It's early in the morning when Collective Soul bassist Will Turpin calls the Spank! office. Turpin's soft Georgia accent belies the existence of a nasty hangover but he's cool and ready to talk about life, Disciplined Breakdown and the price of fame.

When Collective Soul hit the music scene in 1994 they made a big splash. Shine, from the first album, Hints Allegations and Things Left Unsaid, won Billboard's Album Rock Song of the Year. Collective Soul played at Woodstock and opened for Aerosmith. An intensive year in the spotlight was followed by Collective Soul, which also won Rock Song of the Year with December, an opening gig for Van Halen and their own headlining tour.

Time for a breather? Nope. Bandmates Ed Roland (lead vocals, guitars), Dean Roland (guitars), Ross Childress (lead guitars), Shane Evans (drums) and Turpin retired to a shack in the woods of Georgia to write Disciplined Breakdown. Word of mouth says this one may be as big as the last.

Disciplined Breakdown came out in March. How's the reception been so far?

It seems very positive. Most of the people we talk to think we've done another good thing. It's hard for us to take other people's perceptions though.

How do you feel about it?

We're totally proud of it man! We're real happy with it. But now it's out of our hands.

You seem to have a good record company push.

Well, they're behind us now (he says, cynically). It's a pretty easy guess for them.

When Hints Allegations and Things Left Unsaid hit, you guys got really big, really fast. How did you adjust to that?

Well, we've known each other all our lives - that was one thing that helped us through the process of becoming so-called "famous". We still don't look at ourselves as anything besides normal. But had we not known each other I think things could have been different, you know? Everything stayed totally grounded. If somebody every strayed, you know them so well that you can direct them on the right path before they go too far away. Also, we're each humble people.

When you get big do people treat you differently?

Yeah, automatically. They look at you differently because you've done something. Personally, you either don't think about what you're going through and throw away the chance to get better or you look at it like a gift. Especially after the first album, we were on the road continually. Every time we went on stage we tried to do something different, something better than the night before. Basically we tried to become a better band.

You've run the gamut, from opening for big, big acts to headlining. Is there any venue you prefer?

Our dream world is playing theaters, anywhere from 2000 to 4000 seats. Hopefully we'll get to do that all summer. There are still a lot of those trashy-ass ballrooms we have to play. We're not really into that. We're not into arenas either. When people come to see us play we want them to experience a vibe. And that includes everybody - the people in the room, the people checking tickets at the door, and us. If everybody goes in that room and we all break it down, we all forget about what's real in the world and have fun for two hours, then that's what we're all about.

Now you've toured absolutely everywhere. How did you like Europe?

It was tough to find a good meal (smiles). The last time we were there we did 18 cities in 21 days so you don't find much of anything when you're touring like that. You see the clubs and that's it.

Of course it's a different crowd every country because people are influenced by their surroundings. But in the way of a vibe and wanting to hang out, they're the same.

Is there any place that you really love to play?

Canada.

Get outta here! You're just saying that.

No! That's real. We love Canada. I think it has a lot to do with the people. Canadians are more laid back and down to earth. It seems like Canada has supported us even more than America has. America is so flaky, we have no job security there even though it's our home country. So Canada is special to us.

Can you characterize your band mates?

I'll start with Ed, our lead vocalist. He's basically the "drift off into another world" type. You never know when he'll go. Basically, the artsy, cultural musician.

Ross is the fine tuned technician. He concentrates on certain things and really tries to educate himself. He started off playing the guitar at 13 and has mastered other things since then.

Shane is the laid back, stylish, coolly drummer (laughs). Dean is the "open minded with a business sense" voice of the band. All of us are totally friendly and laid back.

Are there any drawbacks to the fame you've achieved?

There's so much BS! You'd think it would end but I don't think it ever will. It's going to be like this every damned day. It's a big headache. This last year and half has been a big whirlwind of lawyers. It's been terrible. Hours a day just talking to lawyers and realizing where the hell our career's gonna go. We weren't even sure if we owned our name. It was rough. We wouldn't have been able to release this CD. It was a very trying time because we're sitting there as friends and musicians wanting to release another album but it wasn't in our grasp at all.

How do you cope?

When you play you try to forget about all that but it affects what you're doing. We approach music as the real thing not as "what can we make now that will sell". We approach it as therapy in a way. What comes out, comes out, and the rest is not up to us at all.

And we've started playing golf. So we go and we're away from everybody and nobody can mess with us for at least four hours. We're not very good golfers at all but that's not really the point.

Collective Soul has done a lot of TV. How do you find that atmosphere?

It's crazy when you know you're going to be on national TV in front of millions of viewers for one shot. It's not your vibe, you're coming out stale. So that's weird. It's also different for us now that we're veterans. We've played Leno a couple of times and Conan O'Brien. We've played Letterman five times. So we know what to expect. But it's not a very cool thing.

Things tend to happen fast for Collective Soul. "Let's talk again six months from now!" says Turpin at the end of our interview. "After we've been on the road we'll know what the vibe on the album is like. This was fun!"

Okay, Will. It's a date.