INTERVIEWS

From the May 1999 issue of Guitar One magazine.

"You try for 10 years to get signed, then you get signed, then you have a hit, and then people tell you you're a one 
hit wonder," says Collective Soul's Ed Roland. "Then you just have to keep doing it." And Collective Soul have.
Originally from Stockbridge, GA (a small town five miles south of Atlanta), Collective Soul started life in 1989 as
a quintet made up of Ed and his brother Dean, as well as highschool friends Ross Childress, Will Turpin, and 
Shane Evans. After the group's circulating demo caught the attention of Atlantic records, Collective Soul gained 
national attention in the spring of 1994 with their smash single "Shine," which spent eight weeks atop the AOR 
charts and earned the group the Billboard award for Album Rock Song of the Year. Amazingly, just a year 
later, they repeated that success with "December," earning themselves the distinction of being the only band to 
ever claim the award two years in a row. Looking back, what initially rang as a runaway, out-of-the-box success 
was merely the sound of a band gearing up to reach its true potential. Having already sold more then seven 
million records and achieved a remarkable half-dozen Number 1 rock hits to their credit, Collective Soul are 
back with their forth Atlantic release, Dosage. A bright-sounding melange of crisp riffing guitars, original loops, 
and orchestral instrumentation, it reveals a band confidently raising the bar on an already accomplished song
writing craft.
     GuitarOne recently had a chance to talk with all three of Collective Soul's guitarists - Ed Roland, Dean Roland, 
and Ross Childress - and we asked them about the making of the new album, their songwriting progress, and 
how they manage to orchestrate three guitars in one band.






GuitarOne: I understand much of Dosage was recored right down the street from you guys, in Atlanta.

Ed: Yeah. We were originally in Criterea Studios in Miami, but my wife was pregnant, so we came home so I 
could be with her - I had to go to the "birthing" classes, y'know! The place we wound up at, Tree Studios, was 
literally two miles from our house. It's fairly brand-new - R.E.M. recorded some string overdubs and things in there 
- it's just an amazing, beautiful studio with great attitudes. A good thing about all the studios we've worked in: 
they're not so "business-minded," if that makes sense. At Tree, they just love music very much which made it a 
great place to create.

Dean: The studio was only a couple of miles away from Ed's house, but Will and Shane and Ross were driving
like 45 miles a day to get there [laughs].

Ross: But it was cool being at home and driving to a studio and just getting in that mindset. And then being able
to go home at the end of the day, sleep in a familiar bed; it was great to be able to have a "home life" and also a
"recording life."

Dean: It was a huge difference from when we recorded Disciplined Breakdown, which we did in a cabin.