COLLECTIVE SOUL play The Coach House May 6; photo Joseph Guay
Collective Soul hit the ground running after their first song “Shine” took off back in 1993, and they haven’t looked back since.
“When it happened, it did happen fast for us,” bassist Wil Turpin recalled. “But being that excited that young and feeling like you had so much more to do and so many more songs to create – in the moment you don’t analyze what it feels like, you’re just doing it.”
Signing with Atlantic Records and going double-platinum with their debut album, touring across North America, going triple-platinum with their second album, charting on Billboard with the singles “December,” “Where the River Flows,” “The World I Know,” “Gel,” and “Smashing Young Man,” Collective Soul continues to rock the masses nearly 25 years later.
“Honestly, we were just like ‘All right. Ok let’s go. Let’s work. Let’s get some stuff done. This is just the beginning.’ And sure, enough it was just the beginning.”
With a sold-out show coming up at The Coach House May 6, the band is looking forward to a special night. It’s not part of a tour, they just happened to be coming near the area and were looking for a place to play.
“Our agent and our manager said this room would be a cool room to go play and to just have fun for a night kind of thing,” Turpin said. “We heard it was a cool, hip spot.
“I’m sure we’ll play at least 90 minutes. We’ll probably play longer in a place like that. You’ll hear the hits. Not all the hits but you’ll hear most of the big hits and we’ll probably throw in some songs no one’s ever heard, then we’ll throw some stuff off our latest release.”
One of the things Turpin enjoys about playing live is the energy transfer between the band and the crowd. The give and take.
“What I like most about playing live is the fact that there’s really just five people creating these frequencies and it can change the way people feel and you can feel their energy rise and it comes back to you,” Turpin explained. “As a musician, it’s extremely tangible and that’s what I like about playing live.”
Fans have often commented that Collective Soul has a rawer, rockier sound when playing live than what comes across on record.
“Yea, and I would say we are kind of like a studio band,” Turpin agreed. “We all kind of grew up in the studio. My father owns a recording studio that we all cut our teeth in. So, I think Collective Soul does have a tendency to make things sound really polished, I’d say, in the studio.
“But live we embrace sounding more rockin’, more raw. It’s something we’re definitely aware of and for us it’s something we dig, too. It’s not that we should necessarily change what we do in the studio it’s just that “live” is different than “the studio”.
“I couldn’t tour all the time without creating new stuff and when I create new stuff I feel like I have to go out and perform. They’re both something we need.”
A new album, a double album, is in the works that will be released in 2019. While recording new music last year, the group realized they were approaching their 25-year anniversary so decided to wait to release the new material.
“We had more tunes, so we just thought ‘let’s don’t release a record this year, let’s just take our time, record 10 more songs, and release a double album and promote it for our 25 years,” Turpin reasoned.
This coming summer, Collective Soul will embark on the Rock & Roll Express Tour with 3 Doors Down and Soul Asylum.
“Yea, it’s gonna be a good rock show, I’m looking forward to it,” Turpin said. “We played a couple shows with Soul Asylum before – I’m a big fan – and then we played a number of shows with 3 Doors Down. We’re all good buddies so it should be a real fun tour.”
But first, there’s the unique show coming to The Coach House.
“We’re excited about seeing this room. We love the area so we’re just excited to get back there. Plan on plenty of new tunes and a lot of high energy rock-n-roll!”