Tsunami Bomb hasn’t played a show since 2009, but the original lineup has been gone for much longer than that. The female-fronted punk band from Petaluma went through several lineup changes but always did a solid job of keeping the same peppy sound in their powerful music.

Now, the lineup that created the music that put Tsunami Bomb on the map is back with a brand new lead singer to revisit the old stuff and (maybe) venture into new territory. Myspace caught up with bassist (and founder) Dominic Davi to talk about what the new (old) lineup is like and what the future may hold for Tsunami Bomb.

What’s it like to have Tsunami Bomb back together with this lineup — particularly with Kate Jacobi on vocals?

Basically, Tsunami Bomb has gone through so many lineup changes over the years—it wasn’t our intention, it’s just what happened. Most of the original lineup was long gone by the time Tsunami Bomb ended, and the rest of the members just kind of moved on at the end. I work with Kung Fu Records, and I kept hearing about how people still liked Tsunami Bomb and that all of the old 7” EPs that we did were out of print. I got everyone together to put out a collection of the songs from those EPs called Trust No One (due out January 29), and it’s really focused on those years. When that happened, we all started talking, and the majority of the members wanted Tsunami Bomb back. Most of us are still friends, it’s just that life takes over and your priorities shift from having this band together all the time. It just made so much sense to do it, that we had to bring Tsunami Bomb back.

The bummer is that the most definitive singer of Tsunami Bomb (Emily Whitehurst, also known as Agent M) was supportive of the collection, but she didn’t want to come back to be a part of the band. She’s focused on her project, Survival Guide, which is really cool in its own way. The rest of us all felt it was a little strange, but we would still want to do it if we could make it feel and sound like Tsunami Bomb should feel and sound. I think Kate really walks that line of having her own style, but still being able to do the classics like they should be done.

Kate was relatively unknown when you guys brought her in to be the singer of Tsunami Bomb, how did that come about?

Well, some members have been in a number of other bands since last playing with Tsunami Bomb, and some members hadn’t really played music together in a band in the last 10-15 years. We looked at some members of other bands, but bands got really weird and uncomfortable about Tsunami Bomb “stealing” their members. Kate was friends with Brian (Plink, Tsunami Bomb’s guitarist), and M was also friends with Brian. M told Brian she wasn’t coming back, and Brian said Kate was the one. We tried out a lot of people, but Kate was definitely the one.

Was it weird to have a new singer when everyone else has known each other for over a decade?

The weirdest thing was that it wasn’t weird at all. She’s learning what it’s like to be in a band with all of us and how to put up with all of us, but it was like she was a part of it since she walked in. I think we were all shocked at how not-weird and easy it was.

Do you think Tsunami Bomb fans will just accept the change of singer, or are you expecting some people to be like “This isn’t Tsunami Bomb!”?

Some people might be skeptical, but they have to remember that a band is more than one person. Tsunami Bomb can survive without Emily, and it’s actually more like Tsunami Bomb was intended to be than it had been for the last few lineups. When we lost the keyboards (2001), we never replaced Oobliette (Sparks, Tsunami Bomb’s keyboardist). These people are the ones who wrote and recorded those early songs people love so much. Kate has a deeper clearer voice than M, but she sounds great. The thing that’s most exciting about this version is that everyone is in it because they really, truly want to be in it. We’re a bunch of people who really want it to be a great band. We’re not about being a retro act, we just want to have the band together again. It’s not about the money or a record deal, if it was, we could throw more money at M until she said yes, but it’s not. It’s about having Tsunami Bomb together to make music again. I got my friends back, it’s awesome.

Tsunami Bomb only has one show booked right now (the Vandals’ 20th Annual Christmas Formal in Anaheim). What’s next for the band after that?

We purposely would not book any other shows until this one was over. We wanted to do this show and see how it goes. We do want to do some support shows for the new release, but nothing is set yet. We’ve already been offered two European tours, an East Coast tour, a Southern tour, and some other shows, but I think next year we’re just going to do festivals and short tours.

Maybe we’ll make some new material, but we didn’t want to overwhelm ourselves or anyone else. Not to get ahead of ourselves, but I’m really excited about this. I know that some of us want to make new music with Tsunami Bomb and really see how far this can go. Like I said, we just need people to remember that a band is more than one person.