The Backstory: How Collective Soul’s ‘December’ got that sound

When Atlantic Records released Collective Soul’s first album and picked “December” as the single, the band wasn’t happy, but it turned out to be one of the definitive songs of 1995 and the band’s favorite to perform.

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Editor’s Note: Atlanta Soundtrack is getting a new look, starting today. Now renamed “The Backstory,” the series will delve deeply into one song or album, revealing how it came to be, where the ideas came from, how it was produced. We’ll give readers an inside look into a song they thought they knew.

When college radio stations began spinning a basement-recorded demo of Collective Soul’s “Shine,” the band’s journey from Stockbridge, Georgia, to alt-rock fame swiftly began to unfold. Determined to prevail beyond the status of one-hit wonderdom, the band signed with Atlantic Records and released their self-titled album, which delivered several mainstream successes, including the seminal “December.” With its brooding emotion and instantly recognizable guitar riff, “December” shot to the top of the Billboard US Mainstream Rock charts, solidifying its place as one of the definitive songs of 1995. 

Comprised of members Ed Roland, Dean Roland, Johnny Rabb, Jesse Triplett and Will Turpin, the members of Collective Soul grew up in a tight-knit community with a shared love for music. 

ArtsATL caught up with Collective Soul bassist Turpin over the phone to explore the story of how the enduring single came to be. The band will perform with Hootie and the Blowfish as part of their Summer Camp with Trucks Tour at Ameris Bank Amphitheatre on Friday, September 20.

“When the label said they definitely wanted ‘December’ to be the first single, I remember thinking ‘oh, no,’” laughs Turpin. “I was certainly wrong about that.”

The band’s early years were shaped by a supportive local scene and their ties to Stockbridge’s Real 2 Reel Studios, owned by Turpin’s father. At the time, frontman Ed Roland worked at Real 2 Reel as an engineer. “We always knew each other, but the friendship happened because of the studio. The studio was our hub, especially in a place like Stockbridge,” Turpin explains. “We were also fans of what Ed was doing at my dad’s studio. The short story is this: Ed’s friends started getting married and getting real jobs. Me and my friends came out of high school and became Collective Soul.”

Though their rise was rooted in grassroots support from regional college radio stations like Georgia State University’s WRAS, Collective Soul’s studio experience provided them with a crucial edge in their journey to mainstream recognition.

“We had my father telling us how to serve the song,” Turpin says. “It’s not about you and how many notes you can put in a baseline or how cool your bass sound is.”

Living in a musical household, Turpin grew up playing the piano and the drums. Although he enjoyed music theory, he found that he preferred to play by ear, favoring energetic approaches to composition over mechanical. When he agreed to join Collective Soul as the bassist, Turpin was studying percussion and production at Georgia State University. He also didn’t own a bass. 

“I told the guys I played bass before I owned one. But, you know, it’s all music. You serve the song no matter what instrument you’re on.” 

More than boost his predilection toward multi-instrumentalism, Turpin’s intuition-forward temperament and music-rife childhood informed his approach to composition, with “December” being no exception.

“‘December’ was one of those ideas where it’s going to be the same chord progression over and over. The underlying chords are the same, but each section sounds different. You try to build and stack a repetitive chord progression through multiple sections.” 

The snap of snare. A steady slink of bass hauling toward the wistful resignation of outro violins. Its twinkling and time-tested riff. 

“By the time you get to the end of the song, you kind of got all three different themes and melodies stacked on top of each other.”

Written by Roland following early career tensions involving Collective Soul’s first manager, “December” captures the feeling of loss, longing and exploitation through its frank lyricism and melancholic instrumentation. Turpin recalls the process from writing to arranging “December” as relatively quick, noting the band’s near-telepathic symbiosis as one of their major strengths. 

“Shoot, man, that thing shot straight to the chart,” Turpin says, scoffing at his initial wariness of Atlantic Records’ lead single pick. “And it’s still one of our favorite songs to perform live. We’ve got a really long, cool solo section we’ve added in the middle to make it a little more of a musical journey.” 

A musical journey now 30 years in the making, Turpin still finds a particularly invigorated joy from playing a hometown show. “When we play in Atlanta, even to this day, it’s like we can tell that those people are proud of us. Atlanta embraces Collective Soul.”

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Lindsay Thomaston is a photographer and culture writer with a background in media and politics. Her work has also appeared in Paste Magazine, Rolling Stone, i-D, Dazed, Fashionista and Immersive Atlanta, among others.