Gwen Stefani has shared new single ‘Swallow My Tears’, as well as telling NME about her new solo album ‘Bouquet‘ – her first in seven years – and the future of No Doubt.
When she was a teenager growing up in Orange County, California, Stefani and her brother Eric – a founding member of No Doubt who left in 1995 – got heavily into Madness, The Selecter and other British ska bands.
But for her new album, Stefani looked back even further, to childhood car journeys spent listening to classic hits by Eagles, Steely Dan and Chicago. New single ‘Swallow My Tears’ is a cathartic, guitar-led anthem designed ofor the open road.
Stefani explained that making ‘Bouquet’ was often a piecemeal process involving concentrated bursts of creativity. The singer and fashion designer has three sons with her former husband, Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale, whom she divorced in 2015.
“I don’t go to the studio every day and just self-indulge in like, ‘What do I have to say today?’ It’s like, hey, they’re at school, I got three hours so let’s see if I can get down there to write,'” she said.
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Stefani has shared a smattering of solo singles since 2020, including last year’s alt rock-influenced ‘True Babe’ and the country rock-tinged ‘Somebody Else’s‘.
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But she told NME that ‘Purple Irises’, a swooning duet with her husband Blake Shelton that became the album’s lead single in February, was the bulb from which ‘Bouquet’ bloomed.
“I was like, ‘Oh, I get it now,'” she told NME, immediately after hosting an online listening party for the record. “I can’t rely on anyone else – it has to be my honest truth and my musical direction. And once I got that confidence from that song, it all started to happen pretty fast.”
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While making the album, Stefani found time to reunite with No Doubt, briefly, for a pair of triumphant sets at Coachella 2024. Check out our full interview with the rock icon below, where she told us about the prospect of another festival comeback, the enduring influence of her debut solo single ‘What You Waiting For?’ (an electropop stomper driven by her ticking biological clock), and the nostalgic melodies that inspired ‘Bouquet’.
NME: Hi Gwen! You’ve said ‘Bouquet’ is inspired by a lot of ’70s yacht rock. Is this the music you were listening to before you got into ska as a teenager?
Gwen Stefani: “My god yeah, I’m talking about the 10-year-old me. I always remember sitting in the back of my mom’s car and all of the songs playing [on the radio] were just so good. I mean, it was just the popular music of the time, which was classic rock, but I call it ‘yacht rock’ because if you put on a yacht rock playlist, it’s those songs: Hall & Oates, Steely Dan, the Eagles.
“I think the older you get, the more nostalgic you get. I feel like I’ve played out all the ’80s stuff – like, I can’t even listen to it anymore so much. I want to write music that feels like this [yacht rock] music because there’s more chords in it, there’s more melody, and I really feel like I ended up getting there with this album.
“In No Doubt, we didn’t have [songwriting] rules – we were just making it up. But when you’re writing with pop writers, they’re so ahead of me with, like, ‘Now we’re gonna A to the B to the…’ And I’m like, ‘What are you guys talking about? Why can’t it be this word? Like, it doesn’t have to rhyme exactly.’ It’s a good combination because you have, like, their professionalism with my ‘don’t know anything’ [approach] and my story. And then working with Scott Hendricks, who produced it in this really organic way, the record just came to life.”
British singer Jade Thirlwall of Little Mix recently cited your debut solo single, 2004’s ‘What You Waiting For?’, as a huge influence on her own solo debut, ‘Angel Of My Dreams’. Did you know at the time that you were making such a bold statement?
“Well, that was the first song that I wrote during that solo period. I can remember walking through some airport with my mom and she was like, ‘What are you doing? Like, you need to have a baby’. And I was like, ‘What? I have to make a solo record!’ Like, I didn’t realise even how old I was because I was just in it [with my music].
“It was scary, because I had never worked with any other songwriters – I had never worked outside of my band. I felt guilty for doing that because I knew they were going to be, like, mad at me, even though we had all agreed to take this hiatus because we needed to. So when I went in the studio with [producer and 4 Non Blondes singer] Linda Perry, I was really insecure. I was like, ‘I don’t know if I can write any songs’. She was like, ‘What are you waiting for, Gwen?’ And I literally went behind the mic and the song just came out.
“When we were deciding on the first single, Jimmy [Iovine, Interscope co-founder] and the rest of the label did not want that [song]. I remember being very clear. Like, ‘I don’t care if nobody listens to it; this is the first single because it tells the whole story.’ It wasn’t even the kind of dance song I wanted to write, but lyrically it was the perfect way to introduce what I wanted to say. But I feel like it’s more popular now than when it came out. Thank God for TikTok!”
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After Coachella, is the door ajar for No Doubt? Or was it just a one-off thing while you were working on this album?
“The No Doubt thing was so crazy. It’s not like we made a decision to not do anything, or not hang out or talk. Everybody’s lives just happened. You know, the time we stopped [in 2015] was when I was going through my horrible family breakup – I don’t like to say the word ‘divorce’, because it’s just such a disgusting word. But my life just blew up, it really did.
“A lot of people are like, ‘Why did it take so long [for No Doubt to reform]?’ But when you have a family, eight years goes by like that. To heal from what happened, I mean it’s still happening, I’m still trying to get through it.
“We tried for years to do something like Coachella, and it just wasn’t coming together. But then all of a sudden it just happened really fast. It was like, ‘Oh my god, we worked it out, we’re gonna do it!’ And I walked into rehearsals on the first day and it was like, ‘Hey, what’s up?’ Because we hadn’t even spoken at that point!”
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Did you snap back into No Doubt mode pretty quickly?
“It was like riding a bike – rehearsals were so fun. Just getting up there on the first weekend [of Coachella], my legs felt like jelly because of all the energy from the crowd. It felt like everything we’d ever done was being rewarded in that moment with love. Like, I could cry now talking about it.
“When that weekend was over, I was like, ‘I don’t want to do this again next weekend, because I don’t know how I can compete with that.’ But getting up there on the second weekend, it was a whole different kind of energy. The audience felt even more intense and I felt more confident. It was like ‘let’s just be in the moment’ and it was incredible.
“I’m sure we’re gonna do something again at some point. It just has to be the right thing that makes sense [with] all of our schedules. It takes so much work to do a No Doubt thing – the rehearsals, everything. It’s really hard for me because – I know I keep saying it – but I have three kids. I don’t take that lightly; I don’t want to mess that up.”
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No Doubt last played Glastonbury in 2002. Could a return visit be the right thing?
“It was 2002? That would have been ‘Rock Steady’ [era] – that was an amazing time, we were on fire! But yeah, Glastonbury would be amazing to do with No Doubt. I know people don’t sit around waiting for anything from me, but in my life there’s not even one minute to, like, drink a coffee – I’m so unbelievably busy all the time.
“But I’m sure if Glastonbury wanted us, they would email! I mean, we loved getting together to do a festival and I would definitely do it again with them. Meanwhile, I’m just super-excited about this new music and the fact I’ve landed on this sound. I feel like I’ve created this bouquet of everything I’ve been going through for the last, I guess, eight years.”
‘Swallow My Tears’ by Gwen Stefani is out now. The album ‘Bouquet’ follows on November 15 via Interscope