The Record (Nov. 13th 2004)
Stefani’s clock ticking loudly
Few pop hit makers are hotter these days than Linda Perry, songwriter and producer to the stars, or Pharrell Williams, of N.E.R.D. and the Neptunes. A musician -- especially one making a debut of sorts -- would have to be nuts, or stupid, to turn down contributions either might offer.
Yet as Gwen Stefani put together her first album apart from No Doubt, the alternative-rock band she has fronted for 17 years, she had a vision of the record she'd long wanted to make, and wasn't about to budge. Not even for the small army of pop and hip-hop luminaries she'd assembled from a fantasy list of collaborators.
Jittery as she was about venturing out of the cosy cocoon of her band, with whom she's written songs, recorded, toured and lived for half of her life, she was determined that if what she heard from her high-profile new musical partners didn't match the sound in her head -- '80s dance music with a contemporary spin -- it was history.
With great anticipation, the woman her manager refers to as "the chief executive of Gwen'' got together with Williams, a two-time Grammy-winning musician and producer. But the first songs they came up with "didn't have that sparkle,'' she says. "It was kind of a disappointment.''
Perry, who has written hits for and with Pink, Courtney Love and Christina Aguilera, didn't even make Stefani's list of people she yearned to work with on Love.Angel.Music.Baby, due Nov. 23.
On paper, Stefani's directness can sound like the height of hubris, but face to face it's clear that ego is the last thing driving the new phase of her career, which in the past two years has seen her launch her L.A.M.B. fashion line, formalizing her status as a font of street-smart couture; embark on her solo career; and land her first big-screen role, as Jean Harlow in Martin Scorsese's forthcoming film about Howard Hughes, The Aviator.
If that weren't enough, she and No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal, guitarist Tom Dumont and drummer Adrian Young assembled a greatest-hits album, another of rarities, then knocked out a whirlwind tour behind the hits collection.
She also married longtime boyfriend Gavin Rossdale, singer for the British band Bush. Oh, and she just turned 35, a critical number for any woman who, like Stefani, wants children.
"I just kept feeling like the time clock was really loud in my ears,'' says the platinum blond singer-songwriter, who has evolved from reluctant rock singer to trend-setting pop-culture beacon.
In fact, the sound of a ticking clock opens What U Waiting 4, the new album's first single.
Once again, Stefani channelled her feelings into music, as she has done from No Doubt's breakthrough 1996 hit Don't Speak, inspired by her breakup with then-boyfriend Kanal, to the confessional 2000 pop ballad Simple Kind of Life, another top 40 single.
"I had this feeling that, shoot, I've been doing No Doubt for half my life . . . I need to try something different for a second. I felt like I really want to do a film, and I really want to do a dance record, and I really want to have a baby before I die . . . because I'm going to run out of time.
''That was the motivation,'' she says, the clarifying filter. ''Time.''
The afternoon is waning after a photo shoot in West Los Angeles that took up much of the day. She's traded the exotic ensembles for a humble zippered grey sweatshirt, a pair of well-lived-in blue jeans and canvas deck shoes. Her hair, swept up for photos into a sort of Buck Rogers sci-fi-of-the-'30s do, has been hastily combed out and is gathered loosely at the nape of her neck, tied off in a green bandanna that perfectly matches her shoes.
Gwen Stefani, Fashion Model gets to punch out; Gwen Stefani, Fashion Maven never does.
''She's as glamorous as Madonna ever was, for sure,'' says Rose Apodaca Jones, West Coast bureau chief for Women's Wear Daily.