Acceptance celebrate reunion after 12 years apart with new album and first ever Australian tour, in March 2017.
Over a decade has gone by since Seattle based rock band Acceptance broke up in 2005, now with a brand new album and first ever run of Australian shows, they’re back. This is a rebirth, a reformation, and most importantly a fresh start for five very talented musicians and we couldn’t be happier to celebrate with them by welcoming them to our shores for their very first Australian tour, supporting New York rock legends Taking Back Sunday. Tour dates start later this week, the first show lined up is in Sydney on the 17th of March at the Enmore theatre.
On January 26, 2015, it was announced that Acceptance had reunited. Their brand new album and second studio album, titled Colliding by Design, was released on February 24, 2017. Australian fans can look forward to seeing the band play tracks from the new record and some much loved older songs from thier cult status debut album “Phantoms” released back in 2005.
Scenezine had a chat with Acceptance vocalist, Jason Vena about their new album, the break away from music and upcoming Australian tour.
SCENEzine
How has 2017 been for you so far?
Jason Vena
“It’s been surreal you know, we’re about to tour Australia with Taking Back Sunday, something that a couple years ago I never thought would be happening. So it’s been a great year so far.”
SCENEzine
So congratulations on the new album.
Jason Vena
“Thank you, it came out last week and we had a great response so we’re pretty blown away.”
SCENEzine
Its great to have new music from you guys, are you happy with how it all turned out?
Jason Vena
“Yeah, musically we’re really happy. We came, originally 10 years ago, from such a tragic story but we came together as a scenario from such a great place and musically I think you can feel it and so yeah we’re really excited, really happy with the result.”
SCENEzine
Do you have a favourite song from the new record or one that even resonates with the whole band?
Jason Vena
I really gravitate towards a song called ” We Can Escape” it’s just a song that I think you know a couple things, from a lyrical perespective it talks about my relationship with the band and for me personally I listen to it and I know where it’s coming from it’s a pretty personal song and then musically the chords, there’s a couple parts in there where it’s really feels like, we used to listen to a band called “Mew” they’re a band that never really came over to the States much but we really liked them. There’s a couple moments where we captured this kind of feeling where you’ve got the kind of falsetto vocal happening and anyway there’s just some cool stuff that I really like about the song and so yeah that song turned out great.”
SCENEzine
The title of the album, “Colliding By Design” alludes to the idea of fate and that potentially everything that happened, had to happen to bring you as a band to where you are now, would you agree with that?
Jason Vena
Yeah, originally the lyric came out of the song that we were writing, I had written the lyric and we had not come up with an album title, and when that lyric came out we all kinda knew that that was going to be the title. It’s a commentary on the band, it’s a commentary on how I think life evolves and how people can evolve and come together through different paths and I think right now with this commentary in the world of people really trying to find themselves and find acceptance and deserve acceptance and deserve to be who they are, I think you can have all these different things happening but yet as a group we can come together as one with a singular purpose of loving people and accepting them and appreciating who they are and trying to get the best out of everybody.”
SCENEzine
Colliding By Design just made it in the top 40 on the Billboard charts, next to Metallica. Congratulations! How did you feel the moment you were told?
Jason Vena
Well that’s surreal you know, to be away for 12 years and to make a record, and when we were away we didn’t tour, we didn’t do anything, so to make a record and for it to be a top 40 record which we’ve never done before anything of that nature, yeah it’s pretty cool. So we’re just thankful that people seem to like the record and ultimately that they’re really feeling it, they’re really understanding it, that’s the part I’m really enjoying.”
SCENEzine
So you’re about to tour Australia with Taking Back Sunday, are you excited to get down here? Have you ever been here before?
Jason Vena
First time, yeah I’m very excited. I hear it’s beautiful. Yesterday I was with a good friend of mine Sean Mackin who plays in Yellowcard, and they were just in your area, and he was giving me the tips, of where to go and what to do. We’re excited because it’s with Taking Back Sunday and we’ve always had good feelings about that band and they’ve always been great to us and we’ve played some concerts with them recently and stuff like that so we’re pretty excited.”
SCENEzine
So after over a decade long break from Acceptance, did you ever think that you as a band would be making new music again? Let alone embarking on a tour to a country that the band have never played on before?
Jason Vena
I would have told you with 100% certainty that, that would not happen. Yeah it was a period of time away from music for most of us we hadn’t spent anytime with each other, so it just wasn’t a plan. Going back to that period of our lives there was a lot of things that had such a negative connotation for us, and were probably things that we didn’t want to have to go back and face or whatever but I’m glad we did, I think we’re all glad we did coz I think we’re coming out stronger for it.”
SCENEzine
In the years that Acceptance was gone, did you have any idea of how loved and cherished Phantoms as a record was for so many people and the cult status it achieved?
Jason Vena
I didn’t and the first time that I think I got a glimpse of it was when the record was reissued as a vinyl on a limited basis, like a 1000 copies or something, I believe it sold out within hours. I think that was a surprising thing at the time because you know now days to sell 1000 records is actually a pretty big deal, as small as that sounds, so I was like geez people don’t even really buy records these days, they buy songs, so even when that happened, the band never really touched base on any of that, we just individually kind of learned about it in our lives.
So I guess as Christian continued to play in Anberlin and he continued to get people asking about Acceptance, when we we finally all got on the phone together, he got that conversation going about how Anberlin had broken up, he kind of facilitated that phone call with the band, I think that was our first question, well do people still really want to hear us? And we got back together and our first set of concerts was in New York, Seattle and L.A, you know the amount of people that came to see us and support us was more than we’ve ever played for as an active band in 2005 and maybe by almost two times as much and so it was a really an amazing experience, pretty humbling for us and really for anybody came to those shows, they were the ones that were the catalyst for this record, you know the idea that we should make a record so that was pretty cool.”
SCENEzine
There are a lot of stand out songs on Phantoms, but “Different” in particular seemed to be a crowd favourite. Do you have any memories of how that song came about?
Jason Vena
“Well Different is an interesting one because in it’s early demo, it started as an upbeat song and we demoed with a gentleman named Lou Giordano, who had made a Sunny Day Real Estate record and made a record for the Ataris, and we did the demos with him at the request of Columbia Records, we actually wanted to make the record with Aaron Sprinkle, who ended up making the record but we did the demos with Lou, and he suggested that we slow the song down, and we did in the demo period and then we got with Aaron, and Aaron brought in the piano part, and from there the song kind of took shape and when we finished the record. That’s the song that Columbia really believed was going to be one of the bigger songs for them that year, so that’s why the fans became a major priority for Columbia Records and of course, they decided they were going to have us re record it, so they had us re record it with Howard Benson, who was a well known producer at the time, and we spent a tonne of money re recording it and it turned out horrible!
So we ended up keeping the original version that Aaron Sprinkle had recorded, which we were happy with, but that’s just a great example of how you can waste money, so it was just an interesting story or antidote about that song, and that’s kinda how it took shape and that ended up being a single for us. Over here it’s kind of known as the first step in the demise of Acceptance actually, but yeah its a great song.”
SCENEzine
A lot of people are probably wondering what you were up to after Acceptance ended. Did you have other creative outlets in your life during that time? What were you doing musically?
Jason Vena
“No, for me I did not pick up a guitar or do much of anything musically, at one point I sang on a couple records, the last one I did was with All Time Low and then Emarosa recently on that single “Young Lonely” you know random things would come up and I would say yes but I would never really try and be creative, I started a family and started working and it took up most of my time, and I felt like I kind of owed it to this next chapter of my life to kind of put that chapter behind me because I’d made a decision, so I really went down those 10 years and just really focused on those things.
When I got back to doing music, I was surprised how much it could be such a great outlet for me, especially if you can embrace it you know without any condition. I needed the outlet I guess, and so I got it back which is great.”
SCENEzine
Can you describe the feeling of hitting the stage for the first time since getting back together?
Jason Vena
“Yeah it was electric, surreal, just a great moment and to have people that knew our songs and just stuff that we were not expecting and it was loud and people were singing every lyric and it was just unbelievable. We were in New York and it was a pretty special night, once again I always talk dearly of one my best friends Sean Mackin (Yellowcard) and he flew out and played violin on “Different” it was just a really cool night.”
SCENEzine
Your music has touched a lot of people and helped them through different journeys in thier lives, what is the most touching story a fan has told you about the effect your music has had on them?
Jason Vena
“Oh man, I’ve had so many. It’s hard to pick one person out and one story, we’ve had people that have been fighting through terminal illness and we’ve had people contemplating living and not living, we’ve had people that have met and fallen in love through our music so those are all great stories and great reasons to be an artist and a musician and great reasons to connect with fans. I’m sure a lot of bands have that type of interaction with people, I can only speak through us, and it does seem like that with Acceptance that there are fans that fear reciprocation from us to them, and we’re trying to help people, we’re trying to change lives, we hope that people fall in love you know like that stuff is what it’s all about so when we hear those stories we’re pretty humbled and we’re thankful so it’s great.”
SCENEzine
Lastly, can you leave us with a message for all of your Australian fans excited for the tour?
Jason Vena
“Yeah, one the fact we haven’t seen you guys before and you haven’t seen us that, that’s exciting and makes for a really great moment and who knows when it will come again so you know ultimately it’s just about coming together and savouring every moment of it so I would just say to everybody out there, be ready to have a really good time, to sing along to hopefully have some great memories that you take with you for a really long time and hopefully it brings up some older memories that you’ve had for a long time and yeah that’s where we’re coming from so you’re gonna get the best Acceptance has to offer, I can tell you that.”
Interview By Sarah Thomson, March 2017.
