E! Online (Feb. 26th 1997)

Band on the Run

No Doubt caps a fast, frantic year with a night at the Grammys

A cluster of balloons drifts around the hotel room overlooking Hollywood. It's guitarist Tom Dumont's birthday, and No Doubt's road manager is worried about how fans discovered where the white-hot band is staying.

As he calls the front desk to tighten security, bassist Tony Kanal strolls in, gives Dumont a big bear hug and wishes him a happy birthday. Then Gwen Stefani, No Doubt's singer and focal point, enters, her platinum locks rolled up in curlers.

The energy level seems to move up a notch as Stefani, the music industry's girl of the moment, grabs a seat and begins wolfing down a monstrous salad.

In a few hours, No Doubt will again take the stage--something they've been doing virtually nonstop since August of 1995--and their high-speed ride from garage band to Grammy stage will accelerate.

"It so weird," Stefani says of the group's rapid rise, "because I used to watch the Grammys with my parents and make fun of them. Now, we get to play at one. Isn't that cool?"

"Playing that show is awesome," adds Kanal. "We can't lose. No matter what, we've got that."

No Doubt's major-label debut, Tragic Kingdom, a bouncy blend of pop, punk and ska, has sold nearly 6 million copies since it was released in October '95.

The disc, which spent much of the past three months atop the Billboard charts, earned the band Grammy nominations for Best New Artist (a bit ironic, considering they've been plugging away for 10 years) and Best Rock Album.

Driving that success are Kingdom's four hit singles--"Excuse Me Mr.," "Spiderwebs," "Don't Speak" and "Just a Girl"--which have garnered heavy-rotation on MTV and turned Stefani, with her trademark crop-top and parachute-trousers, into a fashion trendsetter and rock idol.

"We're just going to enjoy the moment while it's here," Stefani says, "because we know it will be gone, and we could be like Milli Vanilli or Vanilla Ice. It happens whenever you get that big. We've seen it happen for 10 years. We were the band in the garage who made fun of everybody. That was like our job, because we didn't have success."

That success is all the more sweet in light of the Anaheim, California-based band's struggles to produce Tragic Kingdom. Laboring in the shadow of Disneyland, they endured what Stefani calls a "traumatic" six-month recording period, with band members doing sessions around their college schedules and day jobs.

Once the songs were finished, No Doubt went into limbo while their label, Interscope, tried to decide whether or not to release the album. The only thing that kept the band together was their live shows, which had earned them a rabid local following.

"We always had the shows to look forward to," says Kanal. "I can remember sitting in class, and all I could think about were the shows. All this education was passing right over me, and I was just thinking about the show and how the flyer would look."

With Tragic Kingdom still on hold, No Doubt went into the studio and put down Beacon Street Collection, a disc they released on their own. Around this time, Gwen's brother Eric quit as keyboard player to pursue a career as a cartoonist, and a relationship between Gwen and Kanal came to an end.

Just as it seemed the band was about to do the same, Interscope released Tragic Kingdom, and almost immediately No Doubt began its meteoric trip to the top.

"The major obstacle was just to get the record out, and whatever else came along was just icing on the cake," says Kanal. "Obviously, there's been a lot of icing."

There's also been a lot of touring--so much in fact, at one point Stefani had to take a literal "No Speak" break because of the toll on her voice. "I went and saw a therapist and did vocal lessons and all that, but it would've happened to any person doing what we were doing," she says. "Tony had blisters all over his hands from playing, and my voice had blisters because it was used too much."

Now, Stefani is back in fine voice again, but that doesn't mean their schedule has slowed. In fact, when they're not onstage, No Doubt is faced with almost hourly obligations these days.

"After a certain point, you don't really control these things," says Kanal. "They're just going on around you. We play our shows, we go on tour; soon we'll be writing more music, and all this stuff just goes on around you. You hear the figures, and you see these numbers on paper and go, 'Wow, is that for real?!' It's hard to grasp when they tell you how much you're selling and the reality of the situation."

As the band prepares for its big Grammy appearance, Stefani can marvel at all the changes that have occurred in the past year and a half.

"For all those years, we had a really cool following, but other bands and the industry ignored us and treated us like we were dorks," she says. "We would never be as cool as a punk band, because we had a girl singer. Now, everybody is really nice to us, we have tons of friends and we're really popular."

The only thing they have to worry about now is what comes next--and how to avoid "the kiss of death" that seems to hang over Best New Artist nominees the year after their run in the spotlight.

"Yeah, I heard that," agrees Stefani. "But I was thinking that, because we have a 10-year history, maybe it won't happen. Even if it does, we've had a great ride."

No doubts about that.