Jakob Nowell has had a hell of a year. In late 2023, he was announced as the new frontman for Sublime, the beloved band started by his father alongside Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh in 1988. Since the announcement, he’s spent the last year touring and writing new music with the band. They’ve had guest spots on late-night shows, a prominent and celebrated set at 2024’s Coachella, toured around Brazil and more. Now, the band is set to headline Red Rocks for the first time in the band’s long history. It’s sure to be a special show, meant for fans new and old, a celebration of what’s come before and a look into what Sublime’s future holds.
Nowell recently sat down with 303 Magazine to discuss the show, the concept of legacy, his personal projects, using his massive platform for good and much more.
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303 Magazine: I usually like to start these off by going back to the beginning. Obviously, you come from a musical family, but I’m curious about your memories growing up with music — and I don’t mean just with Sublime — but with music in general. Do you have a distinct memory of first really becoming interested in music?
Jakob Nowell: Yeah, I remember always being fascinated by the guitars in my grandpa’s office, walking up and hitting them. I think the desire to try to follow and create music would come much later in life for me, though.
303: When did you realize you wanted to pursue music professionally? Was that before joining the band, or did it come earlier?
JN: I think it was when I was about 17. I moved out and started trying to do my own band. I was doing music for a decade; it was just kind of my own thing. Honestly, joining Sublime has been a huge challenge for me because it’s not my usual wheelhouse or style of singing, or whatever. It’s been a welcome challenge, though, and I think the shows are getting better and better, so I’m really excited.
303: I was gonna wait a little bit to ask, but since you brought this up already, could you tell me a little bit about making music with your solo projects — Jakobs Castle and SVN/BVRNT RECORDS —versus making music with Sublime and how you approach the two projects differently?
JN: Oh, thank you so much, man! Yeah, SVN/BURNT RECORDS, man. We’re very excited to finally have it launched and to start doing stuff. We’re still in the basic beginning stages. So a lot of it is just putting on shows, trying to gather artists together, really being a collective, you know. We’re making merchandise and clothing.
But, for me, getting an opportunity to join Sublime, I mean, I spent so many years just trying to make it, trying different styles, seeing what would work, and never really thinking that I even should join my father’s project or have any involvement in that. But so many different coinciding factors led to me being like, “Okay, people want this. My family wants this.” Obviously, it’d be great for my career, but how am I going to do this? What’s the purpose? What’s the point? It can’t just be to play really big shows and try to make money and shit like that. Obviously, that stuff is nice and I’m happy about the boost to my career, but SVNBVRNT RECORDS has to sort of become what it’s all for, man.
If I can use my platform to help enlarge the careers of young musicians that I see deserve it and find awesome music here in California and try to create a cool alternative scene, again, to me, that’s bigger than myself and bigger than my own career, and that’s ultimately where I see my path. I really have compassion for young artists coming up in the scene, and we all know what it’s like. It feels like you’re a total obscurity. The feeling I got when I played Coachella, or when I came down to Brazil, or even in Japan with Jakob’s Castle, I want to see that look on the face of the other artists. I hope it’s some way that I can help and it excites me to try to build something bigger than just Sublime, or my band, or anyone’s band. That’s the goal. And right now, it’s fun, man. Jakobs Castle is on there for SUNBVRNT RECORDS. We’ve got our boy, Jesse James Pariah, and plenty more than I’m not picking up right now. Yes, and we’re just having a blast trying to get them opening slots for the Sublime shows, hopefully, or doing pre-parties or after-parties.
303: I think that’s so cool, man. Because you have gotten this sort of skyrocketed platform but you really seem to be approaching things from a place of altruism, trying to help out the scene as much as you can and build up these other artists who were going through the same situation that you might have been going through when you were younger. That also leads rather nicely into my next question. Do you have any thoughts on how the modern reggae scene, specifically the American reggae scene, is progressing? There are so many great bands that have been making some really great reggae music for a long time. But I feel like it’s not quite as much at the forefront of popular music as maybe it was a decade ago or so. So I’m curious if you have any thoughts on that.
JN: Ah, totally, man. I mean, it’s still a secret that I think all of us are starting to see — all of us meaning music listeners but also a lot of the bands involved in the modern American “white boy reggae” world — I think it’s a secret that everyone’s starting to feel like it’s getting a little stagnant. That’s not that any one band or any multiple groups of bands. I think when you look at all the forerunners of this scene, they’re all amazingly talented musicians, passionate and smart and talented. I think that what happens is that it just becomes easy to stick in a certain lane. Every genre does it. It’s not unique to this theme. I see so many younger, smaller artists within that American reggae scene who are starting to push the boundaries a little bit more. It’s really my hope with SVNBVRNT RECORDS and any new stuff that we do with Sublime and any other new artist we work with to try to just shake it up a little bit, create some chaos, and hopefully push that scene, which to me, is so fertile. The soil is fucking ready, man.
I think that if you look at history and the trends of any scene, it’s been enough years for it to evolve, change, grow, whatever you want to call it. And to me, what I think that looks like and what that sounds like, maybe it’s yet to be determined, but it definitely is a cool California alternative music that blends many different genres, sort of in the same spirit of what Sublime did back in the day. It can’t just be any one thing. So I would like there always to be a place for that classic American reggae sound, but I wonder if they could also live alongside other multi-genre influenced music.
303: I think that’s why Sublime has had the longevity that they’ve had. They meld so many different things, from punk to hip hop to ska and reggae. And I think that, like you said, the word stagnant is becoming more prevalent with these more modern American reggae bands. You just thinking about shaking it up, I think, is such a step in the right direction.
JN: Yeah, man. Thank you so much.
303: Of course, man. Now, going back just a little bit, I do want talk a little bit about when you were first asked to join Sublime. Was that something that came more from your family or did it mainly come from (founding Sublime members) Eric (Wilson, bass) and Bud (Gaugh, drums)? How did the conversation go? If you can just tell me anything about it.
JN: It’s definitely sort of tough to talk about because I just never want anyone to get the impression that I felt like I’m entitled to this thing, man, that it’s my right, or whatever. I think it’s a gift and a blessing and and a curse sometimes, too, because it’s a lot of scrutiny and the strange place to be in, but it seemed like it’s a necessary step for me to take in my life and my career. It’s something I’ve been ignoring my entire life and this is my way of trying to embrace it, coming into my own, and hopefully using this platform to further grow as an artist and support my projects and the projects of those around me.
It definitely was something I never thought to do, like I never wanted to do, and something that’s been very uncomfortable for a long time, but I think finally, after about a year of fronting the band, it’s definitely a lot more comfortable. We’re definitely having a lot more fun up there. And that is Sublime, Dougie (Boyce, touring turntables) and Trey (Pangborn, touring guitar), they’re more Sublime than I’ll ever be.
I feel like I’m just trying to do a service and do the songs as much just as I can, because no one’s ever, ever, ever going to sing the song or play the guitar like like Bradley Nowell, man, in the same way that no one’s ever going to come close to any original singer-songwriter of any band. That’s their project right now, this is our way of keeping it alive for the fans, and hopefully, they’ll continue following us into the next era. We’re all here for it, and right now, I just feel grateful that I get to do it.
303: Thank you for sharing that with me. I really appreciate it. Is legacy something you think about? I know you’re stepping into this role and it seems to me much more like you’re looking to the future of carrying this legacy on by also building so many things yourself. Is that just something that you are considering when you’re creating, or are you just creating and hoping that people like it?
JN: It’s a little bit of both. I’d be lying if I didn’t say the legacy was a part of it. It is, man, I feel a lot of people can just throw who they are, their family’s heritage to the wayside or whatever. But I feel like my dad did something really special, cool and unprecedented. And I do feel like there’s a pressure and onus on me to continue onward pretty much where he left off. But, you know, I have to do stuff my own way. I have to make tough, difficult decisions. I’m not always going to make the right one, but at the end of the day, I try to dream even bigger and see an even bigger picture than just one band. I think that if I can do my job right, knock on wood, then there will be something even bigger, and then this will have been a precursor to and not even necessarily a project of mine. I just hope to be a small cog in a much bigger machine that is still a work in progress to this very day. So it is exciting. And yeah, to answer your question, I think, you know, legacy is always in the forefront of my mind, yeah, and sometimes to my own detriment.
303: I could imagine, man, and for what it’s worth, man, the future seems bright. I mean, like, the new song “Feel Like That (Featuring Bradley Nowell)” is fucking awesome. How was it making that song? How’d the song come about? What was the recording process like?
JN: Oh, yeah, man, you know that one is mainly Stick Figure, and my uncle, Miguel. That one came out great, and it feels Sublime-y, but that’s definitely like a Stick song that we’re involved with. We had some old cuts from my dad’s vocals and stuff like that. That inspired us to try to dig back through the vault and see if there are any old ideas that we could just make fresh and to consider trying to create something in a similar vein that we can collaborate on.
We have some stuff really in the works right now, I think, and the process for “Feel Like That,” and for whatever else we’re working on, it’s scary, man. I definitely have a lot of fear involved in it but I just try to go with what I feel is right. If it sounds good and excites me and the people that I work with, it starts to make more sense. It’s an emotional process and challenging. There’s always that looming over your shoulder because it’s so close to home and all of that, but at the end of the day, something that I want to try and I’m pretty excited.
303: That’s incredible, man. I think that what you’re doing is really brave, but I also think you’re really paving your own way and that’s really cool to see.
JN: Thanks, man. I appreciate that.
303: Well, I’m getting close to wrapping up here. Let’s talk Red Rocks. This is the first time Sublime has ever headlined there. Is there sort of a dauntingness about just how storied that venue is? What do you think fans can expect from the show?
JN: I’m really excited to play Red Rock. We all are. That’s always been a dream venue since I was younger, and we did it last year with Stick Figure. So to play our own big show there, it’s going to be awesome. So to play with The Elovaters and DENM, big fan of them, and to put one of our SVN/BVRNT RECORDS artists on as the opener, Jesse James Pariah. People, get there early, check it out, because I think it’s just kind of full tone in the right direction.
Fans can expect the same usual shenanigans from us, but we’re also going to throw in a few deep cuts in there that we haven’t played live yet as this lineup. I think the true blue die hard fans are going to have fun and be able to sing along to the songs they love and there may be even some surprises along the way. We’re working hard every day to just keep the show fresh and entertaining for the good people who want to come out and see us live. So we really appreciate it, because you’re our family, and you’re keeping the dream alive with us. Thank you so much.
303: Thank you, man. This was such a cool experience for me, personally. I love the music so much and have for a very long time and I’m really excited for the future for you guys. Before I let you go, is there anything that I missed that you’d like to mention, or any people you’d like to shout out?
JN: Shout out our whole crew of people doing stuff, man. Kevin Zinger, Joe Escalante, my business partner and guitarist and guitar tech, Zane Vandevort, and my bass player, Fauci, who’s our bass tech, and our drummer/drum tech, Mikey P, known as Master P. I love this fucking crew that we work with, man, and everybody else I forgot to mention.
303: Thanks for taking the time, man!
JN: Thank you! I’m so excited. I can’t wait. Later!