On the cusp of his Coachella Performance with Sublime, Jakob Nowell unveils the debut record from his eclectic solo project, Jakobs Castle. ENTER: THE CASTLE out today via Epitaph Records.
Jakobs Castle represents an unfiltered version of Nowell’s own sonic identity. Recorded in San Pedro, CA with producer and co-collaborator Jon Joseph (Børns, Caroline Rose), ENTER: THE CASTLE is Jakob’s modern expression of SoCal-born alternative rock. The album is an experiment to mix California’s past with the mysteries of underground internet culture – forging his own destiny in a way that’s relevant to today’s generation of listeners.
“The goal of the project is infiltration – I want to infiltrate different scenes and make very weird music that is also palatable.”
As the only child of the late Bradley Nowell of Sublime, one of the most influential bands of the 90s, Jakob Nowell’s life was anything but charmed. After losing his father as a baby and growing up in an unstable household, he felt mostly alone throughout his early life and faced struggles with addiction as a young adult. He credits discovering escapism in art, aided by the exploration of the internet’s bubbling subcultures, as tools to find his community.
“Jakobs Castle is my way of sending out my own weak single into the void. If even one other alien picks up on the references and feels a connection, my work is complete.”
In addition to his solo work with Jakobs Castle, Jakob Nowell will be playing a monumental performance at this year’s Coachella Music Festival as the frontman of Sublime, alongside original members Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh. Now seven years sober himself, Jakob Nowell is a board member of The Nowell Family Foundation; a nonprofit offering addiction recovery services to the music community with a residential recovery facility dubbed Bradley’s House.