This past week CincyMusic had a chance to catch up with Will Turpin, the longtime singer, songwriter, bassist, and backup vocalist for Atlanta Rock Band Collective Soul. This year marks their 30th Anniversary, and they are set to embark on “The Summer with Trucks Tour” produced by Live Nation with Hootie and The Blowfish and Edwin McCain. The tour will roll through Cincinnati on June 7th and will be one of the hottest tickets of the summer. James and Will discussed the upcoming tour and more importantly the band’s new double LP Here to Eternity which is set to release in just under a week.

James:
 Will thanks so much for taking time out of your busy schedule to catch up with us at CincyMusic. We are Cincinnati’s premier music resource covering local bands, concerts, music news, artists, and album reviews. On behalf of Cincinnati, and the legions of Collective Soul fans in the region, we are stoked to have this opportunity. We're three weeks away from the tour kicking off on May 30th. The trek has you going everywhere covering the US and Canada in 44 total cities. You will be stopping at several legendary venues and stadiums. Additionally, we're only seven days away from Here to Eternity dropping. It's coming out on CD, Double LP, and of course digital platforms. Last but not least, Collective Soul is celebrating their 30 year anniversary! Wow! What a year 2024 is shaping up to be for Collective Soul. What does this particular anniversary mean to you and the band in particular? It's a milestone that most bands don't even come close to achieving.

Will:
 I mean, obviously I've had to address that with every interview coming up. It’s hard to put into words. It's definitely a milestone. I think it means when we started out as youngsters, we had a little bit of that studio acumen with Ed being an engineer and me and my buddies who were 7.5 years, 8.5 years younger than Ed watching him work on that craft. We were just kids hanging out in my dad's studio. When we started, I remember us talking about wanting to serve the song. We talked about wanting our music to be the focal point. We wanted to be known for our music. When we started out on that path we didn't talk about what we would be doing with it all in 30 years. During those early days we were only talking about one year at a time, you know, what's right in front of us. We never focused on how cool we were or how cool it was recording and being in a band. Instead of our focus was how can we build on this? How can we expand the repertoire? How can we get better? So, to me… I think it represents that we kind of had a good head on our shoulders and demonstrates if you build it right, it can go for a while. At this point, going on tour with mates we've known for 30 years now, I mean, all three of those bands, ironically enough, Hootie and Edwin Mccain - we were all signed to Atlantic Records 30 years ago all of us from the South. Our first records were in 1994 you know. So now that we're doing this and I have to face 30 years as a reality… it's surreal? It doesn't even really feel comfortable saying that. But now I look back and I think wow, we are known for our music and there are some of our songs they'll never stop playing. That kind of means something to me. It justifies that we put a stamp on what we do and, and who we are.

James:
 That's a great perspective. In some ways it seems your theme looking back under the surface of all the success is that it was always about the music.

Will:
 Yes, and having that priority. That being the main priority and the main focus wasn't about how much money we made or how cool we are. The focus was always on the songs. So 30 years later we have now recorded the double album Here to Eternity and it’s the same feeling. We created it by feel and we got in there and played like our band always has and it was the same thing as it was when we started. We're serving the song and trying to do the right thing for each song. Of course, at this point, by the time we go on tour we just call it a celebration of life. We go out there and play some songs and celebrate the memories because now we're playing in front of multiple generations. We're playing in front of fathers and sons, and daughters, and grandfathers and we understand that people have allowed Collective Soul’s music to become a part of their life. As you know people who cherish music will always associate a certain time and maybe even a certain person to the music they listen to. Sometimes that person might not even be around. You know how many times I hear fans tell me their music reminds them of memories of someone they lost. I love hearing it - I never know exactly how to act other than just say, you know, thanks for sharing. But, you know, we hear it all the time. It could be because my father passed away a couple of years ago and this was his favorite song, or we got married and this was in our wedding, or hey I met my girlfriend at your show! So people have allowed these songs to become part of their life and we have a blast playing them live. At this point we can just call it a celebration.

James:
 I appreciate that Collective Soul understands the place your music plays in people's lives and in a way you honor that nostalgia… you acknowledge it through celebrating it live. I tend to call that your life's soundtrack. You already referenced the new album and again it's right around the corner dropping in a week's time. What can fans expect with this new album? It has 20 new tracks which is a statement and testament to the band. Not to mention it was recorded in a special place. Please tell us about this new record and how the band approached recording it.

Will:
 Ha ha so we had a friend of a friend that owns the Elvis's Palm Springs Estate It took us about three years to get things in action and the right levels of approval to record there. Let's be honest most people aren’t jumping at an opportunity to let a rock band live and record at their newly acquired estate which Elvis formerly owned. So it took a couple of years to get it planned out. So there we were in Palm Springs for an entire month. In today's era, we only had to roll in with a couple of racks of gear which was nice. We either brought in our gear or bought new gear for this particular recording. We set up to record right there in Elvis' living room. It was wild. We recorded in the same place Elvis recorded vocal tracks for a couple of his records. We were all wondering about how they did the recordings back then. I imagine at the time they probably brought a mobile studio and ran some wires inside. There wasn’t anything in the house that resembled that there was ever a studio on location. They probably just recorded his vocals via whatever mobile unit setup options they had in the seventies. In fact there were still RCA tiles on the ceiling in the living room to ensure sound wouldn’t be bouncing around too much. It was a bit of a time capsule when they acquired the property. It was definitely in disrepair. Some of the bathrooms still weren't even working. We had a great time and the pool and outdoor patio were incredible with these amazing views. One of the highlights was the living room was all glass and it looked onto the pool patio area and then you got this beautiful Palm Springs mountain view behind it. So served as our inspiration and the vibe was still in that house. I mean, Elvis's red carpet that he picked out on the one side of the house where he had his bedroom. The master bath still had all the pink tiles that we know Priscilla picked out. Our engineer room was set up closest to the living room, in what would have been Lisa Marie's bedroom. We were there every day recording for a month. When we started out we were just thinking about recording an album and I'd say within the first week, we were just feeling it so much and probably five songs deep in the first six days. In the 30 years as a band we always talked about double albums. We've always talked about what our heroes did Elton John, Led Zeppelin, The Beatles… and all these guys did double records and we, like those before us, wanted to do a double record. Everybody would laugh at us whether it was a record label or once streaming became king, anybody would state yeah that's a waste of music, you know. But when we were there in Palm Springs and at the end of the first week, we knew that we were recording a double album. We didn't really even ask anybody. Like we said it's been 30 years - you're just like, we're gonna do what we wanna do on this one.

It's something we get to look forward to in just one week's time when we can unpack all the creativity that flowed into this record. In the meantime fans can check out the new single, "Mother's Love." Great job on the new single! It has that immediate Collective Soul signature riffs coupled with those harmonies you are also known for. It’s part of the Collective Soul DNA As you framed out how the location drove the creativity of this recording, I cannot help but point out a detail on the single. The slide guitar on Mother’s Love resonates… it's there. It caught my ear immediately. You guys got Paul McCartney's longtime guitar player, Brian Ray, to step in to play slide on this song. I realize there are other guests that play on this record. Can you tell us a bit more about that or tell the fans what they can expect?

Will:
 Absolutely. Our long-time friend Peter Stroud from Atlanta who is actually originally from South Carolina and who we have known for 25 years and has been on a number of our records – he's Sheryl Crow's band leader and is on several tracks. Shoutout to Mickey Thomas who is also a Georgia Native and many know him via Jefferson Starship. It's just a great story about how he got picked up by Jefferson Starship. Mickey has several vocal cameos on songs. So yeah we definitely had some collaboration with some of our friends on this one.

James:
 We mentioned that Collective Soul hit the scene in the 1990’s. I remember getting permission from my parents to get the pay-per-view to watch the 94 and 95 Woodstock coverage with my friends. Collective Soul is one of only five bands that played them both. Touring was a big part of the band's growth. You touched on it before mentioning going out on the road with your comrades Hootie and Edwin. How exciting is it to go out on the road with Hootie and Edwin and hit this many dates with bands that you admire, that you landed record deals alongside? You must be pumped up. Tell us about that and is Collective Soul already rehearsing?

Will:
 Of course. We're rehearsing the week before the tour starts and we've got a set list we're working on right now and I'm actually at the studio right now creating an intro. A little 60-second intro it's gonna be one of those that grab your attention and anticipate things. You might hear a heartbeat, and some other things so, you know something's about to go down type intro and then kicking off the tour sets with Mother's Love. This is that time where I'm totally fucking pumped and excited, the new record is coming out and every night it's gonna be a little special. Some nights I am likely gonna look out at the crowd and I'm gonna be like, holy shit. We've been friends with Edwin and Hootie for 30 years and we're all still here. We've seen each other at our worst and best as well. We are all still here together for this tour. I'm gonna give it a healthy knock on wood. I know I'll have those moments almost every time we play on this tour where I will be so grateful. But yes, I'm super excited. It's all amphitheaters and stadiums so I know the fans are gonna love this lineup.

James:
 The fans are looking forward to it and the Cincinnati show is right around the corner. I want to touch on something that you mentioned earlier that I'd like to get your perspective on. You mentioned growing up in the studio so you respect the process of creating an album and the analog nature of how it can be recorded. That's the way Elvis recorded in Palm Springs. Right now there is this massive resurgence of CDs and vinyl which is incredible. For you personally, and I assume the fellas in the band, is there a particular appreciation of fans being able to consume music via physical platforms again like CDs and Vinyl?

Will:
 For sure. It's completely understandable to me, especially the vinyl platform because of the size and the ritual. With vinyl there's this ritual which I don't know if the younger generation has fully appreciated getting into that ritual, but there's a ritual of going to the rack and picking out what you wanna hear next, taking off the other record, putting on the new record. There's a ritual and a ceremony that feels ceremonious to me. And appreciating the artwork too when the artwork is the real size. To me that's a viable piece of product there. So yes it's all understandable to me that's why it's back and popular - CDs too. I could never throw away my CD collection and I'm glad I didn't. I just couldn't do it. For this new album we had to make 30,000 CDs for this one too. So yeah I think it's good. I think fans will still continue to collect CDs and records even if it's just to collect and have it on the wall.

James:
 Absolutely. I am a collector and I completely agree on the ceremonious nature of it all.

Will:
 The whole album concept. This is a collection of songs written and recorded during this era. That's an album you know, whether it's photographs or music, it's an album that represents a collection of things done in a certain era.

James:
 You will be here on June 7th. Do you have any connections or memories you can share with fans about your stops over the years in Cincinnati?

Will:
 Ha ha ha c’mon you know… Cincinnati has one of the most classic rooms in the nation. Anybody and everybody that started in the nineties or even two thousands or even still today has to have some kind of memories associated with Bogart's.

James:
 Oh of course. We as fans share that same sentiment. I absolutely appreciate the memories bands have of Bogart's as it aligns with all of us as fans who have also shared so many memorable nights there as well.

Will:
 That's awesome. Yeah, I remember there was a wheel in the back, in a little dressing room in the back. It was like a “Wheel of Fortune” and it had like 20 spaces on it, you know like vulgar stuff - maybe not for print but it was with the times back then. I remember the “Wheel of Fortune” behind Bogart's for sure. That was hilarious for all the bands that came through. I hear a lot of people say they're glad they didn't have phones back then, but I am the exact opposite. I really wish I had a camera in my pocket at those times. There were a lot of memories you just didn't have a camera around for.

So for the fans in Cincinnati, this is a nice little tidbit - I think the first time we tried to even just stumble along with "The World I Know," I know we were sound-checking at Bogart's maybe late 94. That is how I remember it. Some of the guys in the band remember things a little differently, but the first time we fumbled around with "The World I Know," the song wasn't completely written yet, it was done and started out during sound check at Bogart's.

Thanks for that memory! What are you listening to right now? What's relevant to Will? What vinyl is spinning on your record player?

Will:
 I typically lean on what my kids listen to to keep current. I am usually more, the classics. One of my biggest fears as I had children, and I have three boys, this might sound pretentious but I did not want my boys to have bad taste in music. Thankfully, all three have really good taste in music. Right now I think Tame Impala stuff is really fun and Pond too, - that's an offshoot of Tame Impala. I like what they're doing. Vampire Weekend just came out with a new record which is awesome. For sure my boys keep me in touch with what's cool.

James:
 It's been a great discussion and again thanks for your time. Before I let you go is there anything you want to add to close things? Is there anything you want to add or say to the fans in Cincinnati?

Will:
 I will echo what I was telling you about our live show. I want people to know we don't take it for granted that it's been 30 years and we don't take it for granted that people have allowed these songs to be part of their lives. We encounter all kinds of life-changing stories that revolve around our music on tour. It means the world to us and it resonates with us. And that's why we want everybody to come out and celebrate the good, the bad, and even the sad moments with us. But you need to come celebrate those memories and I promise we will all have a good time!