The Salt Lake Tribune (July 14th 2000)
No Doubt that band is glad to be back on the road
No Doubt is one of those bands you root for, one that makes the music industry seem capable of making dreams come true.
The Orange County-based group kicked around the West Coast scene for 10 years before becoming overnight sensations when "Just a Girl" from its third album, "Tragic Kingdom," hit in 1996, and they were 10 tumultuous years. The lead singer died, one of the co-founders quit and the first two albums met little to no acclaim. A million lesser bands would have split up in the process, but singer Gwen Stefani, bassist Tony Kanal, guitarist Tom Dumont and drummer Adrian Young plugged along, performing hundreds of club gigs and recording albums between college classes.
Once "Just a Girl" and its follow-up singles "Spiderwebs" and "Don't Speak" arrived on the radio and MTV, No Doubt entered the whirlwind of full-blown celebrity status. Magazines featured Stefani as the new "It Girl," often to the chagrin of her three bandmates. They were nominated for Grammys and American Music Awards, and asked to wear the latest fashions by the world's top designers.
Throughout this meteoric rise into the public's consciousness, No Doubt was on the road, moving from clubs to small theaters to headlining the enormadomes of the world. By the time the "Tragic Kingdom" tour ended in November 1997, No Doubt had been on the road for 27 straight months.
Now the band is back with its acclaimed follow-up, "Return of Saturn," and another round of touring the world, including a stop in West Valley City on Monday. Surprising considering the epic road trip for "Tragic Kingdom," Kanal is excited about being on the road again.
"It's just human nature, you always want what you don't have, so when we were on the road for 27 months, we were craving to get in the studio and be creative and work on music, and when you're in the studio for close to two years, you're craving getting on the road and rocking out again," Kanal said from a stop one week into the tour. "We're revved up and excited."
Of course, No Doubt only took about a two-month break between its last tour and starting work on "Return of Saturn." The musicians started the new album in January 1998 and put the finishing touches on it at the beginning of this year. With most groups riding a wave like No Doubt was in 1997, their record label would insist on churning out another record while the iron is still hot. With No Doubt, Interscope wisely let the band go about recording at its own pace, resulting in 14 songs of sugary new wave for the new millennium. From the driving first single, "Ex-Girlfriend," to the ballads like "Marry Me" and "Simple Kind of Life" sure to have lighters waving all summer, No Doubt's new album is infinitely more focused than past albums. Not to mention, more fun.
"We really did have the financial means to make the record we wanted to make for the first time," Kanal said. "It took close to two years to make this record, but I don't think we would have this record if we hadn't taken the two years. We're really proud of it.
"I don't remember a time in those two years when we were just wasting time. We were pretty serious the whole way through. That's not to say that's the way to make a record every time. We needed to have gone through that experience and have that once."