Georgian soft-rockers Collective Soul, who pull into the Warehouse tomorrow night, have learned some valuable lessons about the music industry.

First and foremost, the value of a good relationship with the person guiding your career.

"It was our ex-manager -- we had a dispute with him, a big dispute, to put it mildly," says frontman Ed Roland, seated beside lead guitarist Ross Childress recently in a Toronto hotel room. "We sold seven million albums worldwide and basically the band was making $150 a week. That was our dispute. Not that we're arguing over $150 -- that was more money than I'd ever made in my life to that point."

Still, it was under those arduous conditions -- with a pending lawsuit and little money -- that Roland, Childress and the band's three other members recorded 1997's aptly-titled Disciplined Breakdown.

"We were able to continue to be in a band," says Childress of the final outcome.

"That was what was most important to us," adds Roland. "'Cause we could have gone to trial. And, you know, the legal process is very slow, the appeals would have been very slow and in today's music world, if you're gone over two years, people won't remember who you are. Basically all we wanted was the right to record under the band name again and kind of just start over."

The other, more recent, lesson is the value of soundtracks -- Run, the first single from Collective Soul's latest album, Dosage, was released earlier on the soundtrack for the hit teen flick Varsity Blues.

"It helped get our release out sooner," says Roland. "In America, (Varsity Blues) sold about a quarter-million albums in about a month so, to me, that's good. I'll take that. It also opened up (the band) to a lot of kids that might not have been familiar with Collective Soul -- it was just another avenue for someone to hear our music."

So far, Dosage has sold about 37,000 copies in Canada since its Feb. 9 release, and spawned a Top 10 single with Run.

Given the bleakness of their last recording situation -- they were forced to make Disciplined Breakdown in a tiny, remote cabin near the band's home base of Stockbridge, Ga. -- making Dosage proved to be a day at the beach. Literally.

Miami beach, to be exact.

"It was incredible," says Childress. "That's what made this one so fun. We're in Miami during the winter. The whole process ... was great, 'cause we were in a studio for many months and it was casual. It was the first time we were ever able to take our time."

"Some days weren't very productive, but you know what? We felt we deserved it," continues Roland. "Off and on, we were in the studio for eight months. We'd work two weeks, take two weeks off. It was a process of trying to enjoy it."

Dosage also meant a number of firsts for the band. Childress, for one, sang lead on a song he wrote called Dandy Life, while Roland and his brother, rhythm guitarist Dean, wrote their first song together, Slow.

"There's something that kind of happened after getting off the last tour," says Childress. "I went into the studio and, for the first time, tried to do a song with me singing it in mind, which is a scary thought. When we play it live, that's going to be really interesting."

"Once again, we go back to the Beatles, which to me is just Rock And Roll 101," says Roland. "I'm not trying to date us or anything like that -- we're very young -- but everybody had to sing a song in the Beatles and not many bands are doing that nowadays."

Roland, previously Collective Soul's sole singer-songwriter, plus keyboardist, guitarist and producer, also has more selfish reasons for sharing the duties.

"I would feel comfortable if they wrote the rest of the records from here on out," he says. "I'd love to go into semi-retirement. It's just that I've been doing it longer and it takes time for people to feel comfortable with it."