Gwen Stefani Reflects on 20 Years of Music & New Album 'Bouquet'

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Hollywood, Hamilton and the K two Morning Krew.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
Gwen, Hi, thanks for having me. You are insane.

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're so beautiful.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
I love you.

Speaker 3 (00:08):
Thank you stunning, absolutely stunning. Now we gotta kick things
off with the fact that you have a brand new album.
It's actually ironic though, because it's the month the twentieth
anniversary of your debut solo album Love Angel Music Baby
came out.

Speaker 1 (00:21):
Which you my shirt.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Yeah nice, that means that the shirt is twenty years old.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
I mean, listen, you gotta hold on.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
I can't.

Speaker 1 (00:28):
I a vantage.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Well, I hope it doesn't ever get.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Lost, but yeah, it's vintage. That's how you have to
consider it. We all have a little couple of vintage things.

Speaker 3 (00:36):
But now that your fifth studio album, Bouquet, is basically
almost out on the exact same day, first solo album
in seven years, you've evolved immensely.

Speaker 1 (00:44):
So how does this project differ from the last project?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
A lot? I mean, life happens, you know, I think
that it was. Every single record has its own story
and they're all completely different. I think that each one
you're just so unbelievably grateful for and they all express
for me. It's really all about expressing that time period

(01:08):
right and kind of like capturing it, like kind of
reining it in and holding it and keeping it in
that place. And I think each song sort of speaks
back to you after you write it, like you are
I basically receive them. I feel like they just are
handed to me, especially the ones that are like they
mean anything there. I'm just as surprised as anyone else,
you know what I mean. So it just comes to you,
it does, and it comes down from the spirit, you know.

(01:32):
So it's like I think that being able to share
that at that point is like that's what today is.
And it just it's like this euphoric I'm actually living
my purpose right now. Like I feel like I was
supposed to do this and now I'm trying to let
it out to the world and it's going to do
what it's going to do and people are going to
receive it. It's just such an amazing thing. Music. You know,

(01:52):
it connects us, It really doesn't.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
It really does.

Speaker 3 (01:54):
I mean, especially getting to know you like through your music.
Music is absolutely what connects people.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
And to answer your question, which I know, I always
take these long cul desact trips around the block but
I think that like Love Angel Music Baby, that time
period was pretty magical. I think it was because I
was sort of, you know, I was in the no
Doubt thing, which was just natural, organic, perfect in that way.
But when we were like, Okay, we're gonna take a

(02:20):
little break, little hiatus, you know, it was just like
again received this message like go do a dance record.
I was like, I was like, and it's It was
because I think that you know, when you discover When
I discovered music's like genre wise, I got really into,
like you know, in high school, that identity thing where
you're like trying to figure out who you are through music.
It was like I found ska, reggae and punk and

(02:43):
like all this stuff that was like it made me
who I was. But then there was all this other
stuff that was happening on the radio that was the
backdrop to my life. It was like hearing prints on
the radio for the first time, like Little Red Corvette.

Speaker 1 (02:56):
Like was that to be more influential in your music?

Speaker 2 (02:58):
I think that every record has its own influence, Like
I think on Love Angel Music Baby, it was like
Lisa Lisa in the cult gym Debbie deb It was
like this dance music that like I used to go
dancing in Orange County. We had like not s very
farm and they had like dance night and you could
go there for like five bucks to get in the park.
And then like everyone that was like into ska and
reggae would like show up there with their scooters and

(03:20):
then everybody else would be like white lines and you're
dance you know what I mean, and you'd wait for
the ska song to come on. So my point is
is that it was all of that music. So when
I went to do that record, I was very clear.
I was like I know exactly what it's gonna be,
what it's gonna sound like. And it was the first
time ever venturing out and writing with writers and like
being like I'm just gonna go do this, well this
now dance with the question again. Like this record was

(03:42):
a different thing. It was like it was like where
am I now? Who am I now? What's my truth?
Like I don't want to go back and try to
compete with myself or like try to like repeat myself
and or compete with the world now or try to
fit in like it I can't. I have to you
said the word evolve and like I always want to

(04:05):
feel like I'm doing that no matter what happens, because
we don't know what it feels like to get into
the future. But here it is right now, you know,
and it feels pretty good.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
Good that the best part of it.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
You know.

Speaker 3 (04:15):
Now you are creative artists? Would you recommend listening to
the new album from track one to the end?

Speaker 2 (04:20):
Like?

Speaker 1 (04:20):
Does it tell a story from the first track all
the way to the end?

Speaker 2 (04:23):
I love the order. I think it kind of does.
I think that it wasn't really super like thought out
in that way. I was working with this amazing producer
that produced the album, and he had like, once he
mixed the whole thing, he sent it in this order
and he's like, I think it's pretty good like this,
and I was like, he curated it, so he did,

(04:43):
But then I read I changed around a couple of
songs because lyrically, I was like, no, that has to wait,
Like I can't that one. But I think that overall,
like when I listen to it now, what I love
about the record is I really I really wanted to
make this a bouquet of songs, right, and I wanted
it to feel like in intentional edited like a select
amount like that, you could just it's it's only ten songs,

(05:06):
so it's it's very short, you know what I mean.
And I think that that was like that was intentional,
you know, and it was hard because I had written
a lot of songs to get these and.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
Then how narrow it down? Yeah, to just tell me right.

Speaker 2 (05:16):
I think it just is one of those things they
kind of rise to the top, like you know, if
you like cook pasta, and it just kind of comes.
It's like, okay, it's done. It's done.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah, So okay.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
So if I were to say to you, give me
a song off the album that stands out to you
the most that you would want me to dive in
and listen to first, which one would it be?

Speaker 2 (05:34):
Well, I'm just getting to know you, but you have
a love like a love thing here, like your necklace, right,
And I would say, like one of the songs that
I it's such a simple song and it doesn't even
say that much. But one song that I really feel
like people would relate to is a song called Pretty,
And the story behind that song is is just so simple.

(05:54):
It's kind of like I always think about, like myself
looking in the mirror, when I was like in eighth
grade in the gym, like nobody was in there, and
I was looking in the mirror and I'm like, am
I pretty? Like I can't tell, like because you're not
at that age, no, but at that age you don't know,
and you're like, am I? What am I? And And
then like through the years, you always, you know, you

(06:15):
always are like critical of yourself or like trying so
hard or looking back and going, oh, I looked horrible then,
or why was I doing that?

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Or know when you pull out those pictures now, it's
like what was I doing with my makeup?

Speaker 2 (06:27):
Especially when you're like you're advanced up into the future,
like we are where I am, and so like I
think that, like I was looking back at myself and thinking,
like what was my prettiest time? Where did I peete?
Like inside and out? You know? And I look at
the pictures from like twenty fifteen when I met Blake
and like, somebody actually loved me for the first time,

(06:49):
and I felt what love really felt. Like it's actually
he was actually giving himself to me and I was
receiving and giving myself back. That is love, but it's true,
and you know.

Speaker 3 (06:59):
Why when you do get loved like the right way
by someone, You do glow and people and your friends
notice that because they'll say, why you're glowing, You're so happy?

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yes, and that's what that song's about. And I think that,
like it's interesting. What what fascinates me the most is
And I'm just starting to get to see this because
it's just coming out, but even leading up to it
coming out, when you know, people that I've known or
that have heard the record, they pick up on these
things and you're like, I didn't I just basically gave
you the definition. But like without knowing, they'll tell me

(07:29):
back like, oh my gosh, that that song like it
made me cry, like I finally felt love and now
I know so like I love that when it's just
like they feel what I felt. Yeah, that's the whole
point of doing this record right right in the core.

Speaker 1 (07:42):
Yeah, it hits you in the core.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
It's just, oh, you know that you just did the
right thing, and I love Oh my god, I'm going
to go, you're better doing that one. Now we got
to talk about the track number one, somebody Else's based
off the title alone. When I just saw somebody Else's
kind of made me feel like people could speculate your
somebody else's. But in the song you say true love growth.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
So what do you mean by that? And how has
it grown for you?

Speaker 2 (08:04):
Well? I feel like the whole album talks about love
love growing and the idea that if you kind of
plant a seed in the ground in the earth, right
and you water it and there's and then you don't
water it or whatever it is, whatever the circumstances you
you know, you can't force it to grow. Really it's
really gonna grow if it's gonna it is. And I

(08:26):
think that that had that theme is on this record
and woven in between all the songs, and that metaphor
is like such a metaphor of life, you know what
I mean. And I can't remember what the question was
somebody else is.

Speaker 1 (08:41):
Are you someone else's or are you somebody.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
I think I think for that in that song, it's
the idea that you can, you know, sometimes if you
have like, let's say, a trauma, like a major trauma,
and then you have like PTSD and trauma, and like
it really is something that is imprinted into your brain forever, you.

Speaker 1 (09:04):
Know, absolutely, And and then I get the triggers behind
the trauma.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
It is so true and and I talk about that
on the album. There's another song on that called Swallow
My Tears. It's all about but I think that the
truth is is that time does heal, you know, And
I think that that song is proof to that. Like
it's it's like it does. It doesn't break my heart, right,

(09:28):
it doesn't break my heart anymore because I'm done, And
it's such a healing song. Even though this song is
quite like it calls out some negative energy, it definitely
is a hopeful song in a lot of ways too.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
So I'm going to say I'm over you like it's
like an anthem.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Yeah, And it's not. It's not I'm over you and
I don't I don't care and I don't love you
and I didn't love the time. It's more like I healed.
It's not even about like it's actually not about that person.
It's about me. Yeah, So I think that that's what
if you really you have to look. This is what
it's so cool about lyrics too. If I go and
explain too much, then someone else is gonna have their

(10:05):
they're like their gift of that song that they received
from me, and what it means to them taken away
because you know what I mean at the at the
end of the day, like I think that everyone gets
what they need out of a song, you know, and
and I think you can also sometimes listen to songs,
and I've been doing this so much lately, like listening
to a lot of like seventy soft rock that was
from my childhood, and you hear lyrics, I was like,

(10:28):
oh my god, I never knew they said that, Like
what are they talking about?

Speaker 1 (10:31):
Like you receive it differently years later.

Speaker 2 (10:33):
Sometimes, like I was thinking about that song man Eater,
and my mom would be like, we're on the way
to choir. She'd be like, Dennis tune this song. And
I'm like, what is man Eater? Like I don't even
know what? Like what is she? Why she's so mad?
And then you know what I mean. Anyway, that's not
a good example, but it actually is.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
That almost reminds me of when I was a kid.
I used to listen to I Want Your Sex, and
my mom's like, do you even know what sex is?
I'm like, I want you. She's like I can't. She goes,
can you please throw that at I like it? She's like,
you don't even know what it is or like a virgin.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
She's like that, I know. Well, it's true. It's like
you don't really know until like later, and songs can
And this is the most miracle thing about songs if
you're a songwriter. And for me, which is my favorite
thing and it happens a lot, is you'll write it
with the intention because you're like, I'm going to write this,
like this is what I want to say, and then
it's finished, and then you're listening and it dawns on

(11:26):
you like I didn't know I was really saying that. Wow,
and then you're like, so you have.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
Like that epiphany aha moment, like yeah, like this come from.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Yeah, you know where it came from, the man it
was given to you, it's gifted to Yes, basically, yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:41):
So now swallow my tears.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
What you mentioned before, you reflect on how a past
relationship can impact a current that I have to say.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Is very deep, which I absolutely love.

Speaker 3 (11:51):
A lot of the songs on this new album seem
reflective of like feelings and emotions. So what other things
were you going through while going through the writing process.

Speaker 2 (12:00):
Yes, I think I was struggling a lot with being
in the future of my life and identity, like you know,
like finding new love, which was incredible and fulfilling, being
a mom, which is challenging, incredible blessing. But I think

(12:22):
that being a songwriter and having that like being blessed
and spoiled the way I have been, to be able
to like touch people and have like people react like,
I think that's something that I was like I was
missing that, you know, and I think that I will.
And then I was like, okay, like how do I
get that again? And nobody's really asking for it, and
no one's actually like when I'm when I'm getting excited

(12:44):
about it, no one's really getting excited about it. I'm
like talking about doing new music, Like I really was
like should I be doing this? And also like is
it immature and selfish of me at this point in
my life to go back in the studio and spend
time doing art, Like what am I doing? Like it
was a lot of those questions, you know, But there
was just this inner voice that just I couldn't like
once I had planted that idea, that seed in me,

(13:06):
like I just couldn't ignore it. I had to just
keep going back and trying. And I went back and
tried a lot, and it wasn't until I wrote a
song called Purple Ibruses. And I had walked in the
room and this girl that I wrote work with, she's
little girl in La named Nico Rubio. She's an artist.
She's probably twenty. I don't even know how she is,

(13:27):
but she Oh my gosh, she had written a song
called true Babe that she sent to me. And I know,
ever take people's songs because I don't get a lot
sent to me, and I usually don't like them. And
it's just whatever I like to write the songs. That's
the whole point, is what we've been talking about, right,
And I liked the song, so I cut it and
I was like, well, who wrote this? And there's this
little girl and these guys Jack and Coke and as well,

(13:48):
I should go in the room with them. I like
what they do, right, So it was very insecure to
go walking in a room as me and be like, hi, guys,
let me show you what I got, Like you don't
know if you're gonna get creative? Would be good that day.
And she's just this like sparkly, young, beautiful girl and
she's like my grandma and my mom love your music,

(14:09):
you know what I mean, Like she grew up on
no doubt, and so it's like this weird, like is
this happening right now? And and but what was so
beautiful about it was her energy was what I needed.
I needed her to clear the room out for me
and let me be me. And it was like a
lot of the sessions I had been doing, I felt

(14:29):
like very intimidated or like I felt like the talent
was so good, they were so good at what they
do that I just didn't have room in the room.
And she just I was its. Finally I finally hit
that like zone and I wrote that song, and then
that kind of led me to this whole album.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
Which is thank You, I Love You.

Speaker 3 (14:47):
So the album is Bouquet. Before you go, one more
question about that. Any upcoming tours planned around the album?

Speaker 2 (14:55):
Maybe I don't think so, But maybe I don't know.
This is the thing about the future. You just ca
can't tell what's going to happen next. And I didn't
know I was going to have this record. I didn't
know it was going to be in New York. I
know I was going to get to hang out with you,
and so I just think I'm I'm trying to be
just super open to receive whatever supposed to happen next.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
Well, happy holidays, thanks for coming. Hopefully everybody can put
this under the tree. That would be amazing. Thank thank
you so much, Going.

Speaker 3 (15:21):
And Hollywood, Hamilton and of course the key to morning
carewer I love you guys.

Speaker 2 (15:24):
Bye,