San Francisco Examiner (April 6th 2017)
Dreamcar cohorts bond over vegan diet
Bassist Tony Kanal can thank his vegan lifestyle for Dreamcar, the new side project he formed with fellow No Doubt members Tom Dumont and Adrian Young (while frontwoman Gwen Stefani stayed busy with her solo career and TV’s “The Voice”). Otherwise, he never would have continued bumping into straight-edged AFI vocalist Davey Havok at the same health food restaurants in Los Angeles. A like-minded friendship ensued.
“We’re a vegan family, and my kids were brought up vegan, with a respect for all species, and we don’t, as humans, have the right to exploit those species,” says Kanal, 46, who introduces Dreamcar to San Francisco this weekend.
His daughters know the truth about the brutal meat industry because he educated them, through conversations similar to those his Indian parents had with him as a child. He adds, “But it took me 35 years to understand how much suffering goes into the food we eat and the clothes we wear. So if we have the choices available to us, and we do, it’s horrible to contribute to that suffering.”
Animal-rights activist Havok, 41, agrees. “The way that you feel on a plant-based diet makes you feel like you’re infused with super powers,” he says. “You really respect the way that your body feels, and the way your body feels affects the way that your mind feels.”
While Havok’s AFI spinoff Blaqk Audio opened some No Doubt shows, he had no idea that Kanal and cohorts had begun recording darker, moody material, without Stefani — with an idea about who would sing it. Or that Kanal had suggested him for the job.
“Davey and I would see each other at all these same eateries often, and it did lead to the spark of an idea, like, ‘Wait, why don’t we ask Davey if he wants to work on this music with us?” says Kanal — who kept Dreamcar and its self-titled debut disc — under wraps for nearly three years.
First, he, Young, and Dumont invited Havok to an official offer-making dinner in 2014. “I was really touched,” says Havok. “So I asked to hear music, and the little bit I heard, I loved.”
Produced by Tim Pagnotta, the songs on “Dreamcar” have New Wave-retro sounds reminiscent of The Cure (“Kill For Candy”), The Thompson Twins (“On the Charts”), and vintage Sisters of Mercy (“Ever Lonely,” “The Assailant”), allowing Havok to unleash his inner goth.
“We never set out to make something ‘80s sounding,” says Kanal. “But because we grew up during that movement, that time was so much a part of the fabric of our lives.”