Sublime With Rome

Sublime With Rome bassist Eric Wilson still embodies the party animal spirit that claimed the life of Sublime front man Bradley Nowell almost 16 years ago. Time may have slowed him down a bit, but it has also given him the space to reflect on the band’s legacy and what has emerged since – besides a handful of music projects that followed and the landscape that once surrounded and inspired most of their sound. “Those were good times,” Wilson says and that about sums it up. Sublime’s music has always been a celebration of sorts, a genre-defying mish-mash of the times that spoke so strongly for a generation it inspired a wave of fans well after the fact. Little did Wilson know he’d be touring Australia for the first time so late in his career, led by a front man who was so inspired by the band’s music that it eventually led him to pick up a guitar and start singing himself.“Growing up in Long Beach,” Wilson explains, “there was a really good punk scene and they enlisted this task force to get us off the streets. And it’s been boring ever since.” By 1988, Los Angeles had seen its fair share of bands emerge victorious onto the mainstream, from Metallica to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to Guns N’ Roses, and had already built a reputation internationally as a mecca for labels and record deals. But just a hop, skip and jump down the coast, a different story began writing itself: three young mongrels took to the mean streets armed with nothing but their instruments and a strong distaste for authority – and possibly a couple 40 oz. bottles of grog – to form the band we now know as Sublime. Maybe only minutes later, Rome Ramirez was born.“I never thought we were ever gonna get back together,” Wilson says, “but it was 15 years later and it seemed like a good idea. Not only for the money but also because we want to play our songs again that we never got a chance to play.” The band never did get the chance to play a single hit off their self-titled and most popular third record to a live audience of singing fans. Nowell passed two months before the album was to be released and the remaining members of Sublime disbanded shortly thereafter. Wilson stayed in Long Beach – he has never left – and will readily admit that times have changed. “Long Beach is full of a bunch of yuppies. Most of the kids stay at home and don’t get in trouble with the cops like we used to. They just stay at home and play Grand Theft Auto or something.”

Wilson comes off fairly reclusive – most likely a consequence of keeping the industry at arms length. Coming into significant fame after such tragedy, Sublimewere instantly immortalised, more specifically in their native California but also internationally. Not much has changed since, either.  “Things back home are pretty good. I haven’t been up to much. Just collecting trash on the beach… I don’t generally go to the beach because I live on the beach, and when you live on the beach you just look at it.”

You also play music, apparently, which Wilson is still doing plenty of. The bass has never been his one and only passion, but its something he will always have and modestly admits to being good at. “The band started because we’d just get together and drink all the time with good friends. And then it turned more into a business, you know? I just thought that it was the only way I was gonna get laid. We were the best party band in our area. Back then that was the highlight of my career.”

When Wilson and Nowell became friends his musical world was flipped on its head: “When I met Brad I was playing rhythm guitar and then when we started jamming some songs he’d play a lot better than me. So then I just picked up a bass and I found my calling. I didn’t know it until I met Brad. I was a total punker growing up and when I met Brad he got me into the reggae thing. It took him a while though. And then suddenly in dawned on me how much I loved it. I was picking up authentic Jamaican reggae bass lines and going crazy.”

Fast-forward to the present moment and saturated in all that history is, simply put, great music that hasn’t really seen anything just as authentic or interesting coming up into the mainstream since. When Wilson met Ramirez, the vibe and message is what persisted. Having been influenced by their music, it doesn’t come as a surprise that Ramirez’s lyricism, his songwriting and live performance vibe are all reflective of Nowell. “I think for us,” Wilson begins, “having Rome now, it’s been inspiring. He has such a good voice and he writes songs really well. Putting together Yours Truly was a blast. We did it in about a month.”

Yours Truly is the album title of their official outfit moniker debut Sublime With Rome. Legal battles made using the name Sublime messier than Wilson probably felt was necessary, but he’s always been honest and clear about his intention as a founding member of the band. “We wanted to make music that would have people dancing and then have them thrashing around. Our kind of party music. Our intentions are still the same. Oh, and our first trip out to Australia – I really wanna go there and watch the toilet water go in the opposite direction too.”

Fans may be wondering if the band can thrash as hard as they used to, which seems a silly question. Wilson laughs when he explains that he’s old enough to be Ramirez’s father. “I haven’t really taken on a father figure role, no,” he states plainly. Down to his bones he continues to live and breathe his punker lifestyle to its fullest, embracing the journey once more for fans across the country to partake in for the first time. Ever. He seems reasonably calm about the whole thing. When asked if it’s still just party music to him, Wilson’s reply is all the more affirming. “Yup,” he says. “Get ready.”

Sublime With Rome are in Australia as part of the annual Bluesfest extravaganza in Byron Bay, but will be heading out on the road to see fans in their own headline run of dates.