Collective Soul, Will Turpin Interview – New Album is ‘All Over the Map’

2023-05-03

Collective Soul

Collective Soul, Will Turpin interview – Story by Anne Erickson, photo by David Abbott

Will Turpin of Collective Soul joins Anne Erickson to talk new music, ’90s grunge and more in this extensive interview

Collective Soul are known for 1990s mainstays such as “Shine” and “December.” But, decades later, they’re still releasing new music and selling out amphitheaters. The band released their latest studio album, “Vibrating,” in 2022, and the guys already have the follow up recorded and “in the can.”

Founding member and bassist Will Turpin tells Audio Ink Radio that the band just spent one month in Palm Springs, California, from Jan. 2 to Feb. 1, recording a new album in, of all places, Elvis’ previous home. He says the house had a “great vibe” and the experience was fantastic.

“Palm Springs is a great place to hang and live for a bit,” he added. “It’s small but has lots of cool places, and it’s a very open-minded community. We got to live there for a month and record the album, so we have that in the can, and we also recorded more footage for a documentary.”

Both Collective Soul’s new album and documentary are on target to be out by this time next year, Turpin said. As for the sound and style on the new album, expect a variety.

“Collective Soul is all over the map, and I think it fits right along with Collective Soul,” he said. “There’s going to be all kinds of different little styles and musicality things that you’ll hear. We kind of even did one song that- we have never attempted kind of, dare I say, a jazz tune. It turned out great. I had a lot of fun recording it. So, get ready for another Collective Soul record, and when you hit start, you don’t know what is going to come next.”

In addition to getting ready to release a new album, Collective Soul will perform about 50 shows this year. Some of those shows are with fellow ’90s rockers Blues Traveler.

Collective Soul and the ‘Grunge’ Label

Collective Soul and “grunge” were often synonymous in the 1990s. That true even though their music didn’t really sound like grunge. Turpin makes some good points about the phenomenon.

“I think it’s more about what the timing and movement was,” he said. “Everything happened so quickly, and grunge was almost strictly, 100% responsible for the moment. It’s almost the moment you heard (Nirvana with) ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit,’ you thought, ‘Great. We’re going to move from the hair bands now and quit singing about partying and getting laid and move on to more serious topics.’ I think anybody that came after that wave was semi lumped into grunge, because everyone was called grunge for a while.”

Listen to Will Turpin of Collective Soul’s full interview with Audio Ink Radio on the podcast on Spotify here and Apple here. Find Collective Soul online here. Also, read Audio Ink Radio’s review of Collective Soul’s 2022 summer tour here.

Anne Erickson
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Posted by Anne Erickson | Alternative, Features, Grunge, Interviews, Music

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