Calling No Doubt's return to music a comeback isn't exactly accurate. But after five years of silence from the California-based pop-ska outfit, it sure feels like a comeback.

When lead singer Gwen Stefani was enjoying that prosperous and successful solo career of hers from 2004 to 2008, did guitarist Tom Dumont remain convinced that the old band would come back together?

It left the other three members of the multi-platinum Orange County, Calif., ska-pop band to their own devices. Guitarist Tom Dumont released the solo project Invincible Overlord, backed Matt Costa on tour, scored a documentary and played dad.

When No Doubt went on hiatus in 2004, nobody in the band faced a bigger adjustment than Tony Kanal, the band's bassist and, along with singer Gwen Stefani, a key songwriting contributor for the band.

"We're a live band - we had to get out there and reconnect onstage," says bassist Tony Kanal, who filled us in on the band's 55-date tour.

Five years, a grip of side and solo projects, limitless speculation and a nursery (or two) full of babies later, No Doubt are heading back on the road. They’re ready, more or less.

When No Doubt went on hiatus in 2004, nobody in the band faced a bigger adjustment than Tony Kanal, the band's bassist and, along with singer Gwen Stefani, a key songwriting contributor for the band.

There were definite doubts inside and outside No Doubt when the Grammy-winning band announced a "hiatus" five years ago to let singer Gwen Stefani pursue a solo career.

Let's make this clear right from the start -- No Doubt never broke up. Yes, it's been five years since we've seen the ska/pop band together as one, but guitarist Tom Dumont was sure they would re-form.

But for Kanal, whose identity and day-to-day life in the band were threaded together like twine, the hiatus was akin to leaping off a cliff without being able to see the ground below.

The band No Doubt went on hiatus in 2004, and singer Gwen Stefani subsequently established herself as a hugely successful solo artist. Now, though, the quartet is back together, and bassist Tony Kanal says he always assumed it would happen at some point.

Bassist Kanal took some time to talk about the band’s reunion, their forthcoming album and their current frame of mind as they embark on this latest chapter in their history.

Now a resident of Long Beach, Tom grew up in Irvine, and has lived in Orange and Anaheim along the way.

Young, a Cypress native, is a NAMM veteran. In many ways, he can trace his rise from struggling musician to bona-fied rock star and business owner through his experiences over the years at this convention.