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!'"