MTV News (June 15th 1999)
No Doubt Singer Calls New LP Band’s Crowning Achievement
While No Doubt frontwoman Gwen Stefani said she wants to let her band's next album be a "big surprise," she isn't hesitating to call the forthcoming effort the ska-pop quartet's best LP to date.
"The 13 years we spent being in this band is going to be reflected on this one," Stefani said Tuesday of the record, which has been four years in the planning.
The platinum-haired singer, who wore a blue tank top and dark slacks, was backstage at the House of Blues in West Hollywood, where she attended a benefit concert for the charity coalition Jubilee 2000. No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal hung out with friends nearby in the club's bar-restaurant area known as the Foundation Room.
Stefani said the band has set a Nov. 16 release date for its long-awaited fourth album -- the follow-up to its smash 1995 breakthrough LP, Tragic Kingdom. The foursome -- Stefani, Kanal, guitarist Tom Dumont and drummer Adrian Young -- will head into a Los Angeles studio Wednesday (June 16) to begin mixing the album with Jack Joseph Puig.
"We're moving into the next phase," Stefani said, adding that she has one song she wants to rewrite. While Stefani said she has some ideas for an album title, she declined to mention the possibilities. Some No Doubt fans have been frustrated at waiting four years for the band to drop another album. But some are confident their patience will be rewarded.
"Tragic Kingdom was such a full, amazing album that it held us for a while," Danielle Wymann, 21, of Houston, wrote in an e-mail. "Now it is kind of like, 'Hurry up already.' But I know they're going to hit us with something awesome, especially if 'New' dropped any clues."
No Doubt, who recently contributed the song "New" to the "Go" movie soundtrack, began recording their new album in February with Alanis Morissette producer Glen Ballard. They had more than 30 songs in tow, which will allow for plenty of B-sides, Dumont said in a recent posting on the band's official website.
"It's definitely different from Tragic Kingdom," the guitarist said about the forthcoming CD earlier this year. "We feel like we're writing the best songs we've ever written." The group has had time to experiment with a range of new instruments and sounds, having been blessed with a much bigger recording budget, Dumont said.
"It's really different because we have the luxury of not having to rush it," the 30-year-old axeman said. "Before we got in the studio, we were limited by budget [and] could only stay in for a week. This time, it's not like we belabor the songs forever and ever, but we have the luxury not to force it out so quick. We can experiment in the studio."
Formed in 1987, No Doubt toured and released two albums -- their 1992 self-titled debut and 1994's The Beacon Street Collection -- before busting out with Tragic Kingdom. The latter collection was the source of such hits as "Just a Girl" and "Don't Speak".