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Will Turpin From Collective Soul On This Month’s Groove – The No Treble Podcast

“Wait… did I miss something? Why is there an article about a bass podcast on Six Pixels of Separation?”

Here’s why:

In the late nineties my first job was as a music journalist (actually, my first interview was with Tommy Lee from Motley Crue right before the band released Dr. Feelgood).
I spent many years interviewing musicians and artists for local weekly alternative newspapers, national and international magazines (and even published three music magazines – before we had the Internet).
I also studied and played the electric bass (in high school and post-secondary) and always felt like bass players never really had a chance to tell their stories.
So, about ten years ago, Seth Godin introduced me to Corey Brown (founder of No Treble – one of the world’s biggest bass platforms – and he also worked on Squidoo with Seth).
From there, Corey and I decided to try this monthly podcast where I would interview bass players and talk about their music, art, creativity and more.
I’m hopeful that these conversations will inspire your work, creativity and innovation as much as they do for me…

Will Turpin from Collective Soul is this month’s conversation on Groove – The No Treble Podcast.

You can listen the new episode right here: Groove – The No Treble Podcast – Episode #126 – Will Turpin.

Will Turpin grew up in a studio… literally. His dad opened Real 2 Reel Studios in Georgia in 1976, and that became Will’s childhood playground. Not the type of metaphorical “playground” you see in bios – an actual studio, tape decks, Trident boards, singer-songwriters rolling in with demos, and young Will riding his bike over to lay down drum parts before he hit his teens. Will is best known as the bassist of Collective Soul, but his journey there is anything but typical. We talk about how piano, drums, orchestration, and even a deep love for REM, Sting, and Paul McCartney all collided into a foundational, melodic, and expressive approach to bass playing that feels just as at home onstage in arenas as it does behind the board of a world-class studio. In this conversation, we get into it all – what it means to grow up surrounded by the DNA of music, why Collective Soul is still selling more tickets now than they ever did in the ’90s, how a band that started in a small Georgia town managed to create something timeless, and what it feels like to still genuinely enjoy the company of your bandmates 30 years later. We dig into Will’s solo work, how he approaches songwriting from behind the piano instead of the bass, and what it’s like to run one of Georgia’s most historic recording studios in an era of bedroom producers and TikTok hits. If you’re a fan of the band, you’ll love the stories – like how he went from percussionist to bassist because, well… nobody else was cutting it. If you’re a bassist, this one is gold: Will shares how he built his sound from his hands, not his gear, and how orchestration theory helps him build parts that support the song without ever feeling boring or formulaic. If you’re a music lover, you’ll walk away with a deeper appreciation for the role of the bass in making a band feel big, bold and unforgettable. Will’s reflections on tone, legacy and playing live with three generations in the audience? It’s the stuff that reminds you why rock and roll still matters. Enjoy the conversation…

What is Groove – The No Treble Podcast?

This is an ambitious effort. This will be a fascinating conversation. Our goal at Groove is to build the largest oral history of bass players. Why Groove? Most of the content about the bass revolves around gear, playing techniques, and more technical chatter. For us, bassists are creative artists with stories to tell. They are a force to be reckon with. These are the stories and conversation that we will capture. To create this oral history of why these artists chose the bass, what their creative lives are like, and where inspiration can be found.

Listen in: Groove – The No Treble Podcast – Episode #126 – Will Turpin.

Are you interested in what’s next? How to decode the future? I publish between 2-3 times per week and then the Six Pixels of Separation Podcast comes out every Sunday. Feel free to subscribe (and tell your friends).

Mitch Joel

Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.