PureVolume

Members: Ed Roland - Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards / Dean Roland - Guitars / Will Turpin - Bass, Percussion / Joel Kosche - Guitars / Ryan Hoyle - Drums, Percussion

Afterwords (El Music Group) is the new studio album from Collective Soul. It is the seventh studio album by the hard-rocking band from the tiny town of Stockbridge, GA thats gone on to become multi-platinum hit-makers playing all over the world.

Bright as California sunshine, the first single Hollywood features an undeniable melody with tinges of 80s pop. Singer/ songwriter Ed Roland puts a bouncy energy to his sly lyrics that compare Tinsel Town to a naughty girl (or is it the other way around?): Yeah, Hollywood/ You know I love you more than one man should/ Yeah, Hollywood/ kiss me, kiss me good.

While Hollywood may strike listeners as the perfect top-down summer song, much of the rest of Afterwords captures Collective Soul at a time when Roland is writing from a hard-won, much more mature perspective, and his band mates are contributing from equally strong musical directions.

The theme of this one is love. Roland says of Afterwords. It sounds corny saying that but weve been blessed with success and with that comes the confidence to do things. I always liked writing positive songs and although a whole love record is different for me its an important step.

Another first for Roland is the evocative, mid-tempo story song, Georgia Girl it's the only tune hes ever written where the lyrics came before the melody. I just sat down one day and wrote it. Its basically a true story about a wonderful girl who helped me through a hard time. That may be the hardest kind of song for me to write a story that people can follow. Thats the greatness of someone like Springsteen. He can write you a story. I really wanted to challenge myself to do something like that.