Brad's blend of ska, early 80s punk reggae, psychedelic dub and Hendrix-influenced rock has left people wondering what could have been more. Brad's songs came from the heart. He meant what he wrote and snag them with true emotion. The best example of this is the song Poolshark. If you listen or read the lyrics for this song (especially the acoustic version) you'll find he is talking about his ongoing battle with herion. "I take it away but I want more and more, someday Im gonna lose the war." That's the most powerful line in the song. For Brad, this was a very hard song to do. It touched Brad more than any other song and he often broke down after singing it.
I'll leave you with a quote from Brad:
"Sublime is a hodgepodge of all types of bands I have been into since I was a kid. Not like I mix it all up on purpose but more like its a subconcious type of thing. As a kid, I was heavily into hardcore punk, like the Circle Jerks and Black Flag, then I first heard the ska sound from bands like The Selector and The Specials. I thought this was the best music I have ever heard. Then came the rub a dub style of dance hall reggae music which I've never been able to get out of my head since! A little later I was into Run DMC and the whole NWA sound. I was blown away when I heard groups like BDP and KRS-One mixing rap and reggae. It was devastating. Without really trying I now seem to put a dance hall style lyric melody over much of my attempts of writing other music."
"The bottom line is I love good music and I try to shy away from all these labels that people think are necessary to slap on music. It seems like people get afraid of a certain music if they can't pigeonhole it to their satisfaction. They will be up all night trying to slap a label on Sublime. Good music is good music, and that should be good enough for anybody."
-Brad Nowell
