Collective Soul interview

interview by Mike Strum and Bill Palmer

Releasing a self-titled album is a statement in its own right, even more so when the band had already released a previous self-titled album fourteen years earlier. But Collective Soul’s new album is significant in a number of ways, including a new artist-friendly major label record deal and a more collaborative songwriting effort, all of which have added up to make “Collective Soul” the band’s most impressive effort since the last time they released an album by that name. Lead singer Ed Roland fills us in on what’s got his band in such fine form these days…



The last two Collective Soul records were albums that you owned and released yourself on your own indie label. Now you’re back on a major label. What led to the decision to sign on with Roadrunner?



Because it’s a dual ownership. We still own it. It was something where we always try to think outside the box, and they were too. So it’s a partnership, which is amazing, which is what I think it should be anyway any time you deal with a major. And to deal with a major with radio promotion and a publicity staff, especially as strong as they have, I think just made perfect sense for them to come knocking on our door, us knocking on theirs. It’s a good relationship right now. Everything’s smooth, and we know enough about the business to impress them to a degree, and they’ve been very successful on the rock end of things to impress us. So it’s really working out cool



The industry is always changing, every few minutes it seems lately. Is this a deal that you could have even gotten seven or eight years ago, with the co-ownership?


No, I don’t think so. I just think people are now starting to look at any way to survive in this industry. It’s ever-changing just cause everyone is trying to survive. So seven years ago? No way, cause people were still just hoping and praying that, you know, the old guard would stay there. And it’s since moved on.

This isn’t your first self-titled record, the first one was in 1995. What led you to go ahead and self-title this record?


We kind of felt that we could come full circle again, because the guys had let me go and have fun producing the last couple of records, twist too many knobs, maybe, just letting me have fun and experiment a little bit. This one, before we started, we knew we wanted to just get back and play like we started, in our parents’ basement. So we recorded this in a house, in a big room, and we sat there together and wrote, recorded and mixed it. And it was just more of getting back to where we started, guitars in hand and drums.



What about the fact that the album has the word “Rabbit” in the title, in parentheses? [In reference to the fact that the advance copy of the album was labeled “Collective Soul (Rabbit)”]


It’s not supposed to. The artwork is a rabbit on it, but it’s not titled “Rabbit.” I would like to think I could be a little bit more creative than to call the record ”Rabbit” (laughs).



So what does the rabbit represent, then?


It means rebirth. There’s all kinds of meanings to it. It’s part of the astrology symbol, the luckiest of all signs, and my take on it is that it kind of looked cool, to be honest with you. I’m the shallow one in the band.

Was this the first time you’ve brought the band into your home to make a record?


We’ve always been, I guess, recording in my house since Dosage. Well, the first one was a batch of demos, you know, it was recorded in a basement. The second one was recorded in a proper studio, and then the third one I recorded in a cabin, a cow farm. Then the next one was recorded in a proper studio and my house, and from that point on they’ve pretty much been recorded in my home. If not half of it, at least most of it.



Let me ask you about the song “Welcome All Again.” Does that have something to do with you guys congregating at the house?


It was. We had a lot of fun making this record, maybe too much fun at times. Its was the last song we recorded. The guys were saying “We’d like to have an intro song for the record, for us to do live also.” So we kind of came up with that, and we recorded with friends popping by, our friends dropping by, so it was really an open house in a sense. I kind of based it off that, if that makes sense. Just the whole attitude of recording the record.



The songs “You” and “Understanding” are the first you’ve ever written with the full band. What’s that process like?


I tell you what, it took a lot of pressure. And for me, the song “You” is one of the better songs we’ve ever done. Joel and Dean were in the other room outside the control room and I heard them playing that chord progression. Will and I were in there doing a little work and we heard it and ran in there and we said hey, just keep playing that, and I started humming and Will was playing the piano. It was a pleasant undertaking.

And then on “Understanding” I already had the music. That was three songs that I decided I’d just put together and see if it would work if I added all three different types of songs together. We did it in one day, and then that night I gave each member a sheet of paper and I said write your thoughts, write words, write whatever you want to on this sheet of paper. And then the next morning I took everybody’s sheet of paper and I made the lyrics from that.



Last time we talked you were on the verge of getting an iPhone. Have you gotten your iPhone?


I do. I have my Tiger Woods application. Actually I wrote a lot with the iPhone because of the little recorder it has, so when I was in the back of the bus I could just record all of these ideas down.



Do you use any other iPhone apps professionally?


Oh yeah, we’ve got the guitar tuning on there. We tuned using the guitar app the whole record. That was our tuner. We’re too lazy to buy tuners (laughs). We’re scared to leave our iPhones too far away from us. So everybody just had the same app, and that’s what we tuned our guitars to.



You guys as a band are really active on Twitter, replying to people, you follow people back. How much of that is you?


I do every once in awhile, but my brother Dean is all over it. Will’s all on it too. But Joel and I will post something every once in awhile, or Dean will come up and say “Hey, you’ve got to post something” and we’re like, okay. But it’s Dean and Will, they’re really on it. They love it. And I get it to a degree, I’m still to the point where it makes me nervous for my own privacy (laughs). I don’t want everybody to know exactly what’s going on all the time.



And yet you did post, or maybe you’re not the one who posted it but you’re in it, a TwitPic of you and and your newborn baby.



Yeah, my wife did that and I didn’t even know she did it, and all the sudden people are going “I saw that picture,” and I was like, what picture?



The band is obviously still going really strong. I was wondering what your criteria is for going forward as far as continuing to want to do this.


Well just hopefully you take it one step at a time. So we’ve got to concentrate on this record, hopefully the fans we have grow a little bit more, and Collective Soul just keeps growing. And from there, then after a year you think about what to do next.

Collective Soul is on tour in the United States and Canada in September and October.

Collective Soul’s new self-titled album is available in iTunes now. Learn more at CollectiveSoul.com