By Eric Sandberg

For nearly twenty-five years Will Turpin has stood tall, holding down the bottom end for the now venerable rock juggernaut, Collective Soul. Turpin remains one of the three constant members of the multi-platinum hit-makers, along with guitarist Dean Roland and singer/songwriter Ed Roland.

Though 2019 will mark the 25th anniversery of Collective Soul's formation, with tours and new material in the works, Will Turpin has found time to put the finishing touches on his long-awaited debut solo album Serengetti Drivers which will be released June 8th through his own Gooey Records label.

Will spoke to me about his new project and the upcoming activities involving his other band from his home in Atlanta Georgia.
 

Eric: You have a new solo album coming out and it's quite good. We are going to talk at length about it, but first I want to ask about the current status of Collective Soul.

Will Turpin: Next year Collective Soul will release a brand new double album, either as one album or as separate part 1 and part 2 releases--that hasn't been decided yet. Next year will be twenty-five years for Collective Soul and we've got new material almost complete. The guts of all the songs are done, we just need to lay on the fringe.

Eric: Looking at the history of the band, you had a solid lineup for a number of years and a few members have come and gone as twenty-five years have passed, but you have been a constant, and I must say, coolest looking guy in all the band photos.

WT: Maybe I was in charge of picking the pictures (Laughter).

Eric: Anyone who is into Collective Soul more than just hearing their hits on the radio knows that Ed Roland writes 99.8 percent of the material for the band.

WT: Ed is a prolific writer.

Eric: Yet, here you come with your own solo album and it's terrific. It doesn't sound anything like Collective Soul. There are a couple of heavy numbers but you really run the gamut stylistically. On the lead track "Demons" I hear a little Jackson Browne, mixed with Boz Scaggs, "All On You" evokes for me the 90s and maybe Toad the Wet Sprocket, if they were a little heavier.

On "Make It Home" I hear a little Toy Matinee/Kevin Gilbert, and then you've got a little bit of a Country tinge with "On and ON". You also lay down some funk and rev up some fist-waving anthems --a little bit of everything.

WT: Dare we say "Country"? (Laughter)

Eric: Well, when you put those instruments in...

WT: There is a mandolin and a banjo in there. I appreciate those references. When I put together this record I did have a a slight fear about how the record would flow with all the different styles of songs. I would tell some of my friends "It's all over the place."

I'm really glad that everybody who listens to it tells me that, although the genres are varied, they see the theme and the feel that I'm trying to put through. I was hoping it would turn out that way. Hopefully it does for everybody else who listens to it from beginning to end.

Eric: I have to add my voice to that. It was actually on the most recent listen that I latched on to this record's theme, it's practically a concept album featuring eleven slices of real life. It's eleven stories about life and how to live it. The songs seem to flow in a chronology that makes sense.

WT: I can't say that the technical side of that was conscious but you're dead on. It is that. All of these thoughts and concepts follow a definite current.

Eric: Did you spend a lot of time agonizing over the running order and were there other songs above these eleven that were in contention?

WT: I recorded this record over a period of three years and there were three or four songs that fell by the wayside during the process. About a year ago I knew which eleven tunes were the ones. I sat down and listened to everything and the order just fell into place. I went with what just felt right to me.

Eric: Where did the album title Serengeti Drivers come from? For me, the word "Serengetti" has evoked exotic adventure ever since I saw my first National Geographic Special as a kid.

WT: That goes back to about four years ago when I was having a recurring dream where I would be in this Serengeti-esque desert plain. You know the phrase "All Who Wander Are Not Lost" (J.R.R. Tolkien)? I was in the desert, all alone...I didn't feel lost...I was comfortable being all alone there.

And then I would see friends, in a car or a van...I even remember one dream where it was my bandmates in a tour bus...and they're just driving by me on this little single lane road. They see me, they wave and smile, but nobody is thinking about stopping to get me. I'm just like, "There's my buddies, there they go."

And that was this recurring dream I had for a while. It would be different people in different cars, but they were always friends, so that's where the theme started. A lot of my friends, these Serengetti drivers from my dreams, play on this album, sixteen of them. All of them I've known for over a decade and some I've known for over two decades.

Also in the mix is a certain pair of Ray Ban sunglasses called Serengetti Drivers. I like to wear the aviators, but I was aware of that model name and I paired that name with my recurring dream.

Eric: I was glancing through all my Collective Soul albums from through the years last night and I remember one band picture where you're all standing in a road and you've got those Aviators on and you look like an off-duty cop.

WT: (Laughs) Oh yeah. I think that was from the Youth (2004) era when I was buzzing my head down to a two for a five year period. That's how I cut my hair and my beard, all with the same instrument.

Eric: I see that and I think "License and registration, please".

WT: While I'm a really friendly guy, I did look a little intimidating.

Eric: Looking at the longevity of Collective Soul, you and the Roland brothers are the only constants throughout. I can imagine that you have more creative input towards helping to shape Ed's songs in the studio than shows up in the credits but have you ever wrestled with the idea of staying with the steady gig versus going off to find your own voice?

WT: I think it's important to realize that Ed, Dean and I grew up really close to each other in small town Georgia. I grew up going to their father's church, I knew who Ed and Dean were as part of my earliest memories.

My father had a recording studio (Reel 2 Reel) in that same small town where Ed cut his teeth developing his songwriting craft. I've known Ed and Dean my whole life. Lord knows, it's been twenty-four years and we still live on a bus together.

There is a part of each of us that knows we have to find ourselves creatively outside of Collective Soul. We believe that that makes Collective Soul stronger, as opposed to the other way where you take yourself out of the band to explore those things.

We feel that doing outside projects makes us a better band. Dean's got his side project, Magnets and Ghosts, and Ed has the Sweet Tea Project. It's never been a thing of one or the other with us. We've never thought about it that way.

Although Ed and Dean are genetic brothers nobody knows the three of us better than we know each other. We also understand the creative process we share and that is still strong today.

Eric: I really have to give Ed and Dean props for being the only big time Rock 'n Roll brothers who don't live in the tabloids or aren't waging war with each other on Twitter.

WT: No. They do get into a brother spat occasionally. It's different when those two argue than when somebody else is arguing with one of them, but it's nowhere near the level of the Robinson brothers or the Gallagher brothers...

Eric: The Davies brothers...

WT: Yeah, the Davies, too.

Eric: Serengeti Drivers is releasing on June 8th on all platforms. Have you put together a band to play these songs live?

WT: I have. We're rehearsing tonight. I always go straight to the bassist Mark Wilson who I've known since he was a young lad. His father and my father were really good friends. I remember seeing Mark play bass with his older brother in a coffee house when he was only fourteen or fifteen years old.

When you're a bass player you pick a bass player that's definitely much better than you and Mark fits that bill. I have Jason Tyler on lead guitar, great vocalist. He's got his own solo career going as well. I've got Gary Chumney on drums, who is a good friend. It's all Atlanta guys.

When you've known guys for a long time there is chemistry, and an unspoken understanding, even if we don't play together all the time. That's my band. We've got two shows in Atlanta around the release on June 5th and June 8th.

After that it's going to be all Collective Soul until mid-September. In the fall I'm definitely going to be looking for some gigs, especially in some of the fall festivals, any opening spot, so we'll see.

Eric: Can you pick two or three of your favorite songs on Serengeti Drivers?

WT: "Demons" is kind of my theme song for the way I approach life on Earth. The chorus is "When my demons are all gone, I don't wanna be here to go it alone. If I can't hear the angels' song I don't wanna go there."

There's light, there's dark, good and evil. You've got to have them both and you're just swimming in the current trying to recognize one from the other. Everybody has that devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other. I'm not scared of or intimidated by either one. I enjoy both (Laughter).

Eric: "Demons" is obviously the lead track, and it's a real toe tapper, but I also like "So Long". That's something I could hear on the radio.

WT: Really? That's cool. Part of the positive feedback I'm getting from this album is that there are at least seven songs that different people have told me is their favorite. That feels good to me. That means it's not obvious (what the single should be) and that it's a deep record.

Eric: Then you've got "Belong" which starts off with a heavy funky guitar riff but ends up becoming an anthem. I was like, "Wait, is that still the same song?"

WT: Yeah, I would reference that as one of my favorites as well. The third track "Make It Home" is also one of my favorites. "On and On" is the tune with the mandolin going through it. That one is probably going to be our first video. We'll release that to AAA, 'laid back' radio, and see what happens.

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