Nearly three decades after their last studio release, Sublime is making a historic return with their new album Until the Sun Explodes, set for release on June 12. This marks the band's first new material since 1996, featuring Jakob Nowell—son of the late Bradley Nowell—as lead vocalist, performing alongside founding members Eric Wilson on bass and Bud Gaugh on drums.
Jakob's involvement with Sublime has evolved far beyond his initial expectations. When he first joined the band in 2023, he envisioned a limited role. "It's kind of like being a drug addict," explains Jakob, who achieved sobriety in 2017. "You're like, 'Oh, I drink, but I don't do coke.' And it's like, 'OK, I do blow, but I would never do blank.' And then you just keep going. I was like, 'Well, I'll sing one of the songs, but I'll never join the band. OK, I'll join the band, but I'm not going to step on people's toes and write a new record.'" He reflects with a laugh, "And so I'm like, God, where am I? What am I doing?"
Despite the album being released under the Sublime name and capturing much of the band's signature sound, Jakob maintains perspective about the project's place in music history. "The last true Sublime record will be [1996's] self-titled, hands down, period," states Nowell, who also creates music independently under the moniker Jakobs Castle. "You can't compete with mythology. This is the epilogue."
The new album features an impressive roster of collaborators, including H.R. from Bad Brains, Pennywise guitarist Fletcher Dragge, G Love, FIDLAR, and Australian surf-rock band Skegss. The title track and lead single releases today, accompanied by a music video filmed at significant Long Beach locations from Sublime's history, featuring appearances by professional skaters Christian Hosoi and Omar Hassan. The album's opening track, "Ensenada," has already demonstrated commercial success, dominating Billboard's Alternative Airplay chart for two consecutive months in 2025 and holding the number one position longer than any other song on that chart during the year.
For Gaugh, who had only briefly reunited with Wilson during their collaboration with Rome Ramirez in the now-defunct Sublime With Rome, the new album confirms the natural chemistry he sensed from their first rehearsal with Jakob. "From day one, it seemed way more natural than anything we had done previously," Gaugh explains. "The chemistry and the sound — it was all there. It really brought me back to the mid-Nineties with Brad."
Wilson echoes this sentiment, noting, "He totally reminds me of a sober version of Brad."
Gaugh observes that Jakob has embraced Bradley's songwriting approach of documenting daily life and contemporary events—a method that previously produced songs about personal experiences and social commentary, including references to the L.A. riots. "Jake took that same recipe and started writing about things that were happening in his life, in our lives, right now," Gaugh notes. "That really impressed me — the way he caught onto that and followed that prescription."
The creative process involved meticulous research into Sublime's musical DNA. Jakob, touring guitarist Zeno, and producer John Joseph compiled a comprehensive analysis of every chord progression, lyrical theme, sonic texture, and stylistic element throughout Sublime's discography. Their methodology included creating Venn diagrams and spreadsheets while engaging in detailed discussions about what constituted "canonical" elements of the band's sound.
"It sounds a little contrived," Jakob acknowledges, "but we didn't do it out of a sense of, 'Oh God, we need to do this or else.' We were having a blast, dude." The strategy followed a two-phase approach: "We had to learn the book, and then burn the book."
Beyond the analytical framework, Jakob emphasizes that the essential element was capturing the "true process of Sublime — that fun, wild craziness in the moment, that sort of altered state of consciousness that you get from making music with your friends and staying up all goddamn night." This philosophy reached its extreme during the creation of "Evil Men," where Jakob deliberately stayed awake for days to achieve a trance-like creative state before free-styling the song. "I don't get high no more," he explains, "so I was like, fuck, I need to get into some kind of altered state to commune with the gods."
Throughout the album's creation, Jakob remained deeply connected to his father's legacy. "It's all for him," he reflects. "I wouldn't be here doing this if not for him. And I'd prefer it would be him doing it."
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