Back in 2011, local emo-punk band Last Call looked poised for the big time. The four-piece was preparing to release its debut album on independent label Mightier Than Sword and had enlisted producer Paul Miner (Faded Grey, Curl Up and Die, Thrice) for the LP when the label went under, leaving the band in financial turmoil. Broke and ready to call it quits, Last Call recalibrated its efforts and in the winter of 2012 self-released the LP, Dog Years, following with two U.S. tours throughout 2013. And then everything came to a sudden halt.

After going 11 months without playing a single show, Last Call returns on Friday at Tipsy Coffee House. We caught up with singer Austin Jeffers to find out where the band has been and what the guys have been working on since we last heard those slick, lacquered guitars, throaty screams and sweet, pop-punk harmonies.

They got tired. “[Drummer] Adam [Blasco] and I had been throwing all of our money into the band. It was getting more and more difficult. Tour is painful. It hurts you in ways you don’t understand until you get home.

They swallowed their pride. “It’s so pretentious. I’m f*cking 28. I need to let go of this bullsh*t, that I think that I’m some young guy whose band is better than anybody else’s. I let that go.”

They’re giving back. “Broken Arrow Collective was Adam’s creation,” Jeffers says of the independent record label and LGBT equality activist group. Besides putting out Dog Years, the collective’s website says it supports marriage equality and equal rights through music.

They’re working on a new album—also with Miner. “We’ve got nine new songs. The idea is to make sure these are perfect, then we’re going to press all of the vinyl and then decide when it gets released. We’re gonna Beyoncé it.”

Last Call with Koji, Allison Weiss, Lee Corey Oswald, Firestarter, Post Season, Jesse Pino. October 3, 6 p.m., $10, all-ages. Tipsy Coffee House, 6496 Medical Center Drive.