Where have Georgia rockers Collective Soul been for the past four years? After pushing a respectable collection of catchy pop-rock hits such as Gel, Shine and The World I Know on to the charts in the Nineties — and performing in South Africa in 2001 — they disappeared off the modern-rock radar screen. Now they are back with their sixth album, Youth, released on their own label.
”We took time off after eight years of touring and studio work,” guitarist Dean Roland says. ”We needed time to ourselves outside the band. We were going into the studio, but the music wasn’t what we were looking for.”
There were some personal matters the band members had to work through, says Roland. He and his lead-singer and guitarist brother, Ed, both got divorced since then, and Ed has spent more time with his son, now six years old.
They knew it was time to record a new album ”when the music started coming together the way we wanted it to”, says Roland.
But such a long break would cause any band to lose some ground in the fast-moving world of popular music. Coming back with a new album after several years is almost like starting over, or a reunion of the band.
”It’s one of the things I guess, it’s the situation,” agrees Roland. ”It’s what happened. The music wasn’t ready to put out, we weren’t ready to put it out. When you take three or four years off in music, it’s an eternity.”
He is optimistic about the band’s comeback, though, despite the fact that they are ”building it from the ground up”. Their recent tour in the United States was successful and the first single off Youth, Better Now, has enjoyed a good run on the US charts.
In a changed rock arena, do the band fear any competition from acts who now rule the airwaves, such as Vertical Horizon and Jimmy Eat World, even the now-respectable Green Day?
”Trends come and go. We never looked at it from that perspective. We do music we feel comfortable sending off into the world,” says Roland.
He’s not too concerned about the Nineties fans who may have outgrown the band since then, saying they write music for ”people who enjoy melody”.
”Music is something that doesn’t really have boundaries. It is universal,” he says.
Not only do Collective Soul have a new album, they also sport a new guitarist: Joel Kosche, who replaces Ross Childress.
”He’s been around for many years,” says Roland about Kosche. ”He brings in a classically trained element. The chemistry [in the band] is better now … he is definitely a team player.”
Youth is out on the band’s own imprint, after moving from the Atlantic label.
”We have a distribution deal and we have outsourced publicity and marketing,” says Roland. ”The advantage is that it has been a learning experience for us. It helps you create what you were working towards.”
Youth — coming after 2000’s Blender, which sounded slick but had fans complaining about it being overproduced and too subdued — has a ”less ‘produced’ sound”, says Roland. ”We went back to our roots, where we started from: a guitar-driven pop band with pop melodies, and we went from there.”
And how does it compare to the music on 1993’s breakthrough album, Hints, Allegations and Things Left Unsaid?
”It’s more like the second record, the self-titled record, and the fourth, a combination,” says Roland.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian in 2001, Ed Roland said he thought at the time of bringing some of the Atlanta hip-hop scene’s sound into Collective Soul’s music, but this has not happened, says Dean.
”I think one always pushes one’s own boundaries,” he says. ”Blender went out there a bit, and it didn’t really work. We’re still huge fans of scene, especially in Atlanta, so never say never. We wouldn’t want to do something that doesn’t work, though.”
So, it seems it’s a case of better safe than sorry for the band’s comeback — but whether this approach will also win back their South African fans remains to be seen.
Youth is now available in South Africa