Interviewer: How do you see yourself in the tradition of southern rock? Is it deep and long. How do you guys see yourself? How do you fit in, your thinkin' to that?

Roland: I think rock changes all the time no matter what area or region you are in, we’re not The Alman Brothers.

Turpin: I never thought of us as a southern rock band really.

Roland: But we are from the south.

Turpin: We definitely have roots and listen to southern rock as far as that goes.

Roland: As far as that, I guess we can say we are the new south type of music.

Turpin: The new south sail! (laughs)

Roland: I don’t know. That’s pretty queer.

Interviewer: I heard some influences texturally and song wise. Tell me who were your influences?

Roland: At a very early age I was only allowed to listen to Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. Then as I got older, I really really like Elton John. I really got into him at an older age. I missed it during the ‘70’s, but I went back and caught up on it and I love AC/DC. Two totally different things, but I still, just anything melodic, with a melody I really enjoy. The Beatles. We’ve all gone back and enjoyed The Beatles.

Turpin: It’s gotta be melodic for us. I’m into Rubber Soul right now.

Roland: Are you listen to that, really? That’s cool.

Turpin: Yeah. I change Beatles albums every now and then.

Interviewer: I heard influences of The Kinks, The Cars, Pink Floyd.

Roland: The Cars. I grew up listening to them. I really like them. They are the reason I went...I went to school at Berkeley College of Music in Boston because three of them went there I believe and they’re from...they are a Boston band so that’s. They were my influences going away to school just because they went there. So yeah I guess, I guess you could hear The Cars there.

Interviewer: Tell me about, just tell me about getting signed? How’d that process go down?

Turpin: Wow...Ed. (laughs)

Roland: I’ve been in bands for twelve years now. Bout three different bands. Started Collective Soul about two years ago. We did about three shows and it wasn’t the same members that are in the band now and I basically quit. I said I was tired of doin' it. I was tryin' to get a publishing contract, songwriting publishing. I went into the studio, did about, actually I did about five songs and we took it to the college station in Atlanta. They started playin' it. It became one of the most requested songs and they asked if we could do some local shows. So I said sure. I got my brother who I didn’t even know played guitar 'till I went home one night and he’s in there playin'. So I said well, I’m goin' to have my brother in the band. I wanna do that. That’d be kind a neat. Will joined. We all grew up in the same small town. So basically I went back to my hometown that I grew up. Got the musicians there. We started playin' and released the CD ourselves. The manager said he wanted to see what could happen. He could shop it as a songwriter demo and a band at the same time. Orlando radio station picked it up and we sold 16,000 units ourselves in two months. So I guess...labels don’t look at if they like it or not. I think it became a numbers game to a mince, but I think they, ya know, kind of dug it. So Jason Flawn flew down to Orlando and we did a showcase show down there and the next day flew me to New York. And then the next day within two hours all the points were met and we were on Atlantic. It was a twelve year overnight success.

Interviewer: What’s your hometown?

Turpin: Stockbridge.

Roland: Stockbridge, Georgia.

Interviewer: Tell everyone ‘bout where that is?

Roland: South of Atlanta, it’s about, I'd say about twenty miles south. It’s a little community. It’s a very small community.

Turpin: We’ve all graduated from the same high school. We all live, me, Ross, Ed and Dean...

Roland: We did the southern thing. I mean, we all lived within a mile. Went to the same church, same school, ya know. Like I said, a small community.

Turpin: We’ve been playin' in bands like since we were in high school in and out. Especially like me, Ross, and Shane, and Dean’s been playin' with and what Ross and Shane have been playin' with Ed for a long time too, other bands, but with Ed. So there’s a long history of all of us jammin' together.

Roland: But never all five of at the same time.

Turpin: Me and Ed have never played together 'till Collective Soul.

Interviewer: Ed, tell me about the writing process for you. How’s that go?

Roland: The music part concerns very easy. The lyrics are something I have to sit down, I don’t say concentrate, but I just, I just let it come when it comes. The music, I can sit down. I feel very comfortable with that I guess I could say, not that it comes easy.

Interviewer: So music first, lyrics second.

Roland: Yes, well when sometimes I’ll be I do what I call a vowel movement as I am writing, something will just spurt out like in the chorus and I’ll say okay that;s the thesis, or that’s the theme, whatever just came out, but it’s the old vowel movement. I’ll just sit in rehearsals and just...

Turpin: We sang one song forever, used the word turtles...(laugh)

Roland: Yeah, we don’t know.

Turpin: We don’t know the words yet. It’s turtle right now.

Interviewer:So you come up with a sketch first or a clear vision of the tune and then the band basically hatches it out and rearranges it or is it even more...?

Roland: No, now we do. The CD, like I said 90% of it I did. It was done as a songwriter demo. Now what you see and hear live and what the next song’s CD will be. It’s exactly that. I’ll take in a rough sketch and say here’s kind of where this is goin' and everybody does there job. My job is to write the songs. Will’s is to play bass. Shane’s is to come up with the drum part. Ross the solo’s you know. Dean to play the rhythm. So we’re really turin' into a really good band. I really feel we’re startin' to gel a little bit.

Roland: Yeah, it’s gettin' real tight.

Interviewer: When did you realize, both you guys that music was what you wanted to do and when did you realize you had a gift to hear more to the dedication to spend time on your instrument?

Roland: Especially are two families. Will’s dad owns a studio in Stockbridge. So that’s where I learned. I came back from Boston and worked for Will’s dad for about eight years in a recording studio in Stockbridge. So I know Will grew, naturally you grew up in a very musical family. My dad started out, he was a minister of music for southern Baptist churches. So music was always a big part of our family also. And knowing that I wanted to do it, I guess, when I heard Elvis, I mean it sounds corny, but I mean, I can really you know, it’s just that childhood thing, you just, you now, you wanna be cool man.

Interviewer: The album cover, when you guys came up with the album cover, I know with public domain, but tell me about, where’d you see it?

Roland: In a copyright free art book (laughs) we had no idea what it was. We just, we had to literally because the response we were getting from our college station in Atlanta we literally put this together in a week. I mean, we just, I just threw three old tracks that we had done as another band, Marching Two Step, they were demos and made it. Just filled it out because there was no band really for sale and the songs. So I tried to give a couple of songs that were a band sound and so we went to the art store, found a book, thought that looked cool. So we painted it and said that looks good, it’s colorful. We had no idea what it was or who it was.

Interviewer: Are you guys surprised with what’s goin' on?

Turpin: Oh ya.

Roland: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Interviewer: Anything in particular that’s turned your head about the business?

Roland: Yeah, we get to eat really well. Everywhere we go, every meeting, we eat. I am eating now. I’m eating fruit.

Turpin: We eat escargot, actually.

Roland: (laughs) We do, I never eatin’ so good in my life. This is great.

Interviewer: How do you see the next record? How do you think it’s going to separate?

Roland: Firstly it’s going to be a very band orinated record. It’s going to be, we even talked one time it’d be cool to do it live. (laughs)

Turpin: Oh yeah, that’d be cool.

Roland: But we don’t, you know that’s, I doubt would be allowed to do that, but we really feel comfortable with our band. With the band situation and the live sound that we have. The songs that we have on the CD now, we know are really good, they snap. They take on a new life of their own a lot, they really do. Very, very energetic.

Turpin: Yeah, you can’t just listen to our CD. You have to come see us live. It’s different. I think the next time it’s going to be band orinated, but it’s also going to be, I don’t know, groove orinated. They’ve got grooves. Some cool grooves.

Interviewer: So the grooves themselves are being created as a band project. Drummers come in and laying some stuff down or is it, how you seein' that?

Roland: No it’s starting, it starting, it scratch, like I said. I’ll bring the song I, I say hey here’s where the songs going, here’s the verse, chorus, bridge, Al right lets make it happen and everybody does their part.

Turpin: We just don’t, we don’t. Nobody tell anybody what to play, it’s just what you feel. If it sucks, if it sucks we tell them, but it usually works.

Roland: And that takes a time process, I mean we’re still learnin' with each other, I mean we really are.

Turpin: Everybody’s gettin' their own identity goin'.

Interviewer: Is there a video out there happenin'?

Roland: Oh yeah, we got stress on MTV last, starts today.

Turpin: Stress rotation today, so it’s probably on right now, we’re missin' it. We got a little add too. It says a couple bands, ya know and a two-second clip of their video and then they say Collective Soul and then like two seconds of our video.

Roland: Wasn’t it best new artist or something like that.

Turpin: I had to do a double take. Did they say Collective Soul at 2:30 in the afternoon on MTV?

Interviewer: What about the name? How’d you come up with the name?

Roland: I was reading, we were Marching Two Step originally. The other band before this. We changed members. I wanted to take the music to a little bit harder field and we played around Atlanta so much in the Southeast. We thought well, if we are going to be thought as a different band, then we gotta change names. I was reading Ayn Rands Fountain Head at the time and at the very end it was just, I forgot exactly how he was talkin', she wrote it, but how Rore I believe the character was talkin about we’re all collective souls and somethin' somethin'. So I just, when I read that I went wow, that’s cool. So that’s basically it, just gout it out of The Fountain Head.

Interviewer: And have you already done a, have you already played in New York?

Turpin: No.

Roland: No, this bands, the group we have now we’ve only played in Florida and in Atlanta.

Interviewer: What’s the plan?

Turpin: Tourin'. Startin' Wednesday. Six to eight week tour.

Interviewer: Where?

Roland: Start in Houston and then end in San Antonio.

Interviewer: Opening for someone or a...?

Turpin: Headlining. 1000 seaters, five, 200 seaters.

Roland: Doin our own small clubs. They’re small clubs. We’re just gettin' there allowin' us to get out there and play and find ourselves. Like we said, for the first six weeks and then after that we don’t know where we’ll go. We’re just taken that step first.

Interviewer: How do you see, what’s your vision? What’s the long term vision for you guys? What’s your vision as a songwriter?

Roland: Mine. Just to continue writtin'. I mean, I really feel I’m gettin' better everyday. I don’t, the day I feel I wrote the best song I could that’s the day I guess I need to quit.

Interviewer: What song on the album do you feel closet to?

Roland: I personally like Wasting Time. Just for the way the song was set up. You know, you got two verses, then two choruses, and then you have a vamp out. It’s not your setup AB AB CAB song or whatever. Structured song. So I really like that and I like the lyrics also.

Interviewer: Talk about the lyrics.

Roland: I wrote it, actually I wrote it, I was goin' through a bad relationship, getting out of it, but it was a point where I felt I wanted the song to be more about being secure with yourself. Not depending on other people or anything, you know. Just being comfortable with yourself and then, at that time I wasn’t so I was relyin' on this person so much, but finally came, you know, finally woke up and said hey, I’m okay with what I am, I’m not gain' to lead your life. I’ll do away with what I want to and if your waiting for me you’re wasting time, you know. My visions are my visions. So that’s basically what those lyrics are about.

Interviewer: Do you keep a notebook of lyrics or is it when you write the melody and changes then deal with the actual content of the song? Do you want me to repeat or explain it? I mean a lot of artists actually just keep a notebook, you know, just like writtin' poetry. Other guys basically wake up in the middle of a sweat, in the middle of a nightmare, then they’ll say, I mean I got the song, let me just write it down.

Roland: No, it just comes at different times. I’ll get a verse one time, a chorus the next week or somethin'’. Sometimes I can write ‘em in ten minutes. The lyrics, like Wasting time and Shine, I can remember those two came real quick. I mean as quickly as I wrote the music, I wrote the words. They just flowed, but then there are other that took, I remember Good night Good Guy took me like I’d say at least a month to structure out lyrically. So they just, whenever, and no I don’t keep, well yeah I keep a notebook, but I don’t write poetry down and say I can fit this to music sometimes. So whenever it comes.

Interviewer: So in over these last years, so you never personally lost faith that you would eventually get signed. Was there ever a time?

Roland: Oh I did. That was when I quit with Collective, that first thing of Collective Soul. I quit and I was trying the songwriting publishing. I went to a different area. I mean I was tryin to go through a different route, you know. Yeah I thought I would never be signed to a major label. I was trying to do publishing. Man I feel horrible. My stomach’s killin' me.

Interviewer: Why don’t we just give you a minute between things and chill.

Roland: No we can keep goin'.

Interviewer: I guess, you know, as it seems, advise. You got any advise to other artist comin' up?

Roland: I guess, never give up. I mean you never know. That sounds corny and queer, but I just have nothin'.

Turpin: Well, you are corny and queer.

Roland: That’s true.

Turpin: Don’t give up.

Roland: I would do it myself if you feel confident with what you’re doin I’d put it out myself because you know, are people have a the hardest jobs in the world, they really do. Go out and prove it yourself. Go out there and put it in the market.

Turpin: Stick with people you like. Stick with chemistry because playin' will always catch up. We’ve got chemistry.