AOL Canada (April 27th 2009)
Not Just A Solo Girl: Gwen Stefani and No Doubt Stage Alt-Rock Reunion
Nearly two decades after Lollapalooza lit the fuse of the alt-rock revolution, 90s-era bands have returned to the road en masse. Some, like Nine Inch Nails, never left, while others, like Lolla’s once-and-future headliners Jane’s Addiction, just got back together last month.
But there’s one 90s throwback band that splits the difference: No Doubt. The alt-pop superstars haven’t played together in years, though their frontwoman, Gwen Stefani, became even more popular in the interim as a solo superstar.
“There was a gameplan,” explains Stefani. “I was gonna go on [a solo] tour, come home and get pregnant. Then I was going to write an album with No Doubt. But it wasn’t working while I was pregnant. All I was doing was eating. So I continued to eat and once I had a baby, it still wasn’t coming. I felt very homebound and I just couldn’t picture myself for the next year in a room trying to write music. I felt like I had to get out there and feel inspired.
“You can’t just push a button and write a song,” she says. “So we just decided to go on a tour.” Of course, touring with families in tow but without new material invites accusations of nostalgia-mining. After all, No Doubt formed way back in 1986, though the Anaheim-born band didn't blow up until 1995’s 16 million-selling Tragic Kingdomrode alternative’s second wave into the record books after “Don't Speak” clocked four months at number one. They landed another smash by switching their Jamaican influence from ska to dancehall on 2001’s Rock Steady. But aside from a 2003 cover of “It's My Life,” the band has been a musical memory while Stefani won over a new generation of fans with her electro and hip-hop influenced solo works.
“For us, it’s really as simple as being excited to play music and revisit what we’ve always been about as a band, which is playing live and enjoying that incredible gratification of rocking together onstage,” says guitarist Tom Dumont. “All that stuff about nostalgia, that’s just over-thinking.”
Perhaps, but drummer Adrian Young recognizes that Stefani’s solo career is what is keeping them relevant to the kids. “I think it makes a huge difference because there’s going to be so many young people who went to see Gwen’s shows who have never seen No Doubt, it’s going to make the concert feel different.”
Not taking any chances, the band is also making a cross-generational appeal by appearing on an episode of hot teen soap Gossip Girl next month, performing a cover of Adam Ant’s “Stand and Deliver” in a flashback that acts as a launching pad for the show’s new 80s-set spinoff.
“It was a really good exercise for us to go in the studio and record it,” Stefani says. “Sometimes when you're songwriting you can get a bit stuck. So to try on someone else’s song and go through the whole process of recording it can be a bit challenging because you’re competing with the perfection of the original.”
But she adds touring should provide an even better writing boost. Or at least recharge tanks which had run rather dry during their years apart and her maternity leave by helping them reconnect with each other and their fans.
“I just needed to change the atmosphere, get out of my house and not be in mom mode. To be onstage and see people singing those songs that we wrote, there's nothing more inspiring than that,” Stefani says. “The bigger hits are obviously exciting when you’re playing live because of the response of the audience. It’s not even about the songs anymore, but the mode the audience goes into. There’s nothing like that feeling of playing songs that people love.”
“I don't expect I'll write any songs on this tour,” she admits, “but on the other side of this tour I will be a different person. What we’re searching for is a new direction, new inspiration and new music.”