A shot from the brand new documentary, “Give Me the Phrase: The Collective Soul Story.” (Photograph by Joseph Rubinstein/Frank Rios)
A brand new documentary captures the band at work on their newest album. They’ll play at Ameris Financial institution Amphitheatre subsequent weekend.
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One of the prolific bands of the fashionable rock period is Collective Soul. Not solely has the group launched a trove of stellar materials, they’re additionally often within the technique of writing extra new music. Each few years, when this author has had the chance to talk with members of the band, they’re all the time enthusiastic about their subsequent undertaking, normally a brand new double album of tunes.
“We do have loads of new stuff able to go now. In actual fact, we simply began a brand new album final fall,” stated bassist and co-founder Will Turpin from a latest cease on a tour that can carry the band residence to the Atlanta space on August 9. “We might actually have a single out by Christmas, however we aren’t underneath any strain to churn something out at this level. We simply nonetheless like to do it.”
“However proper now,” he continues, “we now have this documentary that’s out and one other massive summer season tour to do. When all that dies down, then we will take into consideration placing out one other document. We have now a blessing of riches in the case of materials and the followers who nonetheless need to hear us play. We don’t take any of it as a right, that’s for certain.”
After three many years collectively, the Atlanta-bred musicians have offered over 15 million albums worldwide. Finest-known for fan-favorite commercial-alternative radio staples “Shine,” “December” and “The World I Know,” the band has a powerful catalog of music that continues to evolve and develop.
Initially shaped in Stockbridge, Collective Soul has issued eight full-length albums. However now, as Turpin defined, followers will have the ability to get an unique glimpse into their inventive course of with the contents of a brand new documentary.
“Give Me A Phrase: The Collective Soul Story,” launched final month through Pfonetic/Trinity Content material Companions, follows the band at work within the studio. Captured in 2023, the documentary follows co-founders Turpin, vocalist-guitarist Ed Roland and his brother and fellow guitarist Dean Roland as they labored on Right here to Eternity, their 2024 double-album bundle, in California.
However the band wasn’t simply recording at some random studio in Los Angeles.
“Nah, man, that’s been performed,” laughs Turpin. “For this one, we needed to do one thing slightly bit completely different.” By way of “a pal of a pal,” Collective Soul secured the rights to work and document within the former West Coast residence of Elvis Presley in Palm Springs.
“It was so inspiring,” continued singer and chief songwriter Roland. “I imply, the place just about hadn’t been touched since Elvis lived there, so simply strolling inside there was like going again in time. We might actually really feel his spirit in each room. I do know it sounds corny, however I actually do consider it made it to the document. We weren’t on an enormous schedule, so we had loads of time to stretch out and get comfy with the home and one another — and all that went with it.”
“However,” continued Turpin, “this time we had a digital camera crew filming the whole lot whereas we labored on the document. That was positively a primary for us.”
He stated Collective Soul had been in talks for some time a couple of documentary movie detailing their life and profession. With the provision of the Presley property, the group jumped on the probability to be photographed as they made the music that ultimately turned the tracks on the album.
“We’ve by no means had any kind of ‘label strain’ from the bosses,” stated Turpin. “Even once we have been on Atlantic, we have been in some way allowed to do issues on our personal phrases. Now that we will name the pictures, it’s actually not all that a lot completely different; we simply need to get music out to individuals. Now they’ll kinda see how we do it.”
The results of the undertaking, directed by Joseph Rubenstein, will not be a linear have a look at the band.
“Proper. I like the way in which it bounces round from working within the Elvis home, again to archival footage,” continued Turpin. “We’d been serious about it for some time, then we’d been gathering up stuff to incorporate in it. Once we acquired the home in Palm Springs [as a place to record], all of it made sense to incorporate footage from there, too. So it’s been sorta kicking round for some time. I feel engaged on the album on the market mainly tied all of it collectively.”
At first, the members of the band have been the manufacturing firm for the characteristic. “However we kinda acquired slowed down with all of it,” remembered Roland. “We’d performed some interviews for it, but it surely was simply overwhelming, on account of how a lot time had handed and the way a lot stuff we needed to kind by means of.”
Lastly, the thought was hatched to bounce between previous and current, circa 2023. “By the point we acquired to Palm Springs,” remembered Turpin, “we had the essential thought of what-all the documentary would possibly embody. Principally, it’s dudes hanging out and recording good music. I’m not afraid to say it, as a result of I feel we all know easy methods to document good music at this level.”
“There’s an element in there the place Ed is speaking about how he in all probability hasn’t even written his greatest songs but,” stated Turpin. “His mind is ‘on’ on a regular basis, and it doesn’t simply cease with music; he’s all the time developing with new concepts. We simply must sustain.”
“Yeah, it’s acquired historical past, by means of the outdated stuff and interviews and so many clips and footage,” countered Roland. “And we will’t complain an excessive amount of about it as a result of we knew what we have been entering into when it began.”
When requested if the filming of the recording classes created any stress or uneasiness inside the band, Turpin is fast to answer. “Probably not! You’d assume it’d, however we’re kinda used to cameras being round, plus Joe, the director, was like a fly on the wall. He did his job, and he didn’t attempt to inject himself into what we have been making an attempt to do.”
When pressed about Collective Soul’s primary technique of songwriting, Turpin is circumspect. “As you’ll see within the movie, we simply kind of keep open to potentialities. A variety of occasions, Ed will are available with an thought after which all of us work on it. We work on the great elements and discard the dangerous concepts. We bounce across the room for concepts. It’s like, ‘Hey, that half will work for the intro,’ or ‘Let’s make this an entire new part.’ We’re nonetheless a democracy that means. We attempt to do these songs as a band, and, if it makes the hairs on our arms get up, then cool, that’s the precise course. I’m simply glad individuals will have the ability to see that course of within the documentary. It’s all actual.”
Now that the documentary is launched on bodily media and streaming is deliberate for later this 12 months, the band is again on the highway for one more summer season tour. This time, their cross-country journey is named the “Summer season Unity Tour” and options pals Dwell in addition to Our Girl Peace.
“We’ve been doing excursions with bands we’ve recognized for a very long time,” explains Turpin. “And this summer season is not any completely different. We met Dwell at Woodstock in ’94. Then, in ’07 and ’08, we toured summers back-to-back with them.”
Roland’s Woodstock reminiscence of assembly Dwell stays a favourite of the like-minded pals. “We have been doing Woodstock and we have been all within the van on the way in which to the venue grounds,” he recalled throughout an interview in 2008. “We’d been label-mates, and by then we’d all gotten guitar picks with our names on them. We have been all simply swapping picks on the way in which to point out — like children accumulating baseball playing cards — it was nice.”
The place & When
Collective Soul with Dwell and Our Girl Peace. Doorways open at 6 p.m. Saturday, August 9. $37-$191. Name the venue for availability. Ameris Financial institution Amphitheater, 2200 Encore Parkway, Alpharetta. ticketmaster.com. The band’s documentary is obtainable on DVD and Blu-ray from givemeawordfilm.com.
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Lee Valentine Smith is an Atlanta-born artist, author and musician. At present a daily contributor to The Atlanta Journal-Structure, his work has been syndicated internationally. He has appeared at Music Midtown, on CBS Radio and on Air America. He additionally served as artwork director, guide and archivist for initiatives with ’80s hitmakers The Go-Go’s.