The Boston Globe (May 23rd 1997)
No Doubt is more than Gwen Stefani’s cute voice
No doubt about it. The California band No Doubt has climbed to the top because of constant MTV support and the allure of navel-exposing, suburban-chic singer Gwen Stefani. But look a little deeper. There's more to No Doubt than a videogenic front-woman with a flat tummy and teen-stirring pipes.
In fact, No Doubt is a democratic band with three men having an equal say with Stefani. They also were around for a long, dues-paying decade before hitting it big with "Tragic Kingdom," an album that has sold 6 million copies and has three Top 10 songs in "Don't Speak," "Just a Girl" and "Spiderwebs."
"It was strange at first to keep hearing that the band was Gwen's thing and that she makes all the decisions," says guitarist Tom Dumont. "But we've gotten over that whole thing now. We're trying not to worry about it. In some ways I feel sorry for Gwen. I've been out in public and never been bothered. But I've been out with Gwen, and it's hard for her because of her visual notoriety."
The men in No Doubt have watched as the media tried to separate them from Stefani. Spin, Details and YM put only Stefani on their covers, leaving the guys out in the cold.
"We were told that there's some formula that if there's just one person on the cover, it sells more," says Dumont. "We had little arguments in the band about it."
When Rolling Stone magazine came calling, No Doubt pushed to have all four members on the cover. Their wish was granted. "They were totally cool about it," says Dumont.
"I've done some real soul-searching about interviews and photo shoots. The reason I got into the band was to play live shows and make records. Really, that's all I'm ever going to worry about. As long as I get to play on stage and make records with the band, that's fine."
Such are the issues that come with sudden fame. It wasn't always that way for No Doubt, an Orange County band that has built a large teenage fan base after last year's tour with fellow MTV faves, Bush.
But No Doubt first had to endure the 1987 suicide of charter member John Spence, the departure of Stefani's brother, Eric, who left in 1994 to become an animator with the TV show "The Simpsons," and the breakup of Stefani's romance with bassist Tony Kanal.
"It was a tense and difficult time," Dumont recalls. "Gwen was really upset about Eric leaving. And at the same time, that was mixed with her and Tony's breakup. So it was really wild. Sometimes I can't believe we got through it.
"A lot of people have no idea what we've been through," says Dumont, the oldest member of the group at 29. "The thing that kept us together was that there was always this great little following in southern California. We could always play shows and have 500 people show up, whether we were at colleges or all-ages clubs. We'd just have the greatest time. It was a real slow but steady process of growth."
By that modest standard, No Doubt was totally surprised by the success of "Tragic Kingdom." The group had sold 25,000 copies of its previous album and was hoping to double that to 50,000 -- and dreaming of 100,000 if they got lucky.
"Then we started selling 100,000 records a week," says Dumont. "It was like, ‘Oh, my God, unbelievable.' That kind of thing plays funny tricks with you."
The enormity of it all hasn't yet sunk in because No Doubt has kept touring with little break. "Our time at home has been scarce," Dumont says. "We've been on the road for 14 of the last 18 months."
During that period, the band has been overexposed relentlessly and is now trying to cut back and focus on touring.
"We just went to Europe to do interviews and we got on each other's nerves," he says. "It was getting really difficult. The guys in the crew would laugh at us and say, `Oh, did you have to talk about yourself all day again today? What an easy life.'
"But you know it was hard, and it got to the point where we were mentally unhealthy after that tour. So we decided on this tour to take it easy and concentrate on playing and trying to enjoy it. So we're going to do as few (interviews) as possible.
"People just get so demanding," Dumont explains. "I have friends and relatives who say, ‘Can you bring us over to Gwen's house to meet her?' And I have to say, `Well, I think Gwen really wants to stay home and relax a while. I'm sorry.' It's just weird. Little things like that happen every day."
The group has come a long way from its roots as an underground reggae/ska/punk band influenced by the likes of Madness, the Specials, and Pauline Black of the Selector, who was a major influence on Stefani.
When Dumont joined the group nine years ago, he helped steer it in a more rock 'n' roll direction. He's since learned to write songs with Stefani, notably the hits, "Just a Girl" and "Excuse Me Mr.," which has a ragtime horn arrangement adding more spice to the sound.
"Gwen does most of the lyrics," he says. "And we've come up with a really fun way to collaborate. She and I sit in a room and spontaneously improvise things together. I'll find a little chord progression that we like. I'll do it over and over again and she'll scat-sing stuff over it. At the end of it, we'll listen to the tape and pick stuff from that. It's what Eric (Stefani) taught us over the years -- that sometimes accidents and mistakes can turn into songs. So that's how `Just a Girl' and `Excuse Me Mr.' came about."
Despite overwhelming success that saw "Tragic Kingdom" spend nine weeks at No.1 on Billboard's Top 200, No Doubt still hasn't lost touch with its roots as a fun-loving garage band. The new video for the single, "Sunday Morning," reflects that.
"In the old days, we'd sometimes rehearse in the garage and then go to the store to buy supplies for a big spaghetti dinner for ourselves. So that's what the video is about," says Dumont.