CNN.com (April 17th 2000)

No Doubt About It: The Band’s A Hit

For No Doubt, a captivating stage presence has been both a blessing and a curse for the Southern California pop-ska band.

It has boosted the group's popularity with sell-out concerts and a huge fan base. But rigorous touring also has kept the band so busy that nearly five years passed between its debut album, "Tragic Kingdom," and the follow, "Return of Saturn."

The reception of the first album turned out to be a pleasant surprise, says guitarist Tom Dumont.

"We felt really good about ("Tragic Kingdom") creatively, that we had accomplished something really great as a band, but we weren't expecting anything sales-wise," he says. "And then ... 'Just A Girl' got played on our local radio station at home. And all of a sudden, we're on tour and the song gets on MTV.

"A year later, our record was No. 1 and it was unbelievable."

'Saturn' rings up acclaim

The band's streak continued, too, with No Doubt's third single -- the heartfelt "Don't Speak."

"I was ... writing that song (with) tears streaming down my face," recalls vocalist Gwen Stefani. "To me it's a snapshot of (a) time period of my life, and ... that's the song that kind of took us around the world."

Now, the sophomore album shows signs of duplicating the success of its predecessor. "Return of Saturn," released earlier this year, bowed to critical acclaim and commercial success.

That success was more than just a matter of luck, for the songs required work, say band members. For example, No Doubt stayed in the studio perfecting "Ex-Girlfriend" until the performers were satisfied with the single.

"It was the last song written on the album, and we had already finished the album," says Stefani. "We just decided it wasn't good enough."

On the road again

Knowing the single lacked something, the band looked to rap and sampling to make it better.

"I had read about the way Dr. Dre makes records, and we took a (electronica performer) Tricky song and we kind of copped the beat off of it," says Dumont. "We kind of recreated it in the computer -- stole the groove, basically -- and started creating this track and the song to it."

"Suddenly the song had this attitude," says Stefani. "It was like, kind of, 'Oh! Where did the attitude come from?'"

Now, No Doubt is back on tour, promoting "Return of Saturn." The band, naturally, brings its high-energy work ethic to each performance, too.

"When someone with amazing stage presence sings something in a way that everyone just believes it, it just makes it so real and so emotional," Dumont says. "It's a natural gift and we're lucky that a couple of our members can do that kind of thing."