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We've played Cornerstone Festival over the years. We've decided, as a band, to do more shows and appearances in the Christian scene. Working with Tooth & Nail again and re-releasing Let It Happen has just magnified it more. It's like a red flag for a "return," which works well [for exposure], though it's not totally real.

The bottom line is that we didn't want to leave the Christian scene per se, but we did have the chance to play the Warped Tour and other tours with other [mainstream] punk bands. Now we're adding more Christian shows to that, too.

Beyond the re-release, what's the relationship with Tooth & Nail look like?

Herrera That's a good question. We're undecided at the moment. We'll see what happens. We are working on new album material, doing demos and getting songs together. Really the future is open to us. It's a weird position to be in; it's not often that we're at crossroads. It's exciting and stressful. We're definitely considering working with Tooth & Nail but I can't fully comment on that. [Editor's note: We asked T&N execs if they could comment on this or clarify the situation, but they declined.]

As far as the future goes, we're still an active band. We'll be doing this for a while. We'll still put out records, even if only 10,000 people buy it. It's not really for album sales; it's about the fan base and putting out good records.

What's your take on the Christian rock scene now versus the mid-'90s?

Herrera The Christian scene has always been interesting to us. We grew up listening to punk rock, but there wasn't really any kind of Christian scene there. We didn't know [such a thing existed]. At our start we were just a part of the scene on Tooth & Nail. Yes, we were Christians and still are, but we didn't get any sort of rulebook on Christian music.

[From the beginning] we were honest with [industry] people. We were not used to the idea of always preaching from stage and writing songs that say stuff about "glorifying God and Jesus." People didn't accept us because we were honest [about being ourselves].

We've always just gone about playing music with a positive spin without preaching from the stage. There were plenty of other Christian bands that were not honest [by choosing to play by the rulebooks], because they were told that people wouldn't like them otherwise, and that they'd be banned from stores.

It's strange when you're a kid in a band and people have opinions about you and you don't even know them. Someone will always either hate you or love you. The people that loved us agreed with what we were doing. I mean, I was a teenage punk rock skate kid, dealing with religion, God and the world, and how I related with family and authority, and a small bit of politics and current affairs—that's what I wrote about.

And now?

Herrera It's a completely different story. I've always thought, "I'm not a pastor and I can't preach, but I can be real with people and talk to them as a Christian." That's where we've always been. Tooth & Nail was [in the same boat]. Now a lot of bands have taken what we've done and run with it.

It's become accepted to be a Christian in a band and not necessarily be tagged as a "Christian band." The Christian scene has changed to accept that. That's how it should have always been. I think it's great to have worship bands out there. But the Christian community should let [new bands] know that they don't have to grab the "uniform" when they join the team. We need diversity, and when you join the church, we can't all be preachers.

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