React (Nov. 25th 1996)
No Doubt: Who’s It All About?
If you think No Doubt is a great new band, you're half right. The Anaheim, Calif., foursome has actually been playing together for seven years, but it's with the release of the foot-tapping, head-bopping, ska-popping record Tragic Kingdom that the band has finally made its mark. The record has been sitting comfortably in the top 10 for the past few months, the videos "Just A Girl" and "Spiderwebs" are doing major time on MTV, and the band is about to embark on a world tour.
At the center of all this attention is Gwen Stefani, 25, the band's flamboyant front woman. With her distinctive voice (raspy punk rock and squeaky Betty Boop) and her wacky fashion sense (candy-colored everything), Stefani seems more like a cartoon than a real grrl. But what did you expect? She did grow up with Disneyland practically in her back yard. "It's the happiest place on earth," chirps the singer, who happily boasts to having played a gig inside the Magic Kingdom.
Stefani has always had a sense of fantasy. She designs many of her own shiny '70s-styled clothes but sports a bangs-and-ponytail hairstyle inspired by '50s pinup stars like Betty Grable. "I just love classic Hollywood style in movies," she explains, "where a girl says, 'Oh, I'm going to be a star!' and then she really does get discovered."
Stefani thought a lot about being discovered while working in an Anaheim Dairy Queen with older brother Eric. Together they formed a band featuring ska, a lively Jamaican music style from the '60s. (The current band lineup is Tom Dumont on guitar, Tony Kanal on bass and Adrian Young on drums - Eric dropped out in 1995 to work as a cartoonist on The Simpsons.) Two million records later, there's absolutely No Doubt that Stefani is a star.
Fame may have its perks, but Stefani is worried about the compromises that come with it. "I had to give up Melrose Place and Beverly Hills, 90210," she says with a mock frown on her face. But the band has its own little soap opera to deal with: After dating for seven years, Stefani and Kanal broke up in 1994. Crushed, Stefani wrote many of the tortured love songs on Tragic Kingdom about him, like "Happy Now?" and the newest single, "Don't Speak". (Rumore is Gavin Rossdale of Bush has given Stefani a shoulder to cry on.)
Not that she's shedding too many tears these days, Stefani is finally living the life she has always dreamed of. "It's that same story I always loved in the movies," she says. "You know, 'I'm gonna make it.' And they do! That's my favorite story."