Jakobs Castle — the project of Sublime frontman Jakob Nowell — has dropped a new single titled “Vincent Thomas.” In a recent conversation with The Pier, the singer explained how the track came together.
“The song started with me just jamming my acoustic guitar in my room,” he reveals. “The first thing that came to me was the line, ‘His mom showed up but his daddy never did so he threw himself off of the Vincent Thomas Bridge.’ And then I had to build the song around that idea cuz I was like I just thought that was such an interesting line.”
The song’s title comes from a real bridge located in Southern California, connecting the areas of San Pedro and Long Beach.
“Mentioning local color and local areas is really important to me and my music,” Nowell notes. “It’s very distinctly California kind of stuff.”
Though the lyrical narrative is somewhat dark, the music of “Vincent Thomas” bursts with energy. That dichotomy is something Nowell takes pride in.
“I’m glad that comes through,” the rocker admits. “There is sort of like a dark humor to it all for sure. It’s almost sort of like self ironic. I don’t want to give away too much about what I thought went into the song or what I thought it was about. But it’s definitely got a little bit of that, you know… the young man’s experience growing up in this world, I guess. But, that can sometimes be a little bit – sometimes people can go a little bit too far with that. So there is still this layer of irony I think too that I wanted to keep in there and keep involved.”
“A lot of my music, I want it to have that where you can laugh but also sort of feel something at the same time,” Nowell continues. “Striking that balance has always been my goal.”
Jakobs Castle just launched a west coast run of tour dates that will keep Nowell on the road through the end of the month. The singer also has dates lined up with Sublime, the iconic act founded by his father, Bradley. Jakob became the group’s frontman in 2024 and has enjoyed massive success since doing so. Most recently, Sublime’s song “Ensenada” spent seven weeks at No. 1 on Billboard’s alternative chart, becoming the band’s most successful radio single.
