’all to bring to the show?
W: I expect people to come and have fun. We want to rock. With us and our audience we try to create a total vibe thing going on. So, if you come with a positive attitude, ready to have fun, then that’s definitely going to happen.
R: Thanks for checking in with us, do you have any parting words for the kids coming to rock out next Wednesday?
W: Just listen to your Collective Soul CDs and get ready to sing a lot. We’ll see you next week.
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