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When ska was at the peak of its revival in the mid-90s, The O.C. Supertones were among many acts jumping on the, ahem, band-wagon. But as the fad fizzled and other bands went on to other things, the Supertones simply transformed with the times. They became one of Tooth and Nail/BEC Recordings' figurehead acts and played over a thousand concerts—many of them sellouts—all across the globe. But all things must come to an end, and the band is calling it quits at the end of this year—but not before releasing the retrospective collection Unite, along with a forthcoming worship project. Veteran member and trombone player Dan Spencer shared what the ride's been like—including a very bumpy part of the ride with a manager who was stealing from the band—and how the gang plans to ride out with a bang.

The O.C. Supertones bid farewell at the end of 2005.

To what degree did you hope the band would last when you first started out?

Dan Spencer We didn't take it all that seriously in terms of making it a career, but we did want to go on the road, play and tell kids about Jesus. It was a hobby that was paying the bills and then turned into something we were doing for seven, then eight, then nine years.

What's it like being nearly a decade older than you were at the beginning and still playing the same songs?

Spencer Part of me feels goofy but part of me loves it. I can be a total goofball in front of kids that may be between 15 and 20 years younger than me. Making music for a living, even if it's not all that much, is a total privilege and an incredible place to be. I see it as a privilege and an honor to still be doing it.

How were you able to deflect fads over the years?

Spencer We always just did what we did, which was take a lot of ska, punk, reggae and hip-hop influences and write honest lyrics. We were never trying to emulate anybody, just be true to ourselves. Sometimes we tried to sort of steer in a different direction, though that never really seemed to work. Once we tried to have an AC hit and another time we had tobyMac sing a song with us, but little things like that never worked for us.

What would you classify as the band's peak period?

Spencer I'd say it was somewhere in the late 90s following the release of Supertones Strike Back, which is when we went on tour with Jennifer Knapp and Audio Adrenaline. I'd also say after that when we did a tour with Switchfoot and Relient K was a pretty unstoppable time for us.

When did the pendulum shift and it become harder to keep that footing?

Spencer As a band we went through an awful time right before the Switchfoot and Relient K tour. We found out our manager was stealing money from us and totally misusing it, which we came to find out resulted in us owing more than we could ever dream of. Unbeknownst to us, our manager was evading taxes and using our money to help pay for other bands' stuff he was managing. We found out he had taken our bankcard to Vegas and ran up thousands of dollars. Needless to say, because of our manager and us not looking at the books, it became really tough. Granted, we were on the road around 220 days out of the year—which was no excuse for not keeping track—but we came to find out we were in debt thousands of dollars. We knew we had to either give up and declare bankruptcy or fight it and make money to get out of debt. We kept going and we decided not to prosecute this guy, which we could have done.

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