Blonde & Bitchin’

She’s married a rock star, is in one of the collest bands ever, has her own clothing line, released a solo album and been in a movie with Leo. Anything Gwen can’t do? By Jane Bussman.

Gwen Stefani arrives at the shoot dressed as the second half of her trademark contradiction: MGM starlet meets punk. She’s wearing her own label, Lamb – va-va voom sweater, jeans that look sewn on – with a bare face and wet hair. It’s hard to square this with the photographs that are reguarly splashed across the fashion press: she always looks too perfect to be real.

Stefani does a good line in perfection, which is why this is her moment. At 35, she has graduated from much fancied face of No Doubt to star of the front rows of fashion week. She’s got a solo album and has her first movie out – playing Jean Harlow in The Aviator. “I feel pretty lucky to be me,” she says.

In the US, where the average pop icon is a 20-year-old Christian slapper cooing about innocence while shoving a snake down her Wonderbra, Stefani’s kooky mix of tomboy cute and old-fashioned glamour, naughty kid and peroxide vamp, gives her a status no A-lister can match. Even in dirty-old-man trousers, cap and rasta string vest, she looks photogenic where others look like a senile burglar. Thirtysomethings admire her. Teenage skate kids want to be her. The world of high style has repeatedly given her its seal of approval. In the icon stakes, she can do no wrong. Not bad for a self-proclaimed geek from Anaheim, California.

Naturally, she doesn’t think of herself as an icon. Surrounded by her posse, she’s as excitable as a small girl at a slumber party. Who would guess that she and her band have been together for 17 years and sold 25 million albums?

Compared with other pop figures, STefani’s gift is innocence. Not for her shotgun marriages (Britney), the reality-television series (Jessica), the desperate search for saleable identity (Posh) or the celebrity victimhood (J.Lo). She plays a role of pin-up with skill: never photographed without the ivory foundation, scarlet lips and winged eyeliner, never snapped falling out of a club, wasted at 4am. Courtney Love has compared her, in celebrity terms, to a high school cheerleader, with Love as the delinquent student in the smoking shed. “My thing is looking groomed,” says Stefani, with a Marilynesque coo. “I want to look like I walked out of a f%#*ing Jean Harlow movie.” So does Love, but Stefani is actually good at it.

Love’s right about one thing: in rock’n'roll terms, Stefani is a goodie-goodie. She lived at home with her Irish-Italian, Catholic parents until she was 30. (“While I was looking for my mansion,” she protests.) “They were strict, but in a very loving way.” She slept with posters of Marilyn on the wall. “I was too shy to go on dates,” she says. “The only line I ever used was ‘I have a boyfriend’. I loved that excuse.” She still maintains she’s only ever had two boyfriends, her bandmate Tony Kanal and her husband, Gavin Rossdale, the lead singer of Bush, with whom she lives in London for part of the year. “I have no experience to give love advice.”

Stefani joined her brother’s band as a 17-year-old in pencil skirts, but they didn’t have a hit until she was 26. “I wrote a few songs. Nobody was ever going to hear them,” she says. But they did. In 1996, “Don’t Speak”, went to No. 1 around the world. That success doesn’t seem to have spoilt her. Every celebrity says this – remember J.Lo’s “Jenny From The Block”? – but with Stefani, you believe that fame is a by-product of her love of music and fashion, not the other way round.

Not that she hasn’t cashed in on her image. Her fashion label, Lamb, has grown “from a pile of clothes on the kitchen table” to a brand everyone digs. In an age of candy-coloured Vuitton, Stefani’s timing has been perfect, with cashmere argyle vests and cutesy lamb charm toggles. She knows how fashion works. When London was doing grunge, she was doing killer lips. When Britney was doing trailer trash, she was into Vivienne Westwood gowns. “Gwen’s the iconic girl of the moment,” says Gela Nash, co-founder of the LA label Juicy Couture. “Definitely the It Girl when it comes to anything to do with fashion and rock.”

Stefani’s rock kudos – hard won – is as sold as her fashion status. Her solo album boasts a roster of big-name collaborators, including Pharrell Williams, Jay-Z and OutKast’s Andre 3000. This is partly down to her ear for a tune, but they also know she does things differently. In the Alice in Wonderland-inspired video for “What You Waiting For?”, she careers into an institute treating writer’s block in high heels and a bomber jacket, and is chased round a maze in skirtless Marie Antoinette outfits. “Nothing’s too cheesy, too gaudy, too much,” she says.

In 2002, Stefani married to Rossdale, her boyfriend of five years. They made up for the long-distance dating with two weddings (“John Galliano made me a couture Christian Dior dress – it had to be worn twice”), and the California girl had a British hen night, with a brave “in tears in my front yard from drinking too much. Next morning, at the wedding shower, everybody was in sunglasses.” She was said to be “devastated” at the news that Rossdale has a love child. Who knows how she really feels? What’s certain is their marriage goes beyond the famosexual leanings of most celebrity couples. Strolls on Primrose Hill and “family time” are the cool, modern take on celebrity coupling.

However even cool, modern celebs get the blues. “I got married, went on tour and didn’t see Gavin.” she says. “It was brutal. I kept hearing this stuff in my ears: ‘I want a baby, I want to do a film, I’m gonna die’ You realise you’ve done the same thing half your life.”

For now, she’s part-time Brit and liking it. “If it wasn’t for London, there wouldn’t have been No Doubt,” she says. “It’s the whole inspiration.” And although the tabloids hae trailed her in hope of a glossy, megawatt picture, she knows how to handle them: apply lipstick and keep smiling. “I know all the time that I’ll walk out the door and they’ll be there. But you can’t complain about it. That would be stupid.” And stupid she ain’t. She knows how to play the game. She knows how to act the good girl while dressing the rebel. “A rebel? Really?” she beams, then rolls her eyes. “Oh, look at me, that makes me happy.”

Did Gavin’s love child come between them?

Gwen’s marriage to Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale hit a rocky patch when it was revealed that he is the father of 16-year-old model Daisy Lowe. As a teenager, Gavin ran with a crowd that included Sadie Frost, Jude Law, Kate Moss and Daisy’s mum Peral Lowe. While Pearl always claimed Daisy was fathered by a then-boyfriend, a DNA test last year revealed the truth. Gwen has refused to comment, but she’s quick to hose down people who dissect her relationship. “I put my music out there to be judged – either shot down or embraced. But my marriage is my marriage and for anyone to have an opinion about it, they can f%#* off. It has nothing to do with anyone but me and him.”

Ska-punk siren Gwen Stefani is about to go stellar with a debut solo album and a plum role in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator. But GQ managed to tie her down… By Charlie Porter. Photographs by Marc Hom.

Gwen Stefani is sitting in a Mercedes and she’s fizzing, fast words, few pauses. “The record is ridiculous. It is RI-DI-CU-LOUS.” Ridiculous, in her native Orange County, California speak, appears to be a very good thing. We’re driving away from the photoshoot at an abandoned riverside building in deepest south London, where the basement rooms feel like dungeons and the sparse furniture includes what seems to be a miniature bondage chair, rope knotted tight across its frame. Would she sit on it for GQ? Stefani strides up and straddles it, happy to oblige.

Now on the back seat, the 35-year-old is talking about her solo album, a side-project from her on-sabbatical band No Doubt, as well as her film debut in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator. The tape recorder began on the seat between us, but she’s grabbed it and holds it close to her mouth. She’s long and limby, not the Hollywood shorty you’d expect, and she turns truly Amazonian in the space-age heels she wears with the thousand-pound bits of nothing. When we talk, out it pours, salty mouthed stuff in a sweet tone.

We can try and dress it up all we want, but we’ve spent the day in Deptford. The locality is grim, but for a few hours it becomes Gwenworld, a satellite town of LA. Earlier in the week, one of Stefani’s people had told me, her tone call-centre flat, that they were going to “bang this story gangsta” – apparently a good thing. This became a GQ stock phrase, until someone discovered the slang originated from the particularly unsavoury sexual practices of West Coast hoodlums.

During the shoot Stefani bounces around the building: vest and combats when she arrives; miniskirt, bustier, barely anything when she’s been trussed up. She mucks in readily, a trait that seems to be left over from her early no-money, no-fame days in No Doubt. Following their first live performance in 1987 – second on stage on a bill of 14 ska-punk acts – they cut their teeth as a back-of-the-van band. In fact, more than half of their 17-year history has been spent playing to increasingly loyal locals in their hometown of Anaheim, California. Stefani was 26 when the single “Don’t Speak” broke through in 1996 and she suddenly found fame; an instant MTV image with her peroxide cover-girl hair and bright red lips. Even with the massive success of “Don’t Speak”, she had to maintain a get-on-with-it attitude. That song, and the rest of Tragic Kingdom, the album from which it came, was about the break-up of her seven-year relationship with No Doubt band-mate Tony Kanal. Which meant performing songs each night about the man standing on stage right next to her. Not how you’d want your public-eye career to begin.

Now she’s used to living in the celebrity realm, there’s this balance – hard worker and star. The latter sees her living a transatlantic life between her homes in Los Angeles and Primrose Hill in north London, which she shares with her husband of two years Gavin Rossdale, of British band Bush. Being a star also means she can snap; eight hours into the shoot, after she straddles a chicken coup in a thigh-slashed dress and the evening rain starts to fall. She’s polite but firm: that’s it, shutdown, let’s get in the car. And she’s still smiling.

After the drive, and after our drink, Stefani is having late-late dinner with Rossdale, and is ready in a bust-enhancing Vivienne Westwood construction, the tomboy thing of her early-career image now curving out to a more romantic feminity. But don’t think she’s demure – her “dudes” and “woahs” are all said wide-eyed, Golden State-style. Her new album is called Love Angel Music Baby (the initials spell out Lamb, the name of her clothing line) and she says it’s “a silly dance record”, something she’s made while No Doubt relax after the success of last year’s cover version of Talk Talk’s “It’s My Life”, which recently won best pop video and best band video at the MTV Video Music Awards. Yet for the silly record, her co-writers and producers are among the most important musicians in America today: Andre 3000, Pharrell Williams and Dr Dre. The motive: to create a dud-free album, full of what Stefani calls “ABC songs” – easy-to-understand dance hits that are immediate, addictive, crazy. The result is one of the most ultra-hyped and ultra-anticipated.

It’s pure coincidence that The Aviator is released at the same time, ending her years of searching for a suitable film role. Before she was cast in The Aviator, she went through relentless auditioning. “Something I really tried out for was Fight Club “When I got the script I thought, ‘I can’t do that, it’s too nasty.’ But when you meet the director David Fincher, he makes you think it’s the most incredible women’s role ever. And then you’re suddenly like, ‘Ohmygod, I fucking want this part.’”

She didn’t get the part – it went to Helena Bonham Carter. For all subsequent attempts, the script hasn’t been right, she hasn’t been right, or her attention and schedule has been focused on music. But in January 2003 Martin Scorsese spotted a bus stop poster for US magazine Teen Vogue with Stefani on the cover. Balls were set rolling for her to try out for the part of Jean Harlow in The Aviator, Scorsese’s biopic of Howard Hughes. “They sent me the script and I was 15 minutes looking for the part.” She acts out flicking pages backward and forward. “I called and said, ‘I don’t see Jean Harlow in here.’ It was on one page.”

Actually, it was one line. Undeterred, she went to try out for Scorsese, where she was back down the ladder of fame. “It was so humiliating because you get used to being a star, and there are all these other girls at the same hotel. They are trying out for other parts, and they all know who you are. It’s really awkward.” But Stefani persevered and got the role, which involves attending a premiere on the arm of Hughes, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. “It was really familiar, because my scene is walking on the red carpet,” she says. There was another reason why the fact-based role wasn’t too tricky to perfect – Stefani’s brief part of the script was taken from real-life film of Harlow. “Let’s face it, dude, I had footage of her actually saying it.”

In the movies, there are hundreds of people who can influence the outcome of the final cut. With the music, Stefani is fully in control, and when we meet she is still pushing herself to the limit. Even though she’s already got more than enough tracks, she’s hot from the plane after a last-minute recording session with Pharrell in New York, where they wrote and recorded three songs from scratch, (“I said, ‘Dude, why the fuck isn’t Pharrell on the record? He’s going to be so bummed when it comes out and he’s not in it’”) and has only just got her head around the Dre track (the revelation came to her on a treadmill). She still sounds battered from going head-to-head with Andre 3000. “It’s so hard to work with another artist that you’re a fan of when you don’t even know them,” she says. You have to walk in cold, and he’s coming up with all this shit, and my ego was all bruised up, rolled up in the corner.” She blows a raspberry to show just how bruised up she was. And just to make it clear, the shit Andre was coming up with was good shit, not bad shit.

American pop in the 21st century is full of guest appearances, so Stefani’s hook-ups are no great surprise. But the calibre and power of her collaborations belie her status – hot as a member of a four-piece band; potentially unbeatable as a solo artist. Some are repeat performances – Pharrell and his Neptunes partner Chad Hugo co-wrote No Doubt’s 2002 single “Hella Good”, while Stefani appeared with Eve on the Dr Dre-produced track “Let Me Blow Ya Mind” in 2001. Meanwhile, some are fresh meetings: the first single from the album, “What You Waiting For”, is a collaboration with Linda Perry, formerly of Nineties band 4 Non Blondes, more recently the woman behind the credible rise of Christina Aguilera and Pink.

According to her definition, it’s not a solo album. “If I was doing a solo record it would a be, this-is-the-real-me, and I’d be on the guitar playing my heart out to everybody.” No disrespect to Stefani, but the fewer this-is-the-real-me records inflicted on the world, the better. So why does she see it as silly? “When we were growing up, Tony and I were into Prince, Club Nouveau, Wendy and Lisa, the Family, the Time, and there was this one song by Debbie Deb called ‘Lookout Weekend’ that was a huge part of my life,” she remembers “So I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be good to do a stupid Eighties dance record like that?’ The idea just snowballed.”

I try to make her see the discrepancy – that she calls these records a huge part of her life, then describes the genre as stupid – but the point doesn’t stick. Maybe that is the point – their beauty is in their stupidity. “I’m a singles girl, MTV, I don’t even listen to albums,” she admits. “My husband is the opposite, the guy never listened to the radio in his life. And I’ll be like, ‘Can I please put on Radio 1 for, like, five minutes, and listen to what crap is on there?’” However much pop music is enjoyed and venerated after its release, it is because it is seen as throwaway at its inception that it is without hubris. It’s a continuation of humility that has run through her whole weird career.

The story of No Doubt is a tragi-comedy. “We never made records, because we couldn’t afford to make records,” she says. We’re now sitting in Home House, the London club where she and Rossdale held the UK leg of their wedding ceremony in September 2002. A fortnight later, Stefani wore her Galliano gown again for a reception at the LA home of her record label boss, Jimmy lovine. Now, she’s reminiscing about more spendthrift times. “We couldn’t afford to make a demo. We used to rent the mic at two bucks an hour, then get to Taco Bell afterwards to make some cents. When we got signed to Interscope in 1991, we had to learn how to make records. The first record we made was shit because we didn’t know how. I thought you jumped around like you did on stage.” This first album, No Doubt, provoked little interest when it was released in 1992 – jumping around on stage was still clearly their forte.

Two of the founding members are no longer part of No Doubt. Singer John Spence committed suicide in December 1987, seemingly because of depression, after which the band called it quits, then quickly reformed. Gwen’s brother Eric left in 1994 to become an animator on The Simpsons. Over those years, the four-piece which now makes up No Doubt formed solid bonds as they became a cult in the local community. “Even when I was 17 I would go into Tower Records in Anaheim and people would go, ‘Look who’s over there.’ But it started to get crazy. I’d be going to college, and the day before we’d played there, and they’d banned us because so many people showed up, and we weren’t even on the radio. I remember in class the next day, people going, ‘Can I have your autograph?’ I’d be all, um, ‘I’m trying to learn.’ ”

This knowing amateurism has its benefits. We’re talking about how the skittish, stuttering rhythm of the Andre 3000 track on her album, ‘Bubble Pop Electric”, resembles the goofy ska sound of nascent No Doubt. She thinks it’s true of a track she did with Pharrell – “You started It”. “The chord changes are really weird,” she says. “And with No Doubt we used to always write them like that, not on purpose, jut because we didn’t know what we were doing. Those kind of songs are so powerful because the changes are so weird, but once you get used to them, they’re addictive.”

Indeed, although her band was often on the same bill as punk bands, her home life was more than a bit nerdy. “My parents were strict,” he says. “I’m the girl who when I went to Tony’s prom, I had to be home by midnight. If I was walking to college, they’d drive by and say, ‘You’re not going to school like that.’ ”

Three years before Tragic Kingdom, the first record to get them serious attention, and cushioned by obscurity in the world outside Anaheim, Stefani wrote a raw song about her break-up from Kanal. “Don’t Speak” wasn’t the first single off the album – it was preceded by Just A Girl” – but it was the track that blew the band way beyond their previous level. The aIbum eventually sold more than 15 million copies worldwide, introducing the band to the masses at a painful time for them, but a juicy time for the public. “A lot of things happened to us as friends and as a band, like writing an album about your boyfriend you never thought anyone would hear,” she says. “Suddenly he’s being beat up by everybody, them saying to him, ‘You blew it, dude.’ And in interviews all four of us would sit there, and they’d ask, ‘So tell me, why did you break up with him?’ for freaking years. And me, I was like, ‘Woooh, I can’t believe I got this new life, and all this confidence, and all this change.’”

Does she regret the break-up now? “No, nooooo way.” Her second “no” is very long. “I don’t regret Tony breaking up with me. That was what made me who I am, that gave me the power to have passion and drive.”

The band seem to have survived because of their hard-fought past. Indeed, their history meant that although the subsequent two-and-a-half-year tour was the first time most fans had seen them live, the band were no beginners, adding to the buzz. “We’d been playing nine years, so we were pretty good at it,” she remembers. “We’d go on stage, look at the audience and think, ‘You’re not going to fucking stand there and look at me, and not get off right now.’ So when we went on stage, it was like, ‘Fuck you, you’re going to fucking like this.’ We would kill it every time, and people liked it, because they like to be beat up a little bit.”

Post-Tragic Kingdom and the ensuing years on the road, Stefani went back to California, finally moved out of her parents’ house and bought her own place in LA. There followed another album in 2000, Return Of Saturn, but it was 2oo1’s Rock Steady that consolidated their position worldwide with the hits “Hey Baby” and “Hella Good”. Follow this with last year’s greatest hits album The Singles 1992-2003, with that Talk Talk cover, and you’ve got a pretty satisfying, if loopy, career so far. Which brings us to the solo album. Oh, and to films.

She wants to do more movies, but it’s hard to see how it’ll fit into her work pile-up. Any major album like her solo project needs a year set aside for promotion. Then there’s No Doubt, a band ruled by egalitarian meetings. Soon they will get together again to talk about their next step. Then there’s her marriage: she says she plans to have babies. Then there’s that women’s clothing line, but since this is a men’s magazine, I’ll spare you the details.

“We’re so lucky the way it’s unfolded,” she says. “Although, fuck, I wish I had a couple more years to do things, because it’s starting to get crazy now.” But this seems to be the pattern of her life: no breaks, just keep going. “We’ve been eating our cake for ages,” she says, “going, ‘Fuck, I can’t believe we’re still eating.’”

Love Angel Music Baby is released on 22 November. The Aviator is released on 26 December.

What a Year! The best (and worst) of 2004

Introducing Gwen Stefani as our chick of the year. By Parker Ray.

It’s hard to believe that this is Gwen Stefani’s first gay press interview – especially considering how much we queer boys love our stylish, ballsy, independent, hard-working, trendsetting, pop star blondes (real or dyed). So much so they can all be addressed by their first names: Madonna, Debbie, Britney, Christina, Kylie.

But there is a difference between the ladies above and Gwen. She nails it when she tells Instinct, “I don’t feel like I’m very controversial, I don’t want to upset people. I just want to make them feel good.”

That pretty much sums up why Gwen Stefani is our Chick Of The Year. Not only would we switch for her in a heartbeat – just name the time, place and what kind of wine we should bring – but she embodies the type of female that gay men should be adoring. She doesn’t stir up controversy because, really, what does that accomplish other than killing trees to print copies of Us Weekly and Star?

No, instead Gwen inspires – and she doesn’t need to get hitched in Vegas while drunk or expose herself ina coffee table book to get attention. She just works her butt off. And she can’t get enough of creative people or the creative process, and vice versa. Just look at her list of collaborators: The Neptunes, Moby, Andre 3000, Linda Perry, Eve, New Order – among others.

By having Gwen as the first chick to appear solo on our cover, Instinct is officially proclaiming her the queen of the next wave of gay icons. She has all the ingredients we love without any of that lame tabloid baggage. And, even though she swears a lot (which we totally dig), in the end she’s what we all wish we could be: Classy, successful and respected.

INSTINCT: Before we get started, I just want to say happy belated birthday. Did you get to do anything fun?
GWEN STEFANI: Thank you! I did. My husband had a little barbecue party for me. I hadn’t seen anyone because I was in London or wherever I was. [Chuckles] So they all came over and we ate lots of food and caught up with each other.

You have two big “firsts” coming up: Your first film role, in The Aviator, and your first solo album. Obviously, they’re two very different experiences. What was the most thrilling aspect of being in a film, especially one with Leonardo and directed by Martin Scorsese?
I’ve been wanting to do film for a long time. One of the big reasons I took time away from the band is, at the end of the Rock Steady Tour, it was almost like we were married to each other for 18 years and we never took any breaks. We kept going out of pure passion.

It seems perfect that you are playing Jean Harlow in The Aviator.
[Laughs] When I read who they wanted me to play, my stomach was on the floor – oh my god, Jean Harlow! [Laughs] Howard Hughes basically gave Harlow her first movie role and the scene that I’m in is when they go to the premiere of the film, Hell’s Angels, at the Mann Chinese Theatre. I thought it was kind of ironic that it was my first movie role and I was playing Jean at the premiere of her first film. It’s actually Herb Ritts’ fault that I got the part.

His fault? How’s that?!
Herb Ritts was the one that had done this photo shoot for Teen Vogue with me. It was his idea to do this Marilyn [Monroe] on the beach thing. I was just happy to finally be working with Herb. Martin Scorsese saw that cover on the side of a bus station and thought, Hey, let’s get that girl to try out.

Is this the type of movie role you were hoping for?
There is no small part in that film, but it was only; like, five days of work. It was really incredible to start off playing someone like Jean Harlow. I haven’t done much acting but I have a feeling that it is something that I would enjoy. Not that it can compare to playing for 20,000 people and getting that immediate reaction being on stage.

And with the new record, Love. Angel. Music. Baby, you get to explore your inner dance diva.
I had a specific record I wanted to make. But it snowballed and became this really hard, ego-busting project. The clock was ticking in my ears; I thought writing dance songs was going to be easy. You don’t have to think about anything, you just have to write, “Get on the dance floor and boogie.” I wasn’t looking to have a theme, just a guilty pleasures record.

Guilty pleasures. We like those. And because you’re, well, Gwen Stefani, you had quite the opportunity to work with a bunch of great producers.
I had a list of people I wanted to work with that I thought I could get a certain sound with. Linda Perry came up to me at the Grammys and I was so happy for her because I had known her for years. We were the first two girls signed to Interscope and I was happy for her success because I knew her journey. She’s a very aggressive girl. [Laughs] She came up to me and basically put me in a headlock. She gave me this intense look right into my eyes and she said, “We’ve got to write songs together!” I’m just kind of thinking, Dude you’re not Prince, you know? [Laughs] How are we going to write my dance record?

She did write that get-your-bootie-to-the-dancefloor song for Pink.
I was looking to work with people like Prince and Andre 3000. Robert Smith. Anyone that I liked back in high school.

But, come on, this is Linda Perry.
I didn’t know how talented she was. That some girl could run the board and has all this equipment, tons of guitars, drums, as massive studio, it was all very impressive for me. I’ve done this for half my life and I’ve never gone in and had girls who were able to run the board. We ended up the writing a song that first day called “Fine By You” which was basically: I don’t want to be inspired, I just want to be lazy, but whatever I want to do is fine by you and you like me still. I came back the in the next day and [Linda] didn’t even look at me when I walked in; she had been up all night and pressed play and this crazy maniac track came out. What the fuck? You did not just pull that shit out! It was almost like a dare. She’s, like, “Gwen, what the fuck you waiting for? You gotta do this shit now.” We looked at each other that dat and there was definitely electricity and you could tell it was all meant to be. It still bugs me that she wrote “What You Waiting For?” She wrote that line. Nobody fucking cares, I know. Nobody cares but me.

In that single you mention that this “dance” record you’re making is going to bring you “brand new fans.” As if you needed to make a dance record to get the gay boys to like you anymore…
[Laughs] You know, my hairdresser, who’s gay – go figure – he was, like, “There’s a category for gay guys?” Like you all like the same type of music. I knwo that isn’t true. I’m not stupid. I understand that there’s a whole club scene. Trust me. I’m surrounded by gay guys.

We guess it’s just that this solo project, especially since it’s more dancy, is going to bring even more gay guys to worship at the Altar of Gwen.
The one thing I’d like to mention: I feel really uncomfortable when people say I’m going solo because I feel this is definitely not somewhere I’m going. I feel like if I was going solo I would be leaving the band and not compromising and writing this whole record on my own and it would be pure Gwen. This is simply just me going, Fuck, I wouldn’t mind trying something different before I die.

That makes sense. Do you ever get a chance to make it out to queer clubs and check out all the hot, unavailable men?
[Laughs] I’ve been out a little bit in New York. It’s not like I make a conscious effort to go to gay clubs. It’s just that a lot of creative people that are around me just happen to be gay. This one time, up in San Francisco, we went to this one club one night and watched all these performances. I just love all the creativity and self-expression and I think that’s what attracts me to the scene.

It’s funny to have you on the same label as Eminem and a lot of other homophobic rappers. Plus, with regards to No Doubt, you have a lot of reggae and Dancehall influences, and both of those are rather homophobic.
I don’t really think twice [about hanging out with gay people], that’s why it’s weird. A friend of mine, he’s this talented and successful guy, and he told me this rapper didn’t want to work with him because he is gay. I was, like, “What?!” People would pay anything to work with him, so I was shocked. And the Dancehall/reggae community, I love that music so much, but to have a connection to that intolerance is really embarassing.

But Rufus Wainwright is now on Geffen, which is, I think, a subsidiary of Interscope.
I know Rufus. My head designer at L.A.M.B, Zaldy, and Danilo (who does Gwen’s hair), they’re all friends with Rufus. Sophie Muller, a good friend, she filmed Rufus’ video [for "April Fool's"] at my house. He’s sweet. I emailed him a few times and he called me wanting to do something together, but I was already 20 songs into my record.

Have you ever fallen for a gay guy?
I’ve had dreams where I was making out with Danilo, he’s so handsome. If my husband went missing I would definitely ask Danilo to fill in. [Laughs] he’s a great friend, though. But no, I’ve been smart never falling for a gay guy because you’ll only get your heart broken. right?

Some girls never learn that.
[Laughs heartily] Your funny. *Some* girls…

So L.A.M.B just launched this past spring. That’s what, like, 20 gigs you have going now? Singer, songwriter, actress, designer, babe…
[Laughs] That last one is the the toughest one! Clothes are something I’ve done my whole life. I’ve been sewing my clothes since high school. My stylist, Andrea Lieberman, she’s the New York super way cool Jewish version of me. I’m from Orange County so I don’t know that much about high fashion. Andrea opened my eyes to that whole world. When I started I was, like, I can’t do it. Sitting in front of piles of faux fur trying to make decisions. It’s a full-time job that I’m trying to do as a part-time job. But I fucking love it so much, it fulfills me, it’s my passion, that I would die if someone took it away from me right now.

It’s all women’s clothes right now?
Yeah.

So we’re going to see a lot of drag queens wearing your stuff?
[Laughs] I hope so!

Okay. you’re in the spotlight a lot – so how have you avoided the scandal?
I think I’m a pretty good girl. I try to be a good girl. I don’t feel like I’m very controversial. I don’t want to upset people, I just want to make them feel good. At this point it’s all about sharing and hoping people get what I got out of this record. I made it for myself. I just want to share what I’m doing and if they get off on it, too, that makes me feel really good. I really, really wanted to make a record that was going to be played in the clubs, yet I have yet to hear it in any of the dance clubs. But I’m going to be going out a lot to see if I’m making people dance.

Okay, I’ll do my part to make sure the gay boys are shaking it to your songs.
You’re sweet! Thanks for talking to me, dude.

For the past 17 years, she has stood as the punky siren of the band No Doubt. But there is more to Gwen Stefani’s platinum-blonde life than meets the eye. There’s her fashion line, her acting career, and her first solo dance album with a little help from some music-industry heavies. Christopher Bollen meets the girl underneath it all.

When a certain then-unknown pop star landed for the first time in the New York and climbed into the back seat of a cab, she spoke those immortal words that have now become firmly cemented in rock-music legend: “Take me to the center of everything.” The driver dropped her off in Times Square. Whatever your feelings may be about this particular pop icon, the anecdote does offer a profound lesson: It is relatively easy to stand for a few seconds at the heart of the universe (in 1978, according to this cab driver, that would be the corner of 42nd and Broadway). The tough part is being able to stay there.

Gwen Stefani is one star that has managed to stand pretty much in the center of everyone’s heart since she first drilled hit after hit through the mid-’90s as the gorgeous peroxided lead of No Doubt. A rundown of her songs – “Just A Girl,” “Hey Baby,” “Don’t Speak,” “Rock Steady,” “Hella Good” – plays like the soundtrack of the last ten years, and anyone who has turned on a radio or television knows the wildly excitable voice or the mismatched punk-with-a-perfect-body look as signature Stefani. What most don’t know, however, is that she didn’t just appear out of thin air when the band’s album “Tragic Kingdom” hit big in 1995. Today she and her band (all originally from Anaheim, CA) can count seventeen years of practicing, playing, and touring together. That kind of longevity explains why Stefani has continued to own the spotlight, while so many others have had their Times Square moment and faded out.

In 2004, this California rock star runs her own designer label L.A.M.B, guest designs a bag line for Le Sportsac, is wife to Brit musician Gavin Rossdale, and has a burgeoning film career – as evidenced this winter when Martin Scorsese’s biopic The Aviator opens with Stefani in the role of Jean Harlow. And while No Doubt takes a short hiatus from its hit parade (only to book a greatest-hits summer tour), Stefani shows her prowess in the recording studio with her own solo dance album in the works. I visited Stefani in her Los Feliz mansion right before she was to embark on tour. It was a little before noon, 74 degrees and slightly overcast, and there was a fire blazing in the living room. It was also Bob Dylan’s birthday. I waited twenty minutes before this lanky body bound down the spiral staircase and introduced herself with a teenager’s SoCal accent and biggest brown eyes humanly possible. Here is one final thing that makes Gwen Stefani a permanent fixture in the pop solar system: she is so honest, kind, and sincere about her motivations in life, it is virtually impossible not to fall for her.

CHRISTOPHER BOLLEN You’re getting ready for a tour this summer. That’s all of a sudden.
GWEN STEFANI It is. Anything with No Doubt is sudden because we were planning to take a year off.

Why?
First, I wanted to concentrate on film. I want to do a movie. It’s impossible to get a role because it’s so competitive and you’ve got to have your whole passion in it. In the past, I would be on tour and come home for a weekend and try out for something. So, I wanted to take a year off and focus on that. Then I got this idea to do a dance record. I don’t know where the idea came from originally, but I got excited and that overwhelmed everything else.

Was it your part in The Aviator that gave you the acting bug?
No. I’ve been trying out for movies for years but was never really finding the right thing. And every time I would find a small part I never really had time to go for it.

You must be used to being up in front of thousands by now singing on stage. How different was it to be on set delivering lines with Martin Scorsese behind the camera?
I was so nervous, I didn’t know what to expect with Aviator. Doing music videos, you get a little feel for it. I think that dialogue, though, is in such a different category than singing. It’s a lot subtler. But when I got on the set with Leo – there are five hundred extras in my scene – it felt very familiar. First of all, I’m walking on a red carpet, which is something I’ve done before. [Laughs] But in a way, it’s easier than you think because you get so many tries. That makes you even more confident because you can say, “Okay, I’d do it this way this time.”

Five hundred extras is no small scene.
It’s a huge movie but I have a very small part. They recreated the Mann Chinese Theater from scratch. It’s pretty incredible.

How did it feel to play a legend like Jean Harlow?
I mean imagine, the original blonde blombshell! I’m clearly a great admirer and copier. Ever since I was a teenager I’ve loved Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. I always used to watch old musicals and movies and was just a big fan of Old Hollywood. So when my agent told me about the movie, he said, “Don’t get excited, they want all non-brand name people”-you know, unknowns-and then a couple of months later they said they were sending me the Jean Harlow script and my stomach fell to the floor. When I got the script, I couldn’t find the part. It has like three lines. But I went in and they were so cool to me. It’s always awkward when people know the band, too, because there are all these expectations and it’s all weird and humiliating. But they were amazing.

Have you tried out for other roles since?
Yes, but it is hard to find parts I want to do. What’s really taken over my life now is this solo album.

How did this dance record come about?
I wanted to do an album in the style of music that I grew up on-the dance music of the ’80s like Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam, Debbie Deb, Club Nouveau, The Time, Prince-all the stuff that makes me so happy. So my idea was to do a silly dance record that had that kind of vibe. Having been in my group for seventeen years, I knew if I didn’t do it now, I wasn’t going to do it.

Were the other member of No Doubt worried? “Uh oh, Gwen’s making her own album now.” I mean, isn’t this the first step to band breakup?
I remember on the Rock Steady tour sitting with Tony [Kanal] and being like, “I don’t want to ruin the tour or anything, but I have this idea.” I wanted Tony to be involved because he was the one who turned me on to most of that music. We as No Doubt didn’t know what we were going to do next anyway. We had such an incredible record with Rock Steady, making it and putting it out. Who would have known? It was magic. But where do you go from there? If we got together right away and did another album, it might not be so inspired. It might sound like it was riding the coattails of Rock Steady. And we had never taken a break, not in seventeen years. I’m not exaggerating. We made so many sacrifices on a personal level for each other for the music out of pure passion. It just felt like the right time for everybody to do something for themselves. I called everyone and told them, and they said, “Do whatever you want to do,” just as you’d imagine your best friends would say.

Did you write most of the songs on your new dance album?
Yes, but it’s not quite my own. That was the whole point of the project. I get a lot of opportunities to work with people who are so talented. The idea was I’d do a song with anyone who came along that I thought was great. There was a wish list of people and others who came to me. One of the people who came to me was Linda Perry, who I’ve known for years. We were the first two girls signed to Interscope and I knew her when she was in 4 Non-Blondes. I didn’t think, “Okay, rock girl, she’ll make my dance record.” But I saw her at the Grammy’s and she put me in a headlock and said, “We’re going to do a record together. We’re going to write some songs.” She was very aggressive. But I had just gotten off of tour and her record company said, “If you’re going to work with Linda, you’ve got to do it this week because she’s only got five days off out of the year.” That first day, I literally didn’t want to go in at all. I was in bed and I cried that morning. I wanted to be lazy and hang out with my husband, not start writing a new record. I was scared, too. I had never worked with another girl before. I got there and on the first day we wrote a song together, which I didn’t think was very good. The next day, I came in and we wrote, “What You Waiting For.” It’s such a good song. Linda and I ended up working on a bunch of songs together. Later, I took those tracks to Nellie Hooper to produce them.

Clearly writing is a different process when you are collaborating with some pretty established songwriters. It must have been a war of personalities sometimes.
The challenge was not to get overwhelmed by my ego and to let myself accompany what Linda had to offer and be part of something that was great even if I didn’t do the whole thing. Like if she wrote the lyrics to “Yesterday” by the Beatles and all I did was write the chorus, I’d be pretty stoked, you know what I mean? There was actually a point at the end when we were in the studio together and I left crying, again [laughs], and I said, “I’ve had enough.” We were working on a track that was very personal to me, and she had written a lyric. I was like, “I don’t want to do this.” I ended up rediscovering the song six months later and going, “Oh my god, this song is great.” It was a song I wrote for this boy I went out with in high school, who meant a lot to me – like my first kissing boyfriend – and he actually died a year ago. I haven’t known him all of those years, but he was a huge part of my life. He gave me a huge thing, which is the first time you love someone. Even if it’s high school. So I wrote this song called “Wonderful Life for Him” with Linda. But the amazing thing about that song was that that guy was the first person to turn me on to Depeche Mode and the Cure. So I got one of his heroes to play on that song.

Who else did you work with?
I did some tracks with Andre 3000, who I’ve been a fan of forever. One song we did is about interracial relationships. It’s such a special song that whatever I did contribute is enough. It’s like having a baby. You have this thing that’s alive and it’s never going to go away, it’s a song, and it captures a moment. So yeah, I really enjoyed it. But sometimes it’s been really painful in not being able to claim all of it as your own.

It’s impressive that you get to play around with your style and your sound, but you still always seem to return to your roots. And you write the songs yourself! I have to be honest, so much pop music right now sounds absolutely soulless and phony, like it has nothing to do with the person singing the lyrics.
I think there is room for everything. I worked with one of the writers that wrote “Like A Virgin,” which you would think Madonna had written, because it is so her. Actually from what I understand the song was written two years before, just nobody else would do it because it was so out there. But with a song like that, you don’t go, “Oh, she didn’t write it.” She made it. Take someone like Liza Manelli who was in Cabaret. She didn’t write it. She played it. But then you go, Joni Mitchell. And she did the whole thing. There is room for everything and it’s all inspiring. So for someone to wear someone else’s music and make it what it’s going to be is very important as well. I feel like I’ve proved myself as a writer. I’ve done it for seventeen years. I’ve been true to my own unit. I’ve never gone outside. We thought if we’re not about making the music, what’s the point. The whole record is about collaboration and being inspired and stealing from everything I’ve ever loved and trying to make it mine. I’m going to make the record that feels like those records make me feel no matter what it takes. I’m not done yet either. I have about nineteen songs but I’m not putting this thing out until it’s fucking the greatest record ever.

Will that be soon?
I want it to come out this year, but it’s going to come out when it’s meant to come out. It’s going to come out when it’s great. I could put out a great record right now with the songs that I have but part of me wants to go to the Doctor, as in Dr. Dre, and see where I can get with that, which is just going to be the biggest challenge so far. And I probably want to go with one more artist, I’m not going to say who. And I have all my new wave songs. I want to get my dirty, modern, club dance attitude songs.

It’s weird you mention Joni Mitchell. It’s Bob Dylan’s birthday today. I found that out on the radio coming here. And I was thinking about how fans are so hard on Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan for continuing to make music arguably after their prime. It’s as if fans wish they would stop making music or stick with the old stuff. Your career is hardly on a downward spiral, but do you think there will come a moment when you say, “Okay, that’s that.”
The band always talks about, “When will it be over?” We never dreamed we’d do it this long. We never even thought we’d get on the radio. We did the band because we were in Anaheim. What else was there to do, go to Disneyland? We were all going to college. We weren’t lazy stoner kids who weren’t going to do anything with our lives. There are all these different rules for what a musician should be like: they should be a drug addict and come from a really bad family. A lot of time that does fuel a creative outlet. But my dad’s idol was Bob Dylan. At ten years old, I was in the back of the station wagon saying, “Dad not this again.” My parents were very creative and their children were their creative outlet and everything they did was about playing things for us, teaching us about art and music. I feel very blessed for that. I don’t know what is going to happen with us. We could do music for the rest of our lives. At a certain point whatever people might think or say, or whatever perspective people have on me or my band, it’s never going to be true or real. What does it matter as long as I’m happy? I feel like I’m the most blessed person in the world. I’m sitting in a beautiful house. I have an unbelievable husband and family, and I get to do music. That’s my job. People pay me to dance around!

Not to mention you have your own fashion line, L.A.M.B. Zaldy helps design it, doesn’t he?
Yes! I know Zaldy through his friend Matthu, and I know Matthu because he was the first makeup artist I ever let do my makeup. I had always done my own makeup and when I was told I should work with him, I thought, hmm, a guy doing my makeup I’m not sure about. But he ended up doing my makeup for a year after that. I did some crazy makeup that year. It was a wild time. And then I met Zaldy and he started helping with some of my designs. Collaboration is everything when it comes to design. I hired him and the guys from Nice Collective. It was like college, we all came together and showed what we did, and I think we created an amazing second collection. So I asked Zaldy to stay on because I never want him to go. I love him. He’s so talented. My guitar player’s fiancé is getting married in October, so L.A.M.B is doing her wedding dress. Of everything I do, it’s probably the easiest and most greedily fulfilling. What do I want to wear? It’s like a girl’s dream come true.

Aren’t you also doing a bag line?
The bags are totally separate. I got sent one of the LeSportsac bags. I used that bag so much and I guess they saw me with it and said, “Hey do you want to make your own bag for yourself?” I said, “Hell yeah dude,” and made this leopard bag with green trim and I had that on tour and I loved it. And they called me back and said, “Hey what would you think about being a guest designer?” I never collaborated with a corporation. I get asked all the time to be the shampoo girl or the makeup girl or the cola girl. I don’t want to sell things. I’d feel too guilty. I’m Catholic. But with Sportsac as guest designer, the title sounded so nice and I am a designer.

It’s a bit different than selling Pepsi on a TV commercial.
It’s totally different. And I learned so much. Also, it’s fun to see the bags take on a whole new life. When I saw people wear it I thought, yeah, that’s them now. But wait that’s mine! I got jealous, like, don’t wear my bag! I saw this girl walking down the street with that bag, and that was her bag. It was a good feeling. I enjoyed doing it so much I decided to sign on for the fall season.

If you could pick a dream movie to star in, what would it be?
I am doing a movie.

Wait, you’re going to make your own?
I said, “Dude, I want to do my own.” I’m not sure I’m supposed to talk about it yet. I want to do a movie that goes with my record. But because it’s not developed yet it would be stupid to talk about it. It is going to happen. I will make that shit happen. I’m convinced.

You’ve spent a great deal of your life in California. You were born here. Can you imagine living anywhere else?
I was never a Hollywood kid. I grew up in Orange County. Nowadays, the two have merged, but back then it was like living behind the Orange Curtain. They were definitely two different worlds. But we started playing at all the clubs here. I remember my parents would drive me to these shows because they were strict. I’m glad they were and would probably be the same with my kids. So LA wasn’t part of my early life except for the fantasy of Old Hollywood and that kind of thing. California for me was more about being able to get on the bus and go down to the beach. I was a lifeguard at a pool for a couple of years. I taught kids how to swim. I worked at a sportswear shop helping older ladies pick out polyester outfits. I actually got a lot of fulfillment out of that. Otherwise I just went to school to try to be something when I grew up. The biggest regret about California would be that I put baby oil all over my body and baked in the sun every day on the beach.

I think LA has this surreal quality to it.
That’s how we feel about New York. We’d be like, New York’s so cool, so much buzz, creative people. But LA is the same way. People come here to be creative. There’s also all these weird scary people but I don’t deal with them too much. I moved up here six years ago, but I live in this beautiful place and have my friends around me. There’s not a lot of places to go out and you can’t stay out until three in the morning. But I’m just lucky that I got to travel the world and I also live in London, so I have this English life too. It makes my life so much richer. From Orange Country to get to live in London! It makes me so cool, huh?

Yeah. It does.

With thanks to Anne at JustNoDoubt.net

NEW YORK – As Gwen Stefani, lead singer for the band No Doubt, gets ready to go on stage, she looks like a pumped-up, punked-out Jean Harlow.

“I’ve always been obsessed by the days of the Hollywood starlet.” said the platinum blonde, whose coiffed, peroxide locks mix with glittery stage wear, including primary-colored cropped tanks over rhinestone-studded bras, parachute pants, Doc Martens and a gem glued to the center of her forehead (a look she says she adapted from an ex-boyfriend’s East Indian mother).

Stefani credits a range of fashion influences – from East India to East L.A., from Doc Martens to workout wear – for her glam-punk look.

Post-concert, it’s a similar style – minus the shine – with an emphasis on comfort. The rigorous tour has her relaxing offstage in Adidas workout pants and sneakers, for the most part.

The schedule has also affected Stefani’s old shopping habits.

“Before, I was always going to thrift stores,” she said, in a girlish, scratchy voice a day after a raucous concert at Roseland here. “These days I hardly have time to go get toothpaste.”

The Anaheim, Calif.-based band has been on a whirlwind tour for a year in the wake of its double platinum album, “Tragic Kingdom.” Critics and fans have rallied behind the group’s blend of funk and pop.

At her shows, the high-energy 26-year-old bounces around the stage and shows off rippled abs to the moshing fans, diving and body-surfing across the crowds.

“Are there any girls here?” she screams to the audience before belting out the hit single “Just a Girl.”

The crowd erupts in a volcanic roar, as fans approve the nose-thumbing lyrics about a woman’s perceived place in the world.

Part of Stefani’s charm emanates from a childlike aura – complete with an attentive gaze and high-pitched voice – despite her tough-girl stage persona.

After shows, Stefani strolls around backstage, shaking hands with music critics and signing autographs for young fans. It’s likely she hasn’t forgotten that the band’s nine-year ascent was built on many late shows in nightclubs and gigs in parts unknown.

A spokeswoman from No Doubt’s record label, Trauma, said the band is truly a Cinderella story. Two prior albums and a West Coast following were just fractional indicators of success. With Tragic Kingdom, the band broadened its style to include more of a pop sound than before – and hit pay dirt.

Success hasn’t spoiled Stefani.

“Gwen’s anti-drug – she’s become like a spokesperson, unofficially, for young girls in this country,” said the Trauma spokeswoman. “She’s not into that whole drugs, sex, rock ‘n’ roll thing. She’s one of the most wholesome people I know.”

Stefani still relates to the girls-next-door and they relate to her.

“I was the type who thought I could never influence anyone, this loser from Anaheim,” Stefani explained. “But I have such normal experiences – the mainstream Orange County chic-girls can relate.”

Girls relate not only to her lyrics, they also emulate her sense of fashion. The mostly teenage audiences at the shows mirror the hip-hoppish pants-and-tank combo, with many Adidas logos in the mix. And Stefani just filmed a “House of Style” episode for MTV, in which she details her tough-but-sexy chic.

“In high school, I couldn’t stand to have the same thing as everyone else,” she explained. “I always made my own clothes – and had many disasters.”

She still designs for herself, but the fashion disasters are over. Stefani has teamed with Deborah Viereck, a Los Angeles designer who also does custom work for rock stars Marilyn Manson and Seven Mary Three through her company, called ‘T ain’t.

“She goes through phases,” Viereck said. “At first it was like a Chicano gang-member look, but with touches like reflective strips.

“Then she started getting really sparkly. We do things that catch the light a lot, like sequin pants.”

Pants are key, due to the aerobic nature of a No Doubt show.

“She wears a lot of punk rocker bondage pants, in red, green, blue and yellow,” Viereck said.

In the heyday of the Sex Pistols, fans could be seen in multi-zippered numbers, usually in tartan plaid. Viereck gets in all those special straps, zippers and chains, but in Stefani style.

“We’ll do a bright yellow pant with black zippers and straps or red with yellow,” Viereck said. “Contrast is one of the most important elements of her clothing. It’s almost like a cartoon-animated style.”

When Stefani’s not touring, Viereck said, the looks are more tempered, with a retro feminine flare.

“She wears all that nice feminine clothing offstage, like cute Forties-style dresses and shoes,” said the stylist.

Stefani seems pleased with the custom collaboration. Who knows? A spinoff could be in her future.

“I would love to start a line with Deborah,” she said. “I love fashion.”