Revisiting Phantoms: Acceptance Discusses Collaborations, Lullabies, and Lasting Relevance

0:04 Hey, you're listening to The Adventure of Pipeman on W4CY Radio. This is Pipeman here on The Adventure of Pipeman W4CY Radio, and I'm here with.. Jason Vena. And.. Christian. Acceptance here at Warped Tour Montreal. How fucking cool is that? 21 years later. Like, is it weird 21 years later? Yeah. What's it feel like being here 21 years later? Well, last time we were here, we were in a hospital the whole day, so it feels great.

0:48 That's not a good day. It's surreal to be here, not only in Montreal as acceptance, but also at the Warped Tour, man. Like, it's like being kids again, man. And.. It's kind of cool. Everything seems to be coming back, right? Warped Tour came back. We got MySpace coming back. OzFest coming back. It's like we're trying to relive the good times of the 90s, I think. MySpace back. I missed that. You didn't know about that? That's amazing. Yeah, they're bringing that back. I'm wondering if Tom's still going to be my friend. Wow. Can I just reactivate my account? I don't know. I'm hoping so. Like, I want to rebuild it.

1:32 How cool would it be to reactivate your account and it's just like you left it? All the same stuff with the same songs and the same code you'd put in to edit your page and customize. It. I mean, there would be no acceptance without MySpace, that's for sure. See, there you go. And I kind of love the three-part thing with the albums. Oh, well, yeah, we did it. Sorry, you're... Yeah, well, so we did... Okay, let me take you back a little bit. So we did... We actually just... We reimagined Phantoms. That's what we just.. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We just did. But prior to that, our last record... We did two EPs and then the full length. So we did Wild Free. So we did Wild, we did Free, and then we did Wild Free as a full length.

2:15 So that's what you're talking about. And also the fact that you did the lullabies. Yeah, yeah. I was listening to that. That's a trip. What made you think to do that? Cause that is so unique. I love that. Well, we got, that was, came out of nowhere. We, there's a, there's a group of guys that do these sparrow sleeps. They do that for a lot of different artists. So they approached us and said, Hey, we'd love to do lullaby versions of phantoms. And we thought that was a great idea. So we collaborated with them, give them permission to do that. So, That's all Sparrow Sleeps. They did it all. Nice. We just gave them the stamp of okay. I think that was a cool idea, too. What better way to bring the newer generations into the music but that?

3:04 That's pretty killer. I don't know any other band myself that I've ever seen that they did lullabies of their favorite songs. I think it's one of those things where 20 years plus after doing Phantoms, which, you know, that came out in 05, and to still have different types of artists that are interested in what we did back then is pretty cool. So, you know, that came out of nowhere, and then the idea, you know, it kind of helped spur the idea, which we, you know, just, I think, a few months ago, we put out the reimagined version of Phantoms with... You know, all kinds of artists on there. Alex from All Time Low and Teddy Swims and, you know.

3:46 Maddie. Yeah, Maddie. Yeah, I was on there. Yeah, yeah. And right by my studio, like literally pretty much close across the street, Cassidy Pope is from. Oh, yeah. So she was on there. She killed it. She killed it. So, I mean, and that was kind of the similar concept of coming back to Phantoms and being like, it's unbelievable that it still has an impact on people whether the artist or people doing lullabies or or fans it's pretty cool. Yeah it's like isn't it wild being an artist and like your stuff's so relevant 20 years later like it because it really is still relevant now it's surreal honestly you know uh at that time we we were really proud of that record and I don't know that we could have foreseen, you know, 20 some years in the future that it would have had the impact that it did.

4:38 We thought it was a great record, but to have kind of people fawn over it the way they have, especially other artists that we really look up to. I think there's nothing more like validating than that, you know, to have other artists be a fan of your art. It's just a really, you know, you couldn't ask for more than that as an artist. So how did you decide or did they decide, like, which artists were going to do what songs? Like, how did it come about, these different artists, and what songs they were going to do? Yeah, I mean, the original idea was unique in that we had come across enough people that had said, you know, we love, you know, that's my favorite record. We grew up, you know, I grew up listening to phantoms and, and, um, I think we knew right away that we, I had, we had sparked a relationship with Teddy swims and this is, this is way before he'd kind of started to really take off. And so when we came up with this idea, he was kind of the first person that came to mind and so contagious was just, we thought would be a perfect song for him. And then it just kind of started to come together and we were talking to these artists and they'd be, and, and they'd be like, Oh, can I do that song? Can I do that song?

5:52 And I feel like we got to a spot where we were very fortunate where the artists really, not only did, did it feel like the right song for that person, but it also, I think we matched up most people with like songs they really love too. So there was like a, there really was an element of kind of both happening. It just I mean, if you would have told me today that we were going to do that, I'd be like, there's no way that comes together. To get all these, I mean, to get the artists, the labels, everybody to sign off, like on just a passion project, basically. It is pretty wild to me. It's hard to get that all together and have that happen like that. And it's also funny, too, like I saw on your, it was on your Instagram, I think, an interview that you guys were doing, and it was like, So, how's it feel that you made an album so good that you have to do it twice? I thought that was the funniest shit ever.

6:51 Yeah, that was at Warped Tour Long Beach that we played like a month ago. Right? The answer would be the same. It's just surreal that we would.. Like I said, I don't think we would have ever imagined that. So, to have that kind of demand and the artists that would want to do that with us was just like such a fulfilling thing. A dream that we could have never even... knew that we wanted so. Well and even the the types of artists like i'm i'm looking at your friend over here with the the hellfest um what we call those fanny packs uh and like we started out in syracuse playing a place called the furnace was it called the furnace.

7:34 Up there oh now you got to play furnace fest well no but we played we we played we played hellfest two years Isn't that a wild festival? So back in, twice, back in the day when these bands were coming up, bands like Saves the Day and Thursday and bands that were kind of in the hardcore scene and Acceptance kind of grew up playing those festivals, playing with a lot of these bands and it created this diversity and this kind of like, I think just, at least for us, this opportunity to connect with so many different types of people. So when you look at like the artists that are on this reimagining of Phantoms, you're like, it just makes a lot of sense, kind of, just how the community was back then. I think being at Warped Tour says the same thing. We formed in 1997 in the Warped Tour parking lot in Seattle, and the headliner was Eminem, you know, and we went to see, you know, Blink-182 was there, and, like, you know, it's just like, I think Warped Tour has done, it's kind of the original, like, I mean, at least in our world, they brought all these people together, you know?

8:39 Exactly, and, you know, One of the things I love about Hellfest, because I cover that one every year, is, to your point, they have a stage for each genre. You have the hardcore stage. You have the death metal stage. You have the black metal stage. And it's kind of cool, because it is bringing communities together that, when I was a teenager, couldn't be together. I was a punk and a metalhead, but I had long hair, so I couldn't go to punk shows. And vice versa. Yeah. So I love that we have these festivals like this now where we finally have figured out we should all be together. Yeah, I think when we were on Warped Tour, we shared a tent with Bleeding Through. I think that's, it was Bleeding Through or Throwdown. It was one of the two.

9:21 I think it was Bleeding Through, but, you know, I mean, that's just kind of like how you grow up. I want to talk about your tattoo over there. Eloheno. I couldn't read the whole thing. I was trying to read it. Yeah, that's why I knew it was. But I couldn't see the whole thing. So if you saw me looking over during the interview, I was reading it during the interview to see if it was the Shema. And I think that's freaking cool. Thank you. We were just talking actually before you came up about Judaism. And I like to talk about what we really believe as opposed to what the world thinks we believe. Nowadays.

10:01 And then I saw your tattoo. I'm like, now that's freaking cool. Like, now you don't go anywhere without the Shema. Yeah. It's like having a mezuzah on your arm. I know. I'm not even Jewish, just to be full clarity. My name's Christian, so that'd be the biggest irony ever, right? I love that, too. I got it out of respect. I got two different verses, the Shema and another verse in Leviticus, because there's a part in the New Testament where Jesus is asked what the greatest commandment is. So he quotes the Shema and adds onto it, love your neighbor as yourself. So I got that because it's all encompassing. If you're doing those things, then everything else should kind of be falling into place. Not this long list of do this and don't do that. Just do these things and everything else should fall under that. So out of respect, I think it's a beautiful language, foundations of Christianity. So But I get stopped all the time.

10:46 People will be like, oh, my God, Hebrew. Let me read it. And they'll read it. Oh, my God, that's the Shema. What's your name? I'm like, Christian. They're like, what? Right. But see, I love that even more now because like you get it. I do. It is bottom line. I think I don't care what people believe as long as it makes them a better person and makes them feel good. Yeah. And they're not trying to hurt people. You do you like. None of us, we were just talking about it. None of us know what really is going to happen or what really... But something as basic as that is just teaching us how to be good human beings to each other. And that's exactly what we were talking about. So that's kind of wild. You walked up.

11:26 And it's even more wild now after you say that you're not Jewish and that you're just paying respect. Because it is like, I think that is the foundation of all beliefs pretty much. So it gives that united vibe. I agree. And I love that. Hell yeah. So that means I love your band even more. There you go, yeah. So tell everybody if there's anything else we haven't covered yet that they need to know that's coming up for you guys in the future and what they should look out for and to buy your merch because they can't listen to my show without buying your merch. 100%, yeah, that's a requirement. You know, we haven't really deep dove as a group as to what's next. This year, we've only really played a couple Warped Tours. You know, we try to navigate around Everyone's individual lives at this point being in our..

12:16 Yeah. You wouldn't believe it, but we're in our 40s. I know I look like I'm 20, but... Families, jobs, careers, all that stuff. So we do our best at looking at opportunities and going, can we do that? Can that all fit into five different schedules? And we've talked about maybe new music. I don't really know what the game plan is. There hasn't been a cohesive idea yet, but I think it's a fluid conversation always with this band. We never really have... years planned out even like the the we made one full. Rank full length from 1997 to 2005 we've made three from 2016 to 2026 so i you know i think the idea what typically what happens is we just kind of get excited about something music wise and we just get into it and go for it and I'm sure that's what next year will hold for us we've got some more you know we're working on concert dates for next year definitely we'll be out there we did some acceptance shows last year as well as the Warped Tour stuff so we'll be around we'll make our way around.

13:22 See I think that's cool though because that makes you like to me true musicians like you're not doing it for any other reason but the love of the music and feeling it because if you're not feeling it how do we feel it you know so that's cool It's way cool that you're here at Warped Tour. Thanks for having us. And thanks for being on the Adventures of Pipe Man. All right, take care. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Pipe Man. On W4CY Radio.