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Collective Soul is composed of
Ed Roland (lead singer, guitar,
keyboards, producer, song
writer), Dean Roland (rhythm
guitars, keyboards, co-wrote two
songs), Shane Evans (drums,
percussion), Will Turpin (bass,
percussion), and now Joel Kosche
(lead guitars). The original
lineup (1994-2001ish) included
Ross Childress as lead
guitarist, Joel is now the main
man after Collective Soul asked
Ross to leave mid-2001.
Collective Soul is usually noted
as being from Atlanta, but they
are origianlly all from a small
town 20 miles from Atlanta
called Stockbridge. But Atlanta
is home to most of them, at
least part of the time.
The
guys have known each other
pretty much their entire lives.
In Stockbridge they actually
lived within a 1 mile radius of
each other except Shane who was
only a few more miles away.
In
1989, Ed Roland and Shave Evans
were part of a Georgia-based
band called Marching Two-Step,
which also included a female
vocalist. They added lead
guitarist Ross Childress in
1991, after a band he was in
opened for Marching Two-Step in
Atlanta. In 1992, with the
departure of the female
vocalist, they decided to harden
Marching Two-Step's sound and
thus changed the name to
Collective Soul in the process.
Will Turpin, who had often lent
his percussion skills and
backing vocals to both Marching
Two-Step and Collective Soul,
became the official bassist in
1994 after noting "a major
deficiency in the bass
department" and watching the
"revolving door of bassists come
in and out."
Ed
Roland was reading Ayn Rand's
The Fountainhead, and came
across the phrase, "collective
soul"...and he thought it
sounded really cool! And, it was
the only name that everyone
could agree upon! Author Ayn
Rand actually uses the phrase in
a negative connotation, using
the "collective soul" as a
threat to the main character's
sense of individualism, but Ed
is quick to point out, "...we're
not preaching Ayn Rand,
objectivism, egoism, or
anything...we just dug the
name..." and "it [the band's
name] could've come out of
Motorcycle Magazine."
"Turn your head, now baby, just
spit me out..."
No it's actually not. "December"
is actually a song about
"...being taken advantage of in
a relationship, be it personal
or business..." and is summed up
in the opening line: "Why drink
the water from my hand,
contagious as you think I am?"
In Ed's case, it was a business
relationship; "December" was the
last track written for
Collective Soul's 2nd, self
titled CD, when things began
"getting weird" just prior to
the band's nasty split and
lawsuit with their then-manager.
According to Ed, the song could
have easily fit in with the
theme of their cabin-recorded
3rd album, Disciplined
Breakdown.
This has kinda been highly
debated. Ed Roland has, when
asked, consistently denied both
the meaning behind the song and
any animosity towards Corgan,
stating that "Smashing Young
Man" was actually inspired by
Englanders' use of the word
"smashing" while Collective Soul
was in London, and that they
haven't a problem with the
Pumpkins' music. Even so, this
hypothetical anti-Pumpkins verse
would not have been without
provocation. Frontman Billy
Corgan has publicly and
viciously insulted Collective
Soul, most notably with his
claim that Collective Soul's
"Shine" is a rip-off of the
Pumpkins' "Rhinocerous."
[Just for the record, Smashing
Pumpkins' Gish, on which "Rhinocerous"
appears, was released in 1991;
Collective Soul's "Shine" was
resurrected from an old tape
made by Ed Roland in 1987.]
I actually heard later that Ed
admitted it was about Corgan...so?
Ed
Roland, after struggling for
nearly 12 years to land a
recording contract, most
recently with newly formed
Collective Soul, had enough!! Ed
was approaching the age of 30,
and with that magical deal still
elusive, something was amiss.
"...you don't want to be 35 and
still struggling, or 40 and
still struggling; it doesn't
make sense..." After countless
rejections of his demos from
every major record label, after
playing convention upon
convention from which label
representatives left
uninterested, he told his
bandmates, "I'm dissolving the
band--I do not want to do it
anymore." And so, for about a 6
month period, the members of
Collective Soul parted ways,
with Shane Evans and Ross
Childress deciding to join a
frat cover band called Groove
Box, fronted by Will Turpin. Ed,
resigning himself to a career of
writing songs for other people,
holed himself up in a basement
recording studio and began
writing and recording songs for
a demo he hoped would land him a
publishing deal.
With Collective Soul
not-so-collective and Ed Roland
in a basement studio aiming for
a publishing contract, he
decided to write a fresh batch
of tunes to showcase his
songwriting abilities. (The
instrumental, "Pretty Donna,"
was included among these tunes
to show his flair for TV themes
or movie soundtracks.) With a
drum machine, some help from
Shane, Ross, Will on backing
vocals and percussion (note the
congas on "Heaven's Already
Here"...that's Will!!), the
Atlanta Symphony, and friend
Matt Serletic (who would later
also produce the 2nd,
self-titled CD), Ed formed his
songwriter's demo. Borrowing the
title of a poem written by a
friend, he came to call this
demo, Hints, Allegations, and
Things Left Unsaid.
Looking for some feedback on his
songwriter demo Hints,
Allegations, and Things Left
Unsaid, Ed sent a copy to a
local college radio station at
Georgia State, Album 88 WRAS. He
submitted it under the
fictitious band name, "Brothers
and Brides." One of the songs in
the bunch was a catchy piece
called "Shine," which Ed had
resurrected from an old,
unfinished tape of a riff first
penned in 1987. Listeners found
the song irresistible and made
it Album 88's most requested
song, and "Brothers and Brides"
was asked to play a few live
dates! Obliging, Ed gathered
Shane, Ross, Will on percussion
(they had another bass player at
the time), and now Ed's brother,
Dean. With the band back
together, they returned to the
name Collective Soul (after much
joking over who, exactly, were
the "brides" of the group) and
began promoting
independently-pressed copies of
Hints, Allegations, and Things
Left Unsaid. WJRR in Orlando,
Florida, became the first
commercial radio station to play
"Shine," and stations across the
country soon followed suit. This
song, a catchy, melodic plea for
guidance, written during a
harrowing time in Ed's music
career, was shooting up the
charts! Record labels took
notice (FINALLY!), and in
February 1994, Ed, Dean, Ross,
Shane, and Will now on bass,
were signed to Atlantic Records,
and Hints, Allegations, and
Things Left Unsaid, virtually
unchanged, hit the presses on
this label...the rest, they say,
is history!! Collective Soul was
soon whisked up to do opening
slots for arena rock bands
Aerosmith and then Van Halen,
played in front of a sea of fans
at Woodstock '94, and "Shine"
went on to reach the top spot on
Billboard. Between tour dates,
Collective Soul quickly filed
back into the recording studios
to release their 2nd CD,
Collective Soul, which they
self-titled to emphasize that
this CD was the first BAND
effort.
Collective Soul was headlining
their own club tour, their 2
albums had sold a combined 7
million...and they were
receiving a meager $150 a week
to cover food expenses on the
road. Ed had received no money
from publishing; the band had
received no royalities...all
thanks to a greedy, deceitful
manager who had taken it upon
himself to claim both the money
and the publishing rights.
("December," off the self-titled
album, was written when all of
this began.) Following a nasty
split with him, Collective Soul
found themselves yanked off the
road and into the courtroom to
face a treacherous legal battle
that would drag on for part of
1995 and most of 1996. During
this time, funds were frozen,
and Collective Soul could not
tour or record in a "real"
studio; for a gut-wrenching
period, they weren't sure that
they even owned their own name!
To keep sane (and pass the
time), they holed up in a tiny
cabin in Stockbridge, situated
in the middle of 40 acres of cow
pasture...and let the music
flow. They recorded into a
computer their impromptu
rehearsals of the songs Ed wrote
during this time. These songs
would become known as
Disciplined Breakdown,
chronicling this bleak time
period and "directed at the
emotions" they were feeling at
the time. The case was, of
course, eventually settled and
both parties have been
instructed to keep mum. As Ed
puts it, "...we get paid now.
Before, we didn't."
It's on the cover of their 2nd
CD, Collective Soul, replacing
the letter "o" in "Soul," and
according to Ed Roland, who
knows what it means!! He says
the people in charge of the
album artwork came up with the
design!
In
the liner notes of Disciplined
Breakdown, the 3rd track,
"Maybe," is dedicated to the
memory of Kib Browning. He was
the frontman of Atlanta band The
Wishing Wall as well as a
personal friend of Collective
Soul--the two bands have toured
together in the past, and Ed had
the opportunity to produce a
Wishing Wall album, also titled
Maybe. Kib Browning passed away
a few years ago, and Collective
Soul's "Maybe" is a beautiful,
loving tribute to a dear friend
and his music.
Sugarfuzz! It's the name of Ed's
publishing company, as well as
the custom amp he plugs into on
stage. He came up with the name
during the lawsuit and recording
of Disciplined Breakdown, when
he and the band were, at one
point, unsure of whether they
would still be allowed to use
the name Collective Soul. So,
they began thinking up alternate
names. Ed came up with 'Sugarfuzz,'
which the rest of the guys hated
with a passion--he just had to
use it somewhere!
This is not known exactly. I
guess only Collective Soul and
Atlantic themselves know. It
must have been something
decently major since several
bands left the label. Probably
having something to do with
management changes.
It
simply means "soul" in Japanese.
The
Japanese phrase in "Over
Tokyo"--"Siawasewo sagasite
Tokyo nikite kokode mituketanone
tanosinnde." Translates to "You
came to Tokyo, seaching for
happiness. And you found
happiness here. Enjoy your
stay."
Well, it's actually "the" in
Spanish. But Ed does admit if
you wanna take it farther...
that you could say it stands for
*E*d and *L*insay Kris (his
son).
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