Gwen Stefani didn’t want to “compete with the past” on her new album ‘Bouquet’.
The 55-year-old singer first found fame as the frontwoman of ska rock group No Doubt – who landed their big breakthrough with their third album ‘Tragic Kingdom’ in 1995 – before going on to launch a successful solo pop career in 2004.
Gwen recently released returned with her fifth solo album – the follow-up to 2017’s ‘You Make It Feel Like Christmas ‘ – and has revealed she had to re-do the production because it felt like she was repeating herself.
She told GRAMMY.com: “I got engaged and married, so writing this album was writing about this new part of my life. When I finished doing the songs, I felt uncomfortable about the production — not because I didn’t love it, because I did, but it just felt like I was repeating myself.
“It felt like when you go back into the closet and find something old from high school and try to put it on and think it’s going to look good and it’s just not working anymore. I didn’t want to try to compete with the past at all.”
The ‘What You Waiting For?’ hitmaker – who is married to country musician Blake Shelton – says it was important for her not to be restricted by genres.
She added: “In my mind, it was clear — I needed to go in and make the record have no genre and make the sound creative with live musicians and make it feel live.
“The combination of the pop songwriting and the organic live band is what created the sound of Bouquet, [which] sounds unique from anything else I’ve done.”
Meanwhile, Gwen recently admitted she would love for No Doubt to play Glastonbury.
The ‘Don’t Speak’ hitmakers haven’t performed at the world-famous festival since 2002, but after their epic comeback at Coachella in US in April, which marked their first show since 2013, the musician is hopeful fans won’t have as long to wait for them to get back onstage and she is open to offers from Worthy Farm.
However, Gwen – who has three sons with ex-husband Gavin Rossdale – admits being a mother takes up a lot of her time these days.
Quizzed on whether fans can expect more No Doubt shows, she told NME: “I’m sure we’re gonna do something again at some point. It just has to be the right thing that makes sense [with] all of our schedules. It takes so much work to do a No Doubt thing – the rehearsals, everything. It’s really hard for me because – I know I keep saying it – but I have three kids. I don’t take that lightly; I don’t want to mess that up.”
Asked if she and her bandmates would like to return to Glasto in the UK, she said: “It was 2002? [the last time they played] That would have been ‘Rock Steady’ [era] – that was an amazing time, we were on fire!
But yeah, Glastonbury would be amazing to do with No Doubt. I know people don’t sit around waiting for anything from me, but in my life there’s not even one minute to, like, drink a coffee – I’m so unbelievably busy all the time.
“But I’m sure if Glastonbury wanted us, they would email! I mean, we loved getting together to do a festival and I would definitely do it again with them. Meanwhile, I’m just super-excited about this new music and the fact I’ve landed on this sound. I feel like I’ve created this bouquet of everything I’ve been going through for the last, I guess, eight years.”