Asbury Park Press (June 18th 2000)
Gwen Stefani not just any girl
In fact, the co-author of the riot grrl-feminist anthem "Just a Girl" - and other hits, including "Don't Speak" - is contemplating a whole range of issues these days.
"Suddenly my eyes have been opened, and I can see that I have all these other passions," said Stefani over the telephone from a hotel room in Virginia Beach. "When am I going to get to that? I'm not even close. I'm nothing, but I became so much more than I thought I'd be. But what about all those other dreams?"
Dreams accomplished so far include writing and recording a hugely successful album - the 1995 ska and New Wave hit "Tragic Kingdom," which has sold 15 million copies internationally.
Stefani and her bandmates - bassist Tony Kanal, guitarist Tom Dumont and drummer Adrian Young - also toured the world for 21/2 years following the release of of the album.
When Stefani, whose good looks and vibrant, athletic persona inspires legions of imitators at No Doubt concerts, returned home to Orange County after seeing the world, it took some getting used to.
"I really thought I was unaffected, but slowly and surely it just crept up on me that I was completely confused about who I was," she said. "Which Gwen am I? It was a confusing time period - I don't know if it came from the success ... or just the fact that it was my time in life to have a weird time and try to figure myself out."
Hence, the title of the new album is "Return to Saturn," which refers to the ringed planet's 29-year trek around the sun, a metaphor for how an adult is just beginning to gain self-knowledge during the first three decades of life.
Stefani questions the meaning of love, commitment, the yearning for a simple kind of life and even mortality on the record. Musically, "Saturn" is a lively planet with a terrain full of '80s-inspired taut rhythms high G-force hooks and plenty of synthesizer noodling.
But it took quite a while - an eternity in pop years - to obtain this exulted orbit.
No Doubt was formed in early 1987 as a ska band by Stefani, her brother Eric Stefani and singer John Spence. Kanal came aboard soon afterward.
It was a happy time for the band.
"In the early days, we did the band because it was the fun thing in our lives," Stefani said. "We went to school, worked and we got to have this band. It was never like we were making the kind of music that was ever going to be popular. We were making something obscure."
But it wasn't all good vibes and fun times. Spence, who sang co-lead vocals with Gwen, committed suicide soon after the band was formed. After the grieving, it left Gwen Stefani in an awkward situation as the band's lone front-person.
"I just didn't know how to act," Stefani said. "I'm in a dress - what am I doing up there? Where John would scream and run and do back flips ... it was kind of like: How do I act up here?"
Stefani eventually gained confidence, and No Doubt's live act began to attract regional interest. Interscope Records signed them up, and the band's debut in 1991 was not well-received in the year of Nirvana.
"Our first record came out during the height of grunge," Stefani said. "We were this happy, Orange County geek band - it just didn't fit in."
Stefani's fate - and No Doubt's - was sealed when two men altered their roles in the singer's life. Brother Eric left the band before "Tragic Kingdom" was released, and Stefani and Kanal ended a seven-year, intra-band romance.
"The biggest change happened after `Tragic Kingdom' was written," Stefani said. "I had a big part in writting those songs, and it was then that I blossomed. My brother had left the band. He was the main creative force, so the creative responsibility fell in my lap. When Tony and I split up - which was ... like being amputated from my other half, I kind of had a story to tell. So I started writing these songs, and I figured out that I could do this.
"Before, I was my brother's little puppet, and I would sing his words," Stefani said. "I really loved it, but I just didn't know that I could do it myself."
"Tragic Kingdom" was released in 1995, and a number of the ska and pop songs examined the relationship and breakup of Stefani and Kanal. "Just a Girl" and "Spiderwebs" appeared on MTV, but thanks to the aching, middle-of-the-road ballad "Don't Speak," the album became No.1 a year after it was release.
"It was crazy," Stefani said. "We never expected to get on the radio. Our local station said it was going to take an act of God to play us."
The band is now touring the United States through August. When Stefani can steal a few moments by herself, she likes to e-mail beau Gavin Rossdale of the alternative-rock band Bush, who lives England.
When No Doubt is on tour, the electronic communication has to take the place of interfacing.
"We're e-mail lovers," Stefani said.
Stefani's personal life has been an open book - or an open folder - thanks to her confessional lyrics from "Tragic Kingdom" and her high-profile romance with Rossdale.
"I'm used to it now," Stefani said. "It is a very strange life when you think about it, but I guess you get used to these things."