Sublime’s “Ensenada” has been an incredible success, spending seven weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard Alternative chart, en route to becoming the biggest radio hit in the band’s career. Nobody has been more surprised by the song’s popularity than Sublime’s frontman, Jakob Nowell.
“I wasn’t expecting that at all,” the singer admitted during a recent conversation with The Pier.
Maybe like the second or third Sublime single, but ‘Ensenada’ didn’t really sound like a – we didn’t write it to be a single.”
“Ensenada we just wrote to make ourselves laugh,” Nowell continued, looking back on the song’s origins. “I mean there is still an emotional core that I think is there, but maybe it coulda used a couple more you know workshop rounds to let that shine a little bit brighter. But that being said it was a song we were always really excited to play and really stoked on the sound of it.”
Besides helping to usher in a new chapter in Sublime’s history, “Ensenada” has also given fans a preview of what to expect from the band’s upcoming album.
“I’m really happy that song’s doing what it’s doing and I want that for the rest of the Sublime record because I wanna give it its time in the sun, in the spotlight,” Nowell noted. “There’s a lot of really heartfelt material on the new Sublime record but then also funny stuff… any good record you know there’s a whole gamut of emotions.”
For Nowell, “Ensenada”’s commercial success shows that Sublime’s sound remains eternal. Still, he’s most proud of the way it’s resonated with the band’s fans.
“People have come up to me, guys and girls who have said that it’s sort of helped them through weird breakups and stuff like that,” the frontman remarked. “And [they] see the absurdity and maybe the humor in those very usually emotionally challenging times. So, having heard that from people, I know that I’ve done something right.”
Sublime has announced that “Ensenada” is now available on 7” vinyl online through the Sublime store HERE.
Watch the The Pier’s full interview with Jakob Nowell below!
