Exclusive Scoop: An honest interview with Gwen Stefani

You may have heard about Gwen Stefani – lead singer of the Californian band No Doubt, and acclaimed solo artist. Her last year has been a real whirlwind between her appearances on The Voice (US) and her very public divorce from Gavin Rossdale. Her latest record is her way of getting back to music, fresh off a messy split. Playful and often raw, she explains how she put it together.

You’ve been really busy both professionally and personally since the last No Doubt album in 2012. How did you manage to write and record This Is What The Truth Feels Like?

Gwen Stefani: That’s a really good question. I actually don’t know how I did it. It feels like a miracle. I think that when I first started trying to write a record I had different intentions. I really, really wanted to make new music, but had a new baby and I was on The Voice. I sort of started to curate a record, but not write. My personal life took a really unexpected turn that threw me in a place where I was forced to kind of pick myself up off the ground and try to make something good out of it. I used writing as a way to try to heal myself during a really challenging time and this record was born out of that effort. During that time, things got really good unexpectedly and then I made a really happy record.

You’ve said this record is inspired by your personal life. How do you work with your producers to grasp the right feeling you want to convey in each song?

G.S.: It wasn’t an accident, but there was this meant-to-be thing that happened where I was put in the studio with these magical people that understood me. It was this very perfect mixture of personalities, timing and talent. It was just a natural thing where they really related to me and I felt really confident and comfortable around them.

Can you explain your writing process?

G.S.: I feel like the writing process changed throughout the entire process. When I first started writing, I was quite insecure. I wasn’t really sure if I was going to be able to write, but once I wrote the first song, which is called Red Flag, with the right group of people it was literally like an addiction. I had to get back in the next day, and the next day I wrote Naughty and then any chance I could get I would get in there. I was writing a lot in my spare time just in a journal and on my computer. Any chance I could get I was using writing as an escape from all of the craziness that was going on in my life. It was all about just really digging into my heart and the feelings I was having in that moment, sharing them, and the music was created around that emotion.

How did you select the songs that made it on to the track list?

G.S.: The best songs sort of rose to the top and it was quite obvious. At the end of the day I didn’t want to put out too many songs, but I got an opportunity to work with Target so I got to put out an extra four songs, which I am really grateful for because without those I feel like the entire story wasn’t told and it needed both the beginning of the writing process and the end to complete the story. And they are on the international album.

What is your favorite song on the record?

G.S.: I think one of my favorite songs on the record is Rare and I think that’s because that song feels so different for me. The subject matter is such a positive, hopeful, happy song, but you can tell that it was born out of pain – so I love that song.

Used to Love You is such a powerful personal and emotional song. Was it hard to get that vulnerable in front of the whole world?

G.S.: I don’t think I thought much about the whole world. I wasn’t thinking about much except for myself at that moment and trying to get my own feelings out. Sharing it was quite a gift. The exchange I had with the world was very, very comforting to have people understand what I was going through and relate to it and support me.

In my opinion with this body of work, you really showcase a lot of different musical influences – a bit of ska, pop, synth, reggae. What do you think this brings to this collection of songs?

G.S.: It was really driven by emotions, heart and healing – so the music was all an afterthought that just kind of came from the producers as we were in the moment of whatever the lyric and feeling was. I think that’s what made it sort of fresh and pure, because there really was no intention of trying to create anything. It was really about healing.

On the other hand, Rare is more of a folk song featuring an acoustic guitar. Can you explain this direction?

G.S.: That was one of the last songs I wrote and I had a real limited time to write it. At that point it was the end of writing – I had written a bunch of songs and there was not a song that had guitar on it. I had already written the lyrics for Rare and I asked the producer to start a chord progression on a guitar, so that’s how it started on guitar.

You’ve been known to create big visual statements with your previous solo records L.A.M.B. and The Sweet Escape. This time around it seems more low key. Is it to focus solely on the music?

G.S.: Those records were created with the idea of doing something that was super fun and light-hearted, never to be taken too seriously. Although, when I look back at the lyrics, I feel like they have a lot of depth. That was a concept period in my life where I had a vision of exactly what I wanted. This time around I was literally scraping myself off the ground trying to see how I could get to the next place of my life. I was using music to heal myself, so there was no concept except for trying to get up in the morning.

This Is What The Truth Feels Like by Gwen Stefani, Interscope/Polydor/Universal. Available now.

Grégoire Provost