"No, not the shack - don't make us go back to the shack!"

That's the first line in the latest press release from Collective Soul, which plays Sunday in the Shaw Conference Centre.

The band obviously feels strongly about this - the "shack" is its symbol of how even the most worthy band can get screwed by the music business. Not quite as bad as it sounds, it's actually a small cabin in the middle of a farmer's field about 14 km from the band's home in Stockbridge, Georgia. It's where Collective Soul recorded its last album, Disciplined Breakdown. That was all they could afford.

Because of a lawsuit with their former manager, all funds were tied up. So here we had internationally successful rock band members who lived as paupers for nearly three years. They were invited on David Letterman, opened for big-name bands and toured the world, but meanwhile the band members subsisted on $150 a week and lived with their parents. Recording in a "real" studio was out of the question.

"It was a mess," remembers guitarist Dean Roland, "We were trying to find good drum sounds with the drums set up in the kitchen. Sonically, most people can't tell it was recorded in a shack, but I don't think it was the highest quality available."

Fast-forward three years. With legal woes behind them, no wonder the band went whole-hog with the latest technology on the new album, Dosage. Dean's older brother Ed - the singer-songwriter-producer-chief cook and bottle washer of the band - must've been like a kid let loose in a candy store at Miami's Criteria Studios. R.E.M. and the Allman Brothers recorded there. Fleetwood Mac's Rumors was cut there, as were classics like Hotel California and Layla. Sure beats the shack.

"One of the greatest things with Dosage was getting to go into a real studio," Roland says. "They had this huge room where you could go in and get these killer drum sounds. The last record, we were struggling, so this time was easier in that way. We didn't really have to waste time trying to figure out the sonic aspect of it. It was all right there."

That's the second time he's used the word "sonic." That was the Collective Soul mandate: To make music that was "sonically stimulating," he says. Some fans may be alienated by Dosage, by the use of sequencers, drum loops and trendy electronic rhythms more suited to the Chemical Brothers than a down-to-earth rock band from the South. Reaction so far is "mixed," Roland says, but it had to be done.

"We wanted to do something different. I'm not saying this is the direction we'll go on our next record, but at the time, when we were making Dosage, I think it was a real genuine thing. We needed to produce the songs in the direction we needed to take them."

Besides, the fundamentals that made the band so popular to begin with are still there.

"The songs are riff based; there's still that melodic sense that attracts people and the lyrical aspect is still there. Ed's writing either from personal experience or seen experience, so it's something that's really honest."

Of course, Dean is biased. Nine years senior, brother Ed has always been a figure to look up to. By the time Dean was a teen, Ed had already been to the famed Berklee College of Music in Boston and was an experienced musician, producer and engineer. While dad was a preacher who didn't cotton to no demon rock 'n' roll (even at his most lenient, the playing of rock music in the Roland household was forbidden on Sundays), the parents gave their boys full support.

"My dad was just trying to protect his children and I got to respect that," Dean says. "But they've always been the biggest supporters of what we've done. After they realized that this is the career path we had chosen, especially Ed when he was 16, 17, they were totally into helping him any way they could."

It could have something to do with the fact that Collective Soul is seen as a "Christian" rock band in some circles - more biblical references on Dosage, for one thing - although the band would never admit it.

"We're a rock band," Dean replies. "Labels don't serve us very well. We'll say we're a rock band and leave it at that."

Tickets to Collective Soul, with the Marvelous 3 opening, are $29 and available at Ticketmaster (451-8000).