Collective Soul: Fans still take a ‘Shine’ to the Georgia rockers
Fans won’t have to worry that Collective Soul will omit the hits and fan-favorites from their show when the band plays Friday, Oct. 26, at the Tivoli Theatre.
In fact, with 17 Top 20 singles (including seven No. 1 Mainstream Rock hits) in a career that will hit the quarter-century mark next year, that’s likely to be the bulk of the set. But singer/guitarist Ed Roland said Collective Soul won’t just spend the night looking back over its impressive musical output.
“We’re not going to overdo it, but you’ll definitely hear all of the hits,” Roland said in a phone interview. “At the same time, we want to throw in some new stuff. And I think that’s fine for fans to go, ‘Oh wow, no one’s ever heard this? That’s cool.’
Collective Soul has no shortage of new songs available for this fall’s headlining tour. The group recently wrapped up work in the studio and now has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to new material.
“We recorded 10 songs last year. Originally, we thought we would just do a record where the first side would be rock and the second would be more orchestrated, like ‘World I Know’ and ‘December,’” Roland explained, mentioning a pair of his band’s hits.
“We finished that, and then we went on tour. At the beginning of the year, I wrote another batch of songs. I showed them to the guys and they were like, ‘Man, we’ve got to record these.’ We spent 10 days up at a place called the Barber Shop in New Jersey, and in 10 days knocked it out. Now we have too many songs.”
In all, Collective Soul has recorded 22 songs, and Roland isn’t sure if they’ll be released as a double album or in some other form.
The new songs will add to an already deep catalog Collective Soul began building in 1993, when Atlantic Records released what was essentially a demo of Roland songs as “Hints Allegations and Things Left Unsaid.” Featuring the hit single “Shine,” the album went double platinum, as Roland recruited the other members of the original Collective Soul: brother Dean Roland (guitar), Will Turpin (bass), Ross Childress (guitar) and Shane Evans (drums).
The group’s activity became more sporadic during the 2000s. But Roland feels Collective Soul was rejuvenated after drummer Johnny Rabb joined in 2012 and guitarist Jesse Triplett came on board in 2014.
Their energy, Roland said, has helped inspire a renewed burst of creativity that so far has resulted in the excellent 2015 album, “See What You Started by Continuing,” and the 22 songs that are waiting for release.
“[Jesse and Johnny] are awesome. If I could have the band to start over, this is the band I would want, not only from the playing side of it, but from the personality side of it. I mean, they’re inspiring, and they’re like ‘Let’s go, let’s go.’ These two guys have really inspired, not only me, but Dean and Will. I think sometimes change is good.”