She’s got style, she’s got songs and, in her leopard-print jumpsuit, she’s got balls. At 37, with a one-year-old baby, Gwen Stefani has finally found pop stardom. She tells Craig McLean about motherhood, self-obsession and her fashion label.

She might be wearing her sparkly leotard-cum-dungarees ensemble. Or a pair of sequined red hot pants. Or a tartan schoolgirl’s uniform. Maybe she’ll have slipped into one of her favourite outfits: armpit-length black leather gloves and monochrome horizontal stripes (imagine an escaped convict hiding out in a burlesque joint).

If you’re reading this on Sunday morning Gwen Renée Stefani will be on stage in Australia, performing her idiosyncratic version of disco funk in front of thousands of tweens, teens and twentysomething pop fans in the Adelaide Entertainment Centre. For 90 sweaty minutes there will be no let-up in the costume changes, choreography – part Broadway show, part cheerleader rally, part hip hop face-off – and belting pop songs.

The ex-No Doubt frontwoman-turned-solo star is midway through a world tour. So far, Stefani has completed a run of 15,000-seater arenas in North America, Central America, South America, and New Zealand. Next week, team Stefani – six musicians, a squad of female dancers known as the Harajuku Girls, and a bunch of male breakdancers – move into the Far East and then Europe.

Finally, towards the end of October, following a final bow on the stage of Prague’s Sazka Arena, Gwen Stefani returns home. The only question then will be which home: the Los Angeles mansion or the huge townhouse that she and Gavin Rossdale, the British singer and guitarist, keep in north London celebrity enclave, Primrose Hill?

The Sweet Escape tour 2007 would be tough on a bunch of fresh-faced lads with guitars. Imagine how hard-going it must be on a 37-year-old multi-tasking pop singer, fashion designer and first-time mother who, when I met her in London before the tour’s launch was still breast-feeding her son Kingston, born in May 2006.

‘I don’t know when I’m going to stop breast-feeding,’ Stefani chirps as she motors into the hotel suite, fresh from another feed. ‘I’ll just keep going while I can – like, he’s getting his teeth so it is a little bit scary. He’s bitten me a few times!’

Gwen Stefani doesn’t do anything by half. Breast-feeding, she gushes, ‘is just obviously really convenient with my lifestyle’. Baby Kingston was ‘genius’ on the flight from Los Angeles to London. ‘He nursed then went to sleep. But he doesn’t sleep through the night,’ she says brightly. ‘He’s up every three hours to feed.’

Nonetheless, today Stefani looks as glamorous as ever. The colour scheme is black and white: vertiginous YSL heels, skintight Balenciaga trousers, Azzedine Alaïa sweater, crisp shirt (‘I can’t remember the designer’) and chunky, diamond-encrusted pendant.

I could put her speedy chat down to sleep deprivation and jetlag. But I’ve met her before and she chewed my ear off then, too. Imagine a torrent of Valley Girl and not much regard for punctuation. But don’t be fooled by the ditsy blonde you might have seen dolled up as Alice in Wonderland and goofing through lavish videos  like the one for her Grammy-nominated ‘What You Waiting For?’ single. On her own and with No Doubt, the Orange County band that California-born Stefani joined when she was 17, she’s sold 30 million albums. That include seven million copies of her solo debut  from 2004, Love.Angel.Music.Baby. It featured four top-10 hits andd won her the 2005 Brit Award for Best International Female.

Just 13 weeks after giving birth, she hired Keane songwriter Tim Rice-Oxley, producer Pharrell Williams, Depeche Mode legend Martyn Gore and released her second solo album The Sweet Escape. Even her acting debut was in an epic, playing Jean Harlow in The Aviator, Martin Scorsese’s biopic of Howard Hughes. ‘I’m vain enough to want to do a movie again,’ she admits, but right now more roles ‘are the last thing on my list’. There’s too much else going on.

The initials of her first album gave her the name for her fashion label, L.A.M.B. When the line debuted on the New York catwalk in Fashion Week of September 2005, Stefani described it as ‘a little bit Sound of Music. A little bit Orange County. A little bit of the Rastafarian rasta girls. A little bit English Great Gatsby garden-party girls. Pretty much the same thing I always do, but different versions of it.’

A Gwen Stefani fashion label made brilliant business sense. She’s become one of those pop stars whose innate style – a sort of streetwise haute couture – means that she wields influence beyond the stage. Women watch what she puts on in the morning in the same way as they do with Madonna or Kylie.

‘I think Gwen is the ultimate 21st-century pin up,’ says Stefan Lindermann of Grazia magazine, which features Stefani time and time again. ‘She’s modern-retro – she plays on the pin-up thing with her vintage aesthetic, but she’s also ultra-modern. Like her music, her style is sexy but also out there – eclectic, almost aggressive. She’s no victim, and certainly no fashion victim. With someone like Victoria Beckham, you can see that a stylist has decided what she’s going to wear and put it together piece by piece, but Gwen’s style always seems organic.’

Sales of her label in the smarter department stores of New York, London and Tokyo have been healthy and Nicole Kidman and Teri Hatcher are fans. However there was a hiccup earlier this year when Stefani’s designer, Zaldy, left her to concentrate on his own lines, notable for Scissor Sisters.

‘It was unfortunate timing,’ she says. ‘I was like, “Don’t just plop this on me!” Now it’s just me and my stylist doing the Spring 08 collection. But I’d love to have a bigger design team. Someone like Marc Jacobs, I wonder how many people are working there, just feeding him ideas, feeding feeding feeding… I have, like maybe five people in my entire team. I’m very hands on with it, but it’s got to change, I’ve got to get more people.’

She does if L.A.M.B keeps expanding. She’s recently moved into handbags and launched a diffusion line, Harajuku Lovers. And what celebrity franchise is complete without a perfume? Her latest venture is a bespoke scent called L. ‘I would never have done a fragrance as ce-leb-ri-tee…’ she maintains, tapping the syllables out on her tongue, ‘just to do one for the sake of it. But because I have L.A.M.B it’s really the most milestone, prestigious kinda moment. Basically, you have an inspiration of a perfume that you like, whether it’s a flower or a certain direction.’

Gwen Stefani’s first stage appearance was at a school talent show, wearing a self-made copy of the drop-waist tweed dress that Maria wore while singing ‘I Have Confidence’ in The Sound of Music. She grew up with three siblings in a comfortable middle-class household in southern California. Her father worked in marketing for Yamaha motorbikes. Her housewife mother was a seamstress, and teenage Gwen made her own clothes, too.

‘My parents always pushed creativity on us, but they made it seem like the fun thing to do.’

Aged 17, at her older brother Eric’s invitation, she became the singer in his ska-flavoured new band. No Doubt was influenced by Madness and the Selecter, British bands who were curiously popular in California  in the early Eighties. No Doubt released their first album in 1992 but it wasn’t until their third, 1995’s Tragic Kingdom – which featured the huge single ‘Don’t Speak’ – that they found success. The two-and-a-half-year-long tour that came next put paid to Stefani’s college career. Tragic Kingdom sold a staggering 16 million copies and launched the front woman into the rock and pop stratosphere.

But 20 years since starting out in music, and a decade on from her arrival on the world stage, there’s another facet to Stefani’s appeal: women identify with her. She’s a pop goddess with a deluxe lifestyle but who experiences the traumas other women suffer too. For an A-list star she’s remarkably candid. ‘I try not to be but I’m super-neurotic about diet,’ she says. ‘I’m neurotic about trying not to be neurotic! I’m like every other girl. I have to try really hard my whole life to be fit. And I’m super-vain. And I want to wear cute clothes. You know, I was chubby when I was a little girl. And I have all those issues everyone else has. But I try not to. And I’ve learnt over the years that it’s such a waste of time. And people like me whether I’m a little bit fatter or not.’

Her personal life has had its fair share of dark moments too. For seven years she dated Tony Kanal, the bass player in No Doubt. Their break-up was traumatic, although it did inspire Stefani to co-write the best-selling ‘Don’t Speak’.

In 1995, she met Gavin Rossdale, then the singer with Bush, when the two bands toured together. In 2003 they were married, twice: in London and again in LA. But the relationship was, as the tabloids say, ‘rocked’ the following year by the discovery that Rossdale was the real father of the model Daisy Lowe. She’s the teenage daughter of Pearl Lowe, the singer, best friend of Kate Moss and partner of Supergrass drummer Danny Goffey. Until then Rossdale, and old friend of Pearl Lowe, had thought he was only Pearl’s godfather. The gossip magazines had a field day with the news, reporting that the upset had caused ructions between the newlyweds.

How, I wonder, does she and Rossdale’s relationship work these days, what with so much going on in their lives (he’s also embarked on a solo career, after the failure of his post-Bush band Institute)?

‘I don’t know,’ Stefani sighs. ‘It’s one of those mad love affairs that you can’t live with and you can’t live without, and you just keep going and going.’ Her smile is wide now. ‘And time goes by and you get the rocky times then you get the intense love times, then you get the reward of having the baby. It’s just this ongoing saga. I don’t know,’ she repeats. ‘I’m interested to see what’s going to happen next, you know?

I ask her what’s on the horizon. ‘Make babies, make music,’ she grins. ‘I’m on repeat mode.’ Just before flying to the UK she had lunch in Los Angeles with the rest of No Doubt. ‘It would be ridiculous to say there was no tension. Because my solo career has been going on and on. It was never supposed to be this long…’ But at last, having delivered two albums in quick succession, she’s ‘really inspired’ to go back and work with the band.

But before all that, the Sweet Escape Tour 2007 must travel around the world. If she was apprehensive during our London rendezvous she didn’t show it. For one thing, it won’t be as tough as her first solo tour, which she undertook even though she knew she was pregnant. Extra panels were sewn into her costumes to disguise the bump.

‘It was hell on earth.’ she confesses. ‘But to look out and see girls from the age of eight to 15 in the front row – who obviously didn’t know that I was pregnant even though I was feeling like a big fat huge whale – they were looking at me like I was Cinderella. And it was so… amazing. So rewarding.

‘But it’s really going to be easier this time, because I have two whole records to choose from, and I have the experience of doing a more theatrical show. And I won’t have a baby in my stomach!’

Her desire to start a family was well known – so much so the ‘tick tock’ motif in ‘What You Waiting For?’ was widely believed to represent her biological clock going into overdrive. But what, I wonder, was her biggest fear about motherhood?

‘Hmm,’ she ponders. ‘How I would fit him into my life? Would I be too self-obsessed to be able to care about him enough? I have a really extraordinary life and I obviously have a lot of passion about the things that I do. So I didn’t know if I could be selfless enough. But obviously I can! It’s the most amazing thing that’s ever happened to me.’

Around about now, Gwen Stefani will be coming off stage in Adelaide and Kingston James McGregor Rossdale will be waiting for her on the tour bus. ‘If I had to leave him at home and not bring with me everywhere then I wouldn’t do this,’ Gwen Stefani told me, ‘I know that it’s not going to last, and he’s going to get more demanding and there will be school and stuff. But for now I get to do it all.’

She works hard for the money, and she ain’t no hollaback girl, but now that the world has embraced Gwen Stefani as the platinum bomb, will she ever find a simple kind of life?

The popular television series The OC and Laguna Beach have made Southern California’s Orange County and attitude like, totally rad. They portray the laidback lifestyle of perfectly aligned palm trees, lazy afternoons, and never-ending spring breaks. Meanwhile, the most famous OC girl of them all, Gwen Stefani, is quietly building her empire as the hardest working girl in show business. Last year, we saw her playing Jean Harlow in Martin Scorsese’s The Aviator, and this year she is high off the phenomenal success of her first solo album – having already achieved worldwide domination as front woman of No Doubt – and summer anthems “Hollaback Girl” and “Cool.” She is also busy spearheading not one but two clothing lines: L.A.M.B (which shares a name with her Love. Angel. Music. Baby. album) and the newly launched Harajuku Lovers.

Her much anticipated runway show for L.A.M.B took place at the Roseland Ballroom during New York fashion week last September and on October 16th she will embark on a major North American tour, also named “Harajuku Lovers,” starting with a sold out performance at the American West Arena in Phoenix. In midst of all this activity on th music, fashion and film fronts, she also finds time to promote other products and services including the HP Photosmart R607 Harajuku Lovers digital camera and the “Hollaback Girl” ringtone, which is available exclusively through Cingular Wireless.

On this particular August afternoon at Quixote Studios in West Hollywood, Gwen Stefani is sitting in a dressing room chair, facing a large mirror while hair stylist Danilo starts crafting a new look for the TRACE cover. Gwen is chatting away, all platinum blondness and sassy sophistication, as stylist Andrea Lieberman and makeup artist Kathy Jeung try to figure out the implications of this new Afro-braided-platinum-punk look. All three are close collaborators of Gwen’s, but now they have experimented with a folded blue scarf holding in the top of her hair, in a subtle nod to the I Love Lucy housewife hysteria from the ’50s, the Afro madness just seems a little more directional. Although Gwen wasn’t feeling it at first, she quickly changes her mind and we all agree to go for the Afro look.

Two of her Harajuku girl dancers are also in attendance. Maya (aka Love), hails from Tokyo, and Mayuko (aka Baby), who is a native of Osaka, but both became Harajuku girls after they auditioned in Los Angeles. I ask where Angel and Music are. No one knows. As she makes her way to the cover set-up where lighting is being tested with Polaroids. Gwen starts rubbing her stomach. “It’s coming,” she says, speaking of her period. This time, her hands aren’t pressed against her bare midriff, as they often are, because her belly is covered by a green Harajuku Lovers t-shirt, but she still tells anyone who cares to listen that she is menstrual, and that her mood isn’t the best it could be.

However, Gwen is open and approachable as ever. We shoot the cover and venture out of the studio to nearby Poinsetta Park for additional pictures. That is where the real Gwen Stefani pop experience is brought to life in a series of casual encounters with Angelenos from all walks of life. Of course we should have suspected that a mid-afternoon outing with a pop star in a public park would cause a bit of a commotion, especially in her home state, and the broad scope of her fan base is a reality that cannot be argued with.

Situation One: A Mexican family in a huge Freightliner delivery truck suddenly stops and idles in the middle of a street, interrupting their work schedule as well as the normal flow of traffic. The wife climbs out of the truck while her eight-year-old daughter stares at the pop star from the front seat, with her father looking on. When the mother returns to the truck with an autograph that reads “To Jackie, Love Gwen,” the daughter starts weeping.
Situation Two: A black man in his early 40s steals a glance at the pop star from the corner of his eye. “Damn!” he says, to no one in particular.
Situation Three: Two LAPD policeman catch wind of our photo shoot, which is taking place without a city permit, but instead of sending us back to the studio across the street, they see Gwen and decide to turn a blind eye to our impromptu production.
Situation Four: A 15-year-old white boy playing basketball in his brand new Air Jordans: “Where’s Gwen? That’s my wife. Hey shweeeetie!”
Situation Five: A tipsy white man in his mid-50s holds his bicycle while decides to speak to Danilo, who is touching up the pop stars Afro. “Is that Gwen Stefani right there? You can tell her Madonna can’t touch her. You can tell her I love her.” To which Gwen replies, “You can tell me, I’m standing right here, aren’t I?” “Well, sure! Isn’t the Hollywood Bowl coming up in a couple of weeks?” “Yes, in a couple of months” “Well, God bless ya. You’ve got it, and most can’t find it. I love ya.”

Andy Warhol first coined the term “superstar” to promote his coterie of New York personalities. The word is now used to describe a widely acclaimed celebrity who has great popular appeal and is considered a major attraction. When we finally sit down for the interview after the enlightening Poinsettia Park episodes, I realized that although Gwen has become accustomed to the adulation, especially in a year that can, by any measure, be described as stellar, she is still relatively unfazed by the everyday situations, privileges and annoyances that come with being a superstar.

“2005 has been a mind-blowing year,” she admits. “It all happened so quick, and wild and different from everything I’ve ever done before, but some of the years in No Doubt before we got on the radio were great as well. To me, it really doesn’t feel all that different from being at Tower Records in Orange County, one year into the band, like 17 years ago, and hearing people whispering about me as the girl from that band. But still, finishing this album and having it accepted the way it was, that was great. There was a lot of mish-mashing and unlikely pairings, like getting into the studio with Dr Dre and Andre 3000. I wanted to make an ’80s inspired dance album, in the style of Debbie Deb and Lisa Lisa and the Cult Jam and Club Nouveau, but also with Prince and The Time in mind, and I could see how Dr Dre was just rolling his eyes.”

Debbie Deb, as some of you older electro-heads may recall, was a two-hot wonder, but one could easily call her a one-hit wonder, because her two songs “Lookout Weekend” (“Look out weekend ’cause here I come, because weekends were made for fun”) and “When I Hear Music” sound almost the same. “Those are the songs that I would listen to when I used to go dancing at Disneyland or places like Videopolis or Studio K,” Gwen remembers. “For this album, that Debbie Deb style worked for me, because I wanted a record that was more of a chant than a melody. I wanted to do a record a record that would be in the clubs. With No Doubt, that would have been impossible, because that style of dance music excludes the drummer.”

Those years growing up in Orange County remain the foundation of her musical expression, and many of her biggest hits – starting with the breakthrough No Doubt songs “Just a Girl” and “Don’t Speak” from the 1995 album Tragic Kingdom – are derived from Gwen’s own experiences in mid-to-late ’80s Anaheim, home to Disneyland and the Magic Kingdom. In those years, Orange County was the residence of middle class white Californians who chose that particular suburban landscape over the metropolitan sprawl of Los Angeles, but it was also the chosen destination of many immigrant families, and young families, who were able to find nice and safe homes that they could actually afford.

Orange County was known as Reagan country at the time. The years of the gas crisis and forced busing created an extreme Republican climate. There were planned communities like Costa Mesa, where corporations would build an entire city from scratch, with a city center, a mall and recreation centers. Bands like No Doubt proliferated and thrived in a scene that was essentially a reaction to Reaganomics. The post-punk scene had become so vibrant and the music coming out was daring in its own fusion of mod with ska and reggae and hip hop. The early No Doubt records display that unique fusion, and it was obvious that they were listening to The Clash just as much as they appreciated Grandmaster Flash.

Shawn Mortensen, the longtime TRACE magazine photographer who shot the images in this portfolio, has been a friend of Gwen and the other members of No Doubt since 1994, when the band was just about to switch from their indie label to Interscope Records. “There was an immediate connection,” he says, “because we had all hung out in the same area in Orange County and we used to go to the same places, the same clubs. Although I was born in Long Beach, I grew up in Los Angeles and Orange County. When the label asked me to direct a video for them, I knew it would work. They weren’t famous yet, but when I first heard Tragic Kingdom, it felt to me like the Sergeant Pepper’s of Orange County life.” Shawn, who has photographed Gwen and No Doubt many times, ended up being best man at Gwen’s 2002 wedding to Gavin Rossdale. Hearing him talk about the ’80s inspired parties in OC, one senses a deep nostalgia in his voice and a longing for a mythical era that epitomized the uninhabited, creative spirit and do-it-yourself mentality of rebellious Southern Californians.

With her song dedicated to the over-the-top style of the girls who populate Tokyo’s fashionable Harajuku district, Gwen Stefani single-handedly made them recognizable to millions of Americans who would be hard-pressed to locate Japan on a world map. She is building a franchise around the Harajuku iconography so that it can exist beyond her lyrics and videos in her fans; imaginations. Yet, her most popular song from Love. Angel. Music. Baby. album, so far, is not the Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis-produced “Harajuku Girls” but rather the Neptunes-produced “Hollaback Girl.” Although Gwen is now known for her penchant for Vivienne Westwood and Christian Dior couture dresses – she wore a special John Galliano creation at her wedding – few of her hardcore fans are actually familiar with the high fashion Japenese brands (Yohji Yamamoto, Comme des Garçons, Hysteric Glamour) that she sings about in the song “Harajuku Girls.”

They can, however, relate to the Carson High School cheerleaders she recruited from outer Los Angeles for the perfectly choreographed video that Paul Hunter directed in full Technicolor, with emphasis on Gwen’s pink bra, red majorette’s outfit and bright lowrider. The vivid imagery and The Neptunes’ simple one-two beat complemented the girl power words: “Uh huh, that’s my shit. All the girls stomp your feet like that. ‘Cause I ain’t no hollaback girl.”

“The simplicity of the way Pharrell produces is so different,” she says. “It’s just one take and four instruments. It’s raw and different to the way we produce with No Doubt.” Looking back, it seems ironic that “Hollaback Girl” actually almost never made it to the album, because it was recorded after the album was completed. “We were done with the album and we really didn’t have any space left,” she says, “but I felt I didn’t have my attitude song. I called Pharrell and told him he’d be mad, because he wasn’t on the album. After two days, we had two really good songs, ‘Candy Land’ and ‘You Started It,’ but neither would make it onto the album. Then we did ‘Hollaback Girl’.”

After all, the first Neptunes collaboration outside of hip hop was with No Doubt on “Hella Good” from the 2001 Rock Steady album. They have come a long way since then. More than just an attitude song, “Hollaback Girl” somehow represented the mood of the summer of 2005, really striking a chord with young fans around the world. Shortly after “Hollaback Girl” emerged as one of the most significant songs of the year, Gwen flew to Miami to work with Pharrell in his studio and record more songs. “I have another record and I have to say the stuff that me and Pharrell did is so rad. I’m afraid if I wait too long before releasing it, it will be old. DJ Clue came down came down to the studio with eight beautiful girls, and he listened to the whole thing.”

Now that they have an entire album’s worth of material, Gwen is toying with the idea of releasing those songs as an entirely new album for Christmas or Valentine’s Day. She even has the artwork and creative direction all ready to go. But then again, the schedules may change, because her record company already has a DVD lined up for a Christmas release. This is what happens when superstars get prolific.

In the midst of all this hyperactivity, one has to question the future of No Doubt and the viability of a band, however successful, whose lead singer has found so many niches of her own, away from the legacy of a sound that was first formulated in 1986. Gwen refutes any suggestion that the band might break up, and she even mentions that they have pledged to reunite in January of 2006. She says all this while making sure she provides the context of her solo career.

“The Rock Steady Tour was one of the best experiences for us as a band. At the end of it, Adrian [Young, the drummer] had a baby. I had just got married, like two days before the tour started. After the tour ended, that’s when I heard that Club Nouveau song again, and the idea of my solo record turned out to be a huge personal challenge. We all decided to concentrate on our own projects. Tom [Dumont, the guitarist] is on tour with Matt Costa and Tony [Kanal, the bassist] is playing with Perry Farrell. When we get into the studio again, it will be great for everyone, because they will be all charged up, with the time that I was away.”

The No Doubt greatest hits album with a wonderful cover of Talk Talk’s “It’s My Life” came out early last year, at the same time when Gwen was beginning to work on her own album. Having been with the same three guys for 18 years, including a now well-documented eight years as Tony Kanal’s girlfriend, she feels that they are a family for life. “It doesn’t feel like we’ve been apart,” she says, “because Tony has been my bouncing board. I still lean on him for advice.” Tony produced three tracks for L.A.M.B and although he has been working on his own side projects in Jamaica and elsewhere, he has remained a big presence in her life. (She points out that he is the one who turned her on to Club Nouveau and Debbie Deb in the first place.)

The song “Don’t Speak,” which spent a record-breaking 16 weeks at the top of the charts in 1996 and pretty much put No Doubt on the map, is well known as Gwen’s heartfelt response to her difficult breakup with Tony. A decade later, the gorgeous video (set in Italy) that Sophie Muller directed for Gwen’s latest single “Cool” is a testament – albeit a very confusing one – to the unbreakable bond between Gwen and Tony. In it, Tony’s current girlfriend plays the girlfriend of Gwen’s fictional ex, acted by a model who looks suspiciously like Gwen’s real life husband Gavin, in a song that was inspired by Gwen’s current relationship to Tony.

“Cool” Is a prime example of Gwen’s proven songwriting skills – “After all the obstacles/ It’s good to see you now with someone else/ And it’s such a miracle that you and me are still good friends/ After all that we’ve been through / I know we’re cool.” Some of the inspiration came from the song’s producer, Dallas Austin. “‘Cool’ is an amazing song,” she says, “because I wanted to work with Dallas Austin. He’d signed Fishbone, and I felt we’d have a connection, especially knowing that he’s such a solid songwriter. He had a similar story with an ex-girlfriend of eight years, and he’d written a song about it that he’d never finished. As soon as he started playing the chords I helped him finish the song. He had this idea of cool, which he couldn’t make cool, so I wrote the lyrics in ten minutes. I wanted a Cindy Lauper or Madonna ‘Crazy For You’ feel to the song, and it came out beautifully.”

Walking across the Poinsettia Park, Gwen receives a call on her cell phone from someone who could very well be a booking agent, and from the conversation that we overhear, it sounds like she is being offered the opportunity to tour right up to Christmas day. “That’s something I’ll have to speak to Gavin about,” she says. ” I just can’t make that decision right now. We’re supposed to spend Christmas in England.” Gwen admits that she is nervous about the upcoming Harajuku Lovers Tour, because up until now, touring has always been about going on the road with her No Doubt family. “The tour is going to be different, because it will involve a lot of costume changes. It will be a lot more theatrical, and I will get to do things that I could never do with No Doubt, things that would be considered cheesy in the rock world. I mean, I love theater, I love the Sound of Music, so the Harajuku Lovers Tour will be an opportunity.”

It all seems so convenient, and I have to admit that several of my friends find Gwen Stefani’s constant references to the Harajuku subculture annoying. The tour that references the clothing line that references the camera that references the lyrics from the single may all be a bit much, but beyond a simple celebrity marketing ploy, it appears that Gwen Stefani is serious about the cross-promotion. When pressed for an answer, she seems to genuinely see her Harajuku-influenced mantra as a way to give more Gwen back to her fans. If she can make a little extra money on the side while doing that, well why not?

“The concept behind Harajuku Lovers line was to create clothes that would be better conceived than just another merchandising line. I’ve been working on it for over a year, and it was hard to get it right. Whereas L.A.M.B is my creative project that I have total free ride on, it remains limited by the price points. It’s just too expensive for most of my fans. Harajuku Lovers is how I express another kind of creativity, because I am so inspired by the whole Japanese culture. The song lyrics are all over the t-shirts, and the clothes are available for all ages and sizes, from babies all the way to XXL. We have erasers and school stuff and we even teamed up with Nakajima for some Hello Kitty items.”

Although Gwen has full creative control over the L.A.M.B line, she has recruited an new designer to guide her through the creative process. New York-based Zaldy who has designed costumes for Mary J Blige and Christina Aguilera in addition to Gwen, says that he has known Gwen for a while because his ex-boyfriend, Matthew Anderson, used to be Gwen’s make-up artist.

“Even before meeting her in person, the first day I saw her on TV, I could tell she was for real,” he says. “She just seemed like the kind of girl I would have hung out with in high school.” One night, when he was returning to Los Angeles from the Coachella music festival with Gwen’s hair stylist Danilo, he was invited to a party at Gwen’s house. That’s when she approached him with the idea of helping her design her new collection. “I was flattered, and when we started working together, I had to process all this information. When I design the L.A.M.B line, I always have her in mind, because she is the muse, the only muse, whereas when I design my own line, I have other muses. It is really a great experience for me, because [stylist] Andrea Lieberman is also a consultant, and I get to work in a team. It’s almost like doing a group project.”

In 1997, I was invited to a Chinese restaurant called Chi Dynasty, in the Hollywood Hills near Gwen’s house in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. That night, I had dinner with photographer Shawn Mortensen, Gavin and Gwen. I remember asking her about being a star, and she told me about the constant online interactions she had with her fans. She said that she had a habit of checking the Internet on a regular basis. She admitted that, somehow, she always managed to find the time to to maintain ongoing dialogues with a lot of her devoted fans. Eight years later, at the Quixote Studios, I reminded her of our conversation and asked her whether she still had time to engage in regular dialogue with her fans, having recently spotted dozen of websites dedicated to the cult of Stefani. She thought about it for a second and said “I like going online and look here and there, but it’s not really that healthy, because you get bummed out a lot. Actually, all the fan forums on our sites are down at the moment because they got hacked.”

When the interview was drawing to a close, I asked her about the history behind my all-time favourite No Doubt song, “Sunday Morning,” from the Tragic Kingdom album. She smiled and said it was such a long time ago. She told me that the video, which was directed in the spring of 1997 by Sophie Muller, in her third of eight collaborations with No Doubt, was filmed at her grandparents’ house. “The guy that’s in the store when I buy the tomatoes, that’s my grandpa.” Those somewhat innocent statements are really charming coming from a 35-year-old superstar in her prime. They also go a long way towards explaining the enduring popularity of Gwen Stefani, the hardworking girl from the OC who once sang about wanting a simple kind of life. “I was with Tony when we wrote ‘Sunday Morning’, and we were just kids just learning how to write songs. I never in a million years would have that that…”

Gwen Stefani’s quirky L.A.M.B label is attracting fashion followers and celebrities alike. And for the pop diva, it’s a very serious business, as she tells Lee Carter.

With every recording artist and her chauffeur coming out with a fashion collection, you would think that public interest in the phenomenon would be waning. But standing head and high-collar above the rest is Gwen Stefani, the No Doubt lead singer whose nascent L.A.M.B label possesses all the punch of the mediagenic mogulette herself. For Stefani, her own private fashion brand ranks as “the most surreal and gorgeous thing going on right now”.

Let’s be clear, L.A.M.B is no vanity label, but a heady mix of old Hollywood and old world, freak show and peep show. As smart and studied as it is sexy and stylish, it is attracting fashion followers and celebrities alike. Customers like Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu would pull each other’s hair for it, and probably have, while the indie songwriter Rufus Wainwright owns two of most of it, and the tennis star Lindsey Davenport routinely squeezes her tall frame into it. Even the Chinese factory workers who stitch together each piece, from the sweats to the T-shirts to frilly skirts and trenches, have put up posters of the scarlet-lipped siren upon which to gaze for inspiration.

In the New York showroom, perusing racks stuffed with colourful pieces from autumn 2005, it’s easy to see who the proverbial muse is. “I’m the L.A.M.B girl. That would be me. Me. There’s nothing in the line that would be for anyone else,”afirms Stefani, 35, by phone from her LA home. “I’m greedy, and I’m the biggest thief out there. I love finiding things and making them mine. It’s like I say to friends, don’t wear anything that I might wear because I’ll be borrowing that shit and sending it to China, and you won’t see it again until it comes out in my next collection!”

Asian fabrication aside. L.A.M.B – and particularly the autumn collection, the fourth – owes its very existence to the UK, down to its signature Olde English typeface. It was in London that the meat of the research for the label took place, a process involving a Grammy-winning chanteuse and co rummaging through piles of old raiment in musty costume houses. How else could one trip over forgotten but endlessly inspiring Pirate of the Caribbean outfits?

With some dusting off and a good amount of vision, the threadbare finds formed L.A.M.B look for autumn – stiff pirate jackets, swashbuckler mini-bloomers in tweed (that retailers wouldn’t touch until it was revealed that they were Stefani’s favourite), custom plaids woven in Scotland, and assorted ragged references to royalty.

“This dress is priate-y, corset-y, weirdness,” explains Zaldy, L.A.M.B’s co-designer. He pulls out a distressed jersey as he gives a tour of the showroom in SoHo. Suddenly, he recalls that “Gwyn Pal” (that’s Gwyneth Paltrow to you and me) needs to return a similar dress, and makes a mental note to call her. Other pieces include obsessively trimmed jackets, chiffon dresses with velvet bows, printed raincoats and leather trenches with ruffles at the back, all ranging from $400 to $900.

The label has a deeper connection with England. Stefani says she got the idea for L.A.M.B (short for Love.Angel.Music.Baby) when she saw her first fashion show in New York, a collection by the originator of the modern pirate look, Vivienne Westwood. It must have been five years ago, Stefani estimates, as she had pink hair at the time. “I was just a thrift store girl who went to shops with my mom to buy polyester fabric and matching buttons. Before that show, I didn’t know anything about high fashion. I was so Orange County. But I loved it. I still love Vivienne.”

The feeling is mutual. Westwood has called Stefani her muse, as has another English designer, John Galliano, who created a number of so-called Rasta bags for Christian Dior last year, believed to be inspired by Stefani’s ska-punk music. “John is the ultimate inspiration,” Stefani says. “He’s untouchable.” One imagines that she has already carried out what she promises in the lyrics of “Rich Girl”: “If I was a wealthy girl/Think what that money could bring/ I’d buy everything/ Clean out Vivienne Westwood/ In my Galliano gown.”

And then there’s her British husband Gavin Rossdale. The former singer with platinum-selling band Bush loves her new Harajuku Lovers menswear and accessories, as well as Hello Kitty-collaborated children’s clothing and novelties.

By any standard, 2005 has been a bumper year for Stefani Inc. Her collection of global retail outlets continues to climb (250 and counting), business continues to grow (now approaching $10m), and stores continue to rave (Saks Fifth Avenue keeps reordering, Harvey Nichols will stock the autumn/winter 2005 collection from the end of August). This is thanks in no small part to the quirky and competent team that Stefani has assembled. Besides striking the design partnership with Zaldy, who also holds down a line of his own, she has enlisted John Copeland to create her elaborate prints. Most recently, Andrea Lieberman, for years the costume designer for Stefani’s tours and videos, has joined to consult on a new line of costume jewellery and a range of sneakers made in association with Royal Elastics of Australia. More importantly, Lieberman will act as stylist for L.A.M.B’s first runway show, the spring 2006 collection shown in September, which will be the event of New York Fashion Week: expect more one-of-a-kind pieces and red-carpet gowns.

Stefani is supremely focused warning naysayers: “Don’t fuck with me because I’m taking this really seriously.” She continues: “For me, it’s about finding another passion in my life that I can do, years from now. I’m not planning on bouncing around on stage for the rest of my life. I’m happy to share the cookies that I bake, you know, but don’t keep picking at the batter.

“You can pinch me, slap me even hit me, but I don’t wake up because the dream keeps getting better and better.”

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