For a big-name rock act, Collective Soul certainly has a penchant for small venues.

With four top-rated albums under their belt and sales of more than 7 million copies, one would expect the Georgia rockers -- brothers Dean and Ed Roland, Ross Childress, Will Turpin and Shane Evans -- to pack in arenas or large concert halls.

"Nah, it's great just playing 1,000 to 2,500-seat venues," says rhythm guitarist Dean Roland of the band's tour supporting its current CD, Dosage. "That's where we feel comfortable at right now. We're good with that."

Collective Soul, along with Toronto's Joydrop, play Porter Hall at Carleton University tonight.

Roland says Dosage, recorded at studios in Atlanta and Miami, marks a positive turnaround for the band.

Their last album, 1997's aptly titled Disciplined Breakdown, had to be recorded in a tiny, remote cabin near the band's Stockbridge, Ga., home base.

"We were dealing with a lawsuit with our ex-manager and financially our hands were tied," Roland says. "We eventually had to finance that record ourselves and we didn't have a ton of money. So we just utlilized what we could.

"But (with Dosage), all that mess was gone, so we were able to go in to really nice studios and had the luxury of time to work on the record."

Collective Soul hit the big time in the spring of 1994 with their hit single, Shine, off the CD Hints, Allegations, and Things Left Unsaid, which Dean Roland says was simply a demo album that, in the end, sold more than 2 million copies.

From there, they shot to stardom with hits such as The World I Know, Gel and Precious Declaration.

Dosage also marked a number of firsts for the band. Lead guitarist Childress, for example, sang lead vocals on a song he wrote called Dandy Life, while the Roland brothers penned their first song together, Slow.

"We're starting to get more and more creative input from all areas of the band," says Roland.