SUBLIME?? Who in this world never heard a song called Santeria? or What I got? or The Wrong Way?? I´m sure 99% of the rockers population in this world know what I´m talking about. So in a matter of fact we all know what happened to Sublime and it´s a story we don´t want to talk about it now, but what I want to let you know is that this wonderful band is BACK yes you heard me good they are back with a young talented clean man named Rome Ramirez!! We had the chance to make an interview with them at the Nova Rock festival in Austria and it´s such a good feeling to know that bands like Sublime want to keep their spirit alive and to make this intro shorter the concert was FABULOUS!!! (Amazing video at the end of the interview)
After the release of your new single called “Panic”. Do you want to keep the sound that Sublime always had, or you want to look forward to find a different sound?
Rome: Well is important to stay true to the roots of the music, but the thing that made Sublime; Sublime is just their ability to play whatever the fuck they want, whatever we want you know? and well in the old Sublime traditional albums we explore all kinds of different music and try to do new music and well is just a mix of different styles of music and we are 3 guys so we just blend it in and well these guys make it sound like Sublime.
Bud: When we first started to play the music, we were influenced by our favorite influences in punk rock, reggae, rock and roll, so naturally the music will progress with time as the influences grow, so now it has been 15 years since we record our last abum and we diversified and we found new styls of music that we like so our music got naturally developed.
Eric: I agree!
The festival that you will play tonight is mainly attended by kids who were babies when you were already rocking back in the 90´s , so mainly most of them heard about you through their parents. So what are you looking forward for this show? do you want to show Sublime as the old band or the new band? what do you want to transmit to them tonight?
Rome: To show them a great band, put the rest of the things at the side because we just wan to play really great music for them and see the people dance that it´s what motives the show you know?
Bud: We expect to see them very drunk and very happy and we gonna give them some old stuff mixed with newer stuff and then to bring more stuff all together.
Now describe your next release, I heard is already finished.
Rome: The album is called “Yours Truly” and comes out on july 12th in the U.S. It´s already done pressed and packed and we have already a single out called “Panic” and it´s on the U.S. radio stations right now and well is coming out in a few weeks and it is a really fun album it has a lot f different styles of music in and for us is really a success because it has been already 1 and a half year just jamming and riffing so finally we got all those ideas in to the studio and we got ourselves our first album, so we are really motivated to go on tour play the album for the kids.
Bud and Eric you played in the Long Beach DUB all stars and other bands you had after Sublime, A lot of years went by and you are playing like Sublime again. How exciting was for you to start to play Sublime again after finding this kid(Rome) who makes a magnifical job with the band?
Bud: It has been a great gift to be able to play music with Eric again because we had been friends since before we were teenagers and to be able to play again music that we love, to play and to play it live again it´s been another great gift too and now we are creating new music together and that just adds intensity to all this special feeling for all of us.
Rome when your love for Sublime started?
Rome: Way before I loved a girl(laughs) It started since I was 11 years old man, It started when I was 11 and a friend of mine gave me a Sublime CD in San Diego and simply I loved it and then I bought a guitar well my parents bought me a guitar and that´s the real story of this man really!!
Now in this new adventure there will always be lovers and haters about the band, how you find the critics?
Bud: I don´t care about what people say or think about me, because if I waste my time with all that shit I will never be free, so the only advice I can say it´s if you have nothing nice to say keep it to yourself because nobody really wants hear it, but for those who don´t like us, think about other bands.
Rome: I just wanted to say we played tons of sold out shows all over the place, we get a lot of love but we hear about the hate and I´m sure you can find it on-line and stuff but you can find anything on-line even how to do molotov cocktails you know? but for us it´s just what we see when we are on stage, what we see it´s when kids come to us and when they tell us that it was the best concert of their lives and that they can´t wait to have us back to their cities again, That´s the stuff that sticks!! and I just feel that the people there outside want to hear good music and that´s why they come to our shows man.
Rome tell us the story about the Ramirez last name.
Rome: Because I´m from both of my parents Mexican I´m 100% Mexican! My Mom was born in Guadalajara and my Dad was born in Tijuana so they met, Fucked and they had me and then I kept the name and you know I had to choose between Ramirez or Sanchez so there was not a big difference at all (Laughs)
Something that you would like to add?
Bud: Well I haven´t heard any bad criticism from any other musician, for example today at the airport one of the guys of Clutch came to us and told us “Hey guys nice to see you back” so that´s what really matters for us.
Rome: I´m just stoked about today, I wanna go on stage, I wanna get sweaty and get drunk after but love to everyone to all the people the fans and even the haters you know? Promotion is promotion baby!!
By: Miguel Guinness
Photos by: Marco Cristian Krenn
