When Acceptance announced their breakup in August 2006, fans everywhere were saddened by the Seattle rock band that brought them Phantoms only the year prior. With issues within the band, as well as others' needs to pursue other projects, they disbanded with only one full-length record released. However, in 2015 the band reunited to play at Skate and Surf festival, which ended up being an experience that not only made performing together fun again, but brought the once disjointed rock outfit back to a unified front too.
Acceptance's frontman Jason Vena sat down at Caffe Bene in Times Square with Myspace when the band was in New York City before their new album Colliding By Design, released. Over coffee, he opened up about the band's breakup, their reunification and what's next for the band.
As we enjoyed our coffees in the back part of the cafe, Vena explained that when they broke up in 2006 it wasn't some indefinite hiatus, but something much more permanent.
"It definitely wasn't a break," he admitted. "it was a breakup, breakdown or something of that nature. When the band stopped playing together or being a band, there was definitely the intention was that we were probably never going to get back together."
So what brought Acceptance to what felt like a premature break? Vena conveyed that there was a lot of tension in the air. "The experience we had toward the end of our time back then," he said, taking a sip of his coffee, "it was a pretty rough time in the music industry. It was rough times as a band as it pertained to releasing Phantoms, and then getting ready for another record. Yeah, we weren't going to get back together."
And when they split, Vena divulged that he really moved on from music. However, as we said earlier, the Skate and Surf Fest seemed adamant on getting the pop punk band back on the festival stage — even if it was a one-off.
"I think it had been just multiple things that happened that led us to ask the question if people were still interested in Acceptance," he said. "So a couple of years back, our record label, Bad Timing, had done a vinyl press of Phantoms, and it sold out in a day or something. Then we all heard about that, and it was weird to us. We started getting asked to play Skate and Surf Festival a couple of years in a row. So in 2015, when we got asked to play, Christian [McAlhaney] got a hold of everybody in the band. And I was probably the hardest one to get a hold of. He got a hold of me, and we all go on the phone. We're kind of like, first questions, 'Why would anybody want to see Acceptance again?'. And then Christian was going into this thing and saying that every time I've been on tour with Anberlin, people keep asking about Acceptance. And we were like, 'Wow.'"
He continued, "So we figured we'd try something and see what happens. We got together to get ready for Skate and Surf, and that experience was really positive. And then going and playing was really awesome."
Following that performance, it was obvious to the band members that they, despite what happened in the past, had a synergy that they couldn't ignore. "So from there, we tried to write a song," he revealed. "And then we wrote three at a time. That turned out to be a lot of fun for us. Then all of a sudden, we're like, 'Let's do it. A hundred percent. Let's go!'"
But people close to the band questioned what direction their music was going to go. Would they recreate the sounds they made on Phantoms? Or would they do something different.
"Phantoms wasn't the greatest record ever made," Vena admitted. "But the people who bought record really love it. So there's definitely this thought, 'Are you going to sound like that? Or are the songs going to sound different?' When we made Phantoms, we wanted to make a record that we really loved and put ourselves into it. And that's what we did this time."
And one of their new compositions became their single, "Diagram of a Simple Man," which has elements of Acceptance but follows a different musical path. "I think melodically, lyrically, it's going down a different path than we have ever gone down before," he explained. "It's about a lot of experiences I've had in my life. And I think musically it's got some atmospheric feeling to it. It's got some drive and tapping into some different feels if you will."
With new sounds in play, the band could only hope that the fans, who have stuck by them will enjoy it as much as they do.
"Hopefully, the same way they felt about Phantoms, that's how they'd feel about this record," he said. "And that's what I've been hearing about 'Diagram' already. People are like, 'I really like the song, and it's really not what I was expecting. But we like it.'"
Fast-forward to the present, Acceptance's latest offering, Colliding By Design, released on February 24. And with the new material, it would only make sense for the band to hit the road. Now a few years older and with different lifestyles, Vena explained that they'll be balancing music and their lives.
"Right now, the idea of playing 300 concerts a year for almost any band is a daunting task, no matter how much you love it," he said. "The way that music is shared now gives a band an opportunity to have some type of life like a family, be steady and whatever you want to call that, but also be passionate and be able to play music and have people share it. So we're really interested in trying to figure it out. We have families and things we have to be aware of, but we're not really look at it like that. We're just trying to have as much as we can, connect with as many people as possible and have as many people listen to our music. Then we can go from there."
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