Jakob Nowell used to call Sublime 'his dad's band.' But new album proves 'Now it's our band. Its us'

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There was a time in the beginning of Sublime’s recent revival when Jakob Nowell, the son of the band’s late singer Bradley Nowell, saw himself simply as a good son trying to help his adoptive uncles — drummer Bud Gaugh and bassist Eric Wilson — restart his dad’s iconic Long Beach trio.The goal wasn’t to take the place of his frontman father who died of an overdose in 1996.

“I’ll never look at it as my band.Sublime is my dad’s band, and I’m helping out, that’s all,” he told The Times in 2024.

Luckily, he was wrong.The journey of finding his own voice through his father’s sly, shambolic poetry and reggae rock anthems, along with his determination on the road with Gaugh and Wilson through a barrage of festivals and tour dates helped him eventually step into his own as a songwriter and Gen Z rock star.It’s all been done with the mission to preserving his dad’s legacy and having fun while doing it.

Now it feels as natural as the trio sitting together on the the waterfront in LBC’s shoreline marina within earshot of the bellowing horn of the Queen Mary earlier this year as they were finishing the recording of “Until the Sun Explodes,” the first album under the Sublime moniker in 30 years.Just like the band’s original recipe of shoving punk, dub reggae, hip-hop and ska into a blender, the new songs dutifully stick to the formula along with Jakob’s soulful caterwauls that sound scarily similar to his dad.

But what emerges from the 21-song tracklist is a furthering of a trademark sound gives a nod to the past while standing strong on its own, just like Jakob, despite coming to the interview on crutches while healing from a performance-related knee injury.The band members chatted with The Times about recapturing the effortless essence of their immortal beach-ready sound and looking forward to a second chance to chase an endless summer.This int...