Chicago Tribune (May 25th 2017)

Dreamcar has no doubt about the supergroup's tunes

On a recent spring evening, Tony Kanal and his bandmates prepared to take the stage at the Roxy in Los Angeles. It'd been 21 years since the Southern California-based bassist last performed at the famed Sunset Strip venue, and it was under decidedly different circumstances. At the time, Kanal's band, No Doubt, was arguably one of the hottest live acts in the world, thanks in large part to the success of its multi-platinum breakout album, 1995's "Tragic Kingdom." This time, however, with a brand-new band, he and three other musicians were hoping for little more than a chance to prove their worth.

"There is that hunger and excitement and that anxiousness again," Kanal says of Dreamcar, the new rock outfit he formed with No Doubt bandmates Adrian Young and Tom Dumont and AFI frontman Davey Havok. "There's a different type of excitement."

Still, the effusive musician admits playing with a new band — his first since No Doubt formed in the '80s — is not without challenges. "These songs aren't something I have muscle memory for 30 years," Kanal says with a laugh. "So that's definitely a different thing when you get onstage and are like, "Man, I hope I remember that chord change!"

Dreamcar released its crisp and catchy self-titled debut album this month, but the four-piece synthpop band, whose slick grooves and soaring choruses recall the new romantic sounds of '80s chart-topping bands such as Duran Duran and A Flock of Seagulls, first formed in 2014. What first started as the three No Doubt members kicking around musical ideas turned into a full-fledged band once Havok came aboard.

"The music was immediately inspirational and touched on aspects of my musical upbringing that I've never really explored," Havok recalls of first hearing rough versions of what would become standout Dreamcar tracks, such as "Kill For Candy" and "After I Confess." So affected was Havok by the songs he quickly wrote the toplines and lyrics for them. "From that moment," says the shape-shifting rock star, "I was really excited about the prospects."

"It worked from the get-go," Kanal recalls of Havok seamlessly fitting into the mix. "It wasn't about 'Hey, let's go get a singer and put something together.' It had to be real. It had to feel right." Havok had crossed paths with the three No Doubt musicians over the years — both from touring with No Doubt as a member of electronic duo Blaqk Audio and more recently seeing Kanal at vegan restaurants around Los Angeles. Still, he knew he was the lone wolf entering a family of three who've worked together for decades. "But they embraced me into their family right away," the singer says. "That really goes a long way. They're really complimentary of what I create. It really eased me into the community that is those three men."

The four musicians purposefully kept Dreamcar under wraps for months — even from close friends, family and business associates. "We knew something cool was happening with the music," Kanal says, "but we still didn't talk about it because you never know what's going to happen. You might be a couple months into it and be like 'Oh, this isn't really working but it was fun to try.' And for us we didn't want to talk about it until we knew there was something real there that we wanted to share."

In Kanal's estimation that moment didn't come until they'd written about 20 songs. "And then we were like 'OK, now we can talk about it. Now we can play it for people. Now we have this and we want to share it with the world.'"

Kanal and Havok say that while Dreamcar is a new band they have a clear advantage with their other band's respective fanbases. "We acknowledged that right away," Kanal says. "Because of who we are and our histories between AFI and No Doubt it did give us this opportunity to share this in a much different way. We really don't take that for granted. We're really fortunate in that way. Because people are curious." That said, Havok is adamant that in no way did he or his new bandmates every worry about fans expectations that Dreamcar would sound like their previous bands. "It seems so obvious that there would be no reason to do this band if it were going to sound like AFI or No Doubt," he says. "It would be shocking to me for anyone to think 'Well I thought this was going to sound like AFI!' Why would I do this if that were the case? I'm busy."

After several years tinkering on the songs that are included on Dreamcar's debut, hitting the stage with the material is a thrilling proposition for the band. "The first couple nights we played in Orange County we noticed that people were really paying attention," Kanal says. "There was much less holding up phones and filming us than we expected. People were really curious — 'What is this? How is going to work live?'"

He pauses and adds with a note of satisfaction, "It's back to the music."