Collective Soul – Dean Roland

By: Lori Smerilson Carson

The hits that withstand the test of time are full of solid ideas and music that people can relate to.

Collective Soul certainly falls into this category having captured the rock music scene in 1994 with their

debut album hints allegations and things left unsaid. In 1995, their triple platinum self-titled LP was

released, spawning hits “The World I know” and “December”. The hits kept coming over the years and

so far, they have eight number 1 hits. Now, these incredibly talented musicians are releasing their 12th

studio album HERE TO ETERNITY on May 17th. In addition to this thirtieth anniversary celebration, they

are touring with Hootie And The Blowfish and Edwin McCain, taking their new music, as well as fan

favorites, across the country on their Summer Camp with Trucks Tour. Ohio area fans have the

opportunity to see this new show in Cincinnati at the Riverbend Music Center on June 7th, in Erie, PA on

June 25th at the Warner Theatre, and in Burgettstown, PA on June 29th at The Pavilion at Star Lake.

Catching up with Rhythm Guitarist Dean Roland just prior to the start of the tour, he revealed some

details about the new show, about their latest album that he and brother Lead Vocalist Ed Roland, Lead

Guitarist Jesse Triplett, Bassist Will Turpin, and Drummer Johnny Rabb just released, as well as a bit

about his past, and what fans can look forward to.

ON TOUR MAGAZINE: The new album HERE TO ETERNITY is awesome! Collective Soul’s 12th Studio

release, a double album. What would you say inspired the album?

Dean Roland: Well, the double album thing had always kind of been in the back of our head in terms of

growing up, just Goodbye Yellow Brick Road and The Beatles White Album. The list goes on and on. I

don’t know that we intentionally went in thinking we were going to do a double album, but we recorded

this record at Elvis Presley’s estate in Palm Springs. He had two houses. One in Graceland, and basically

like his little get away house in Palm Springs. We had the good fortune of meeting the people that own

it, and we asked them if we could just put our studio gear in there. Put our studio in there, went to work

and we just found ourselves in a really fun, creative momentum and just went with it. So, we just

flowed. When you’re recording, you usually just try to find that spark and that moment to build off of.

We were able to find it. We found a fun, healthy creative roll, went with it.

ON TOUR MAGAZINE: What made you decide to record at Elvis Presley’s estate?

Roland: My brother Ed had randomly met a couple of guys that were investors in real estate and

housing properties. They were just talking one night, and it happened to be that they owned that

property, Elvis’s Palm Springs. It really hasn’t been touched since Elvis passed. There’s been a couple

different owners, I think, but nothing’s changed. The same appliances, same bathrooms. So, it’s kind of a

strange thing to walk in there. You feel the vibe. We were already doing a career standing documentary

and then the idea of like oh, maybe we could put our gear in there and record a record, document that,

and combine it into this documentary that we’ve been making. So, we did that along with it. We were

documenting the entire thing. We recorded a double album, and put all that together. It’s our thirty-

year anniversary, so it’s a lot of synergistic things that were and are happening. That film should come

out, hopefully later this year. We got a busy year ahead of us.

ON TOUR MAGAZINE: Yes, you do and with your tour that we will talk about, but you all self-produced

the album with co-producer Shawn Grove. What would you say he added to the recordings?

Roland: Yeah, Shawn. We’ve worked with him for, gosh it’s been going on twenty-five years. A long

time. We affectionately call him our sixth member. He’s our dude that, he pretty much discards our

worst parts and magnifies our best parts, I think is the best way to put him. He’s a trusted source. A

trusted ear when we’re in the studio because when you’re creating, it can be such a vulnerable place.

You’re just tossing out ideas and some are great. Some are not great or not at all (he laughed). So,

you’re just trying to peel away the layers of the onion to try to get to the source and see what’s of value,

and what do you feel great about. What’s organic. What works and what doesn’t. He’s got an amazing

ear for us.

ON TOUR MAGAZINE: The first single is “Mother’s Love”. The last time we spoke was when “Right As

Rain” was released. You said that was inspired by something your grandmother used to say. What

inspired “Mother’s Love”?

Roland: I think it’s as pretty straight forward as you might think. A mother’s love. The eternal,

unconditional love of one that we all cherish.

ON TOUR MAGAZINE: The song “Bob Dylan (Where Are You Today)”. How did that come about?

Roland: That’s a song Ed wrote. We were playing that on the tour last year. He wrote it a couple years

back. Probably during COVID when we were all chained down to our couches. The way he explains it in

our discussions lyrically because Ed’s not much of a protest songwriter, he’s not a political songwriter. It

was his version of posing the question of where is that voice today in this time?

ON TOUR MAGAZINE: Songs like “Be The One” and “Words Away” are more melodic, ballad types. Did

they have piano and keyboards?

Roland: Yeah. Our approach when we go in the studio and it’s always been this way, we serve the song.

So, it’s almost like esoteric. You’re constantly asking the song, what does it need to get it to the place

where it becomes its full expression? So, yeah, we’re all over the place using pianos or keyboards,

synthesizers, percussion. Whatever it takes for us to get that question answered of what does this song

need to be fully expressed?

ON TOUR MAGAZINE: What would you say inspires Collective Soul’s music in general?

Roland: In general, I think the passion of music. Either you can be born with it or maybe you get bit by

the bug at a young age or whatever juncture in your life, but once it happens, you have a, in the most

respectful manner of the word, you have a lust for it, and we’ve had it. I think one of the main things

that’s kept us together for so long, is we share that desire and the passion of music. It’s our outlet. It’s

our expression of what we feel and what makes our world go around, to be honest. Everybody has their

own individual passions, and some get to do it for a living, and some do other things. I feel like we have

the great fortune of being able to live out our passion as a living, and we don’t take that for granted.

ON TOUR MAGAZINE: We talked about this before, but what influenced you to become a musician?

Roland: For Ed and I both, our father was a voice major in college. He had this beautiful tenor voice, and

then he had a conversation with God and they decided that they were going to go into the ministry. So,

he became a minister of music, this church where we grew up in Stockbridge, Georgia. Then he became

a pastor, but we were as children, just surrounded by music. Our mother played piano. Our dad sang,

and that was just our childhood. We grew up around church music. That’s where we cut our teeth doing

that. So, like I said, either you’re born with it or it’s around you, but Ed and I, I’m not sure if it’s a nature

verses nurture conversation. I’m honestly not sure if we were just born with it, or if we were born into it.

I’m not sure.

ON TOUR MAGAZINE: What would you say attributes to the success of Collective Soul?

Roland: We’ve always tried to adhere to the notion of being honest with our music. Like, just not

overthink it, and do music that we like. Write some good melodies with some honest lyrics and some

interesting sounds, and see what comes out of it. Every record, we really approach it to put our best

offering out. To put our best thing that we have at that moment. and looking back, some of them in my

opinion were great. Some of them were not so great, but heck, in that moment in time, we did the very

best that we could. Being at this point in our career, thirty years into it, doing the documentary. Having

recorded a record at the Elvis house. It’s kind of a time that we’ve never really taken for ourselves to do

some self-reflection. It’s an interesting perspective to look back and go, oh wow! But there’s a lot of

pride in that too.

ON TOUR MAGAZINE: You might recommend to a new band to be honest with their music and that

type of thing?

Roland: Yeah, For sure. Well, from all the music that I’ve loved growing up, and still do to this day, it’s

that thing that I connect with and that’s what I know. I’m not really good at third person writing or

writing for someone necessarily. I’m pretty selfish (he laughed). I want to write what makes me feel

good, that I can relate to, and then if it hopefully connects with other people, then it’s celebrated

beyond just me. I guess everyone has their own approach, but that’s the one we take.

ON TOUR MAGAZINE: That’s good advice. What can people look forward to with this documentary?

Roland: It documents the recording of HERE TO ETERNITY, that double album at Elvis’s house, but it

spans. It starts from the beginning. It tells the story of the band. The inception, how it all came together.

It’s a lot of information, I mean, thirty years to cram into an hour and a half, but it’s similar to the music

that we make. It’s just an honest story telling of what we went through. Like anything, there’s no

straight line to success. Even once you reach what you think might be success, it’s a crooked road, and

it’s an uphill, downhill road that you take.

ON TOUR MAGAZINE: The Summer Camp Trucks Tour with Hootie And The Blowfish and Edwin McCain.

How did this tour come about and what can fans look forward to with the new show?

Roland: Well, we’ve been buddies with the Hootie guys. We were label mates on Atlantic Records in the

very beginning. So, when their first record was completely selling tens of millions and twenty of millions

of records all through the world (he laughed), we were label mates with those guys. So, we were all

sharing in some success, the mainstream success, and all that happens with that at that time. So, we’ve

known them for a while, and we’ve played shows with them over the years. Obviously, Darius had great

success as a solo artist. They’d taken their multi year hiatus as a band, and when they came back, they

do their Hootie Fest every year. We played with them last year and I think it just kind of sparked up.

They were going to go on the road. It’s a very organic thing and like, are we into it and they’re into it?

Just kind of fell into place. So, it wasn’t an overthought situation. It was just like, this feels good. Let’s go

do it. All good friends, good love. Let’s go play some music and share the stage.

ON TOUR MAGAZINE: So, you’re going to have some of the new music in your set as well?

Roland: Yeah. We’ll play new music and obviously, the hits. It’s always interesting when we start a tour

how we build up the set list of how much of the new stuff. Obviously, we’re excited about the new

songs because we haven’t really played any of them live before and we’re excited for people to hear

them, but we also know that we’re not here without “Shine” and “All That I Know”. Some of the songs

that people know. So, we play all of those as well. We try to put them all together like a puzzle.

ON TOUR MAGAZINE: Are there any new videos or anything else for fans to look forward to?

Roland: The first single off the new album comes out, I think in a couple weeks, “Mother’s Love”. So,

that will be floating around. The actual double album came out May 17th , and the tour starts in Dallas

on May 30th , sometime around there.

ON TOUR MAGAZINE: Was there anything ese you want to add?

Roland: We’re excited about it, and look forward to seeing everybody out there and sharing some

music!