Singer Gwen Stefani recently joined host Kevan Kenney at KROQ in Los Angeles to give us a preview of her brand new, fifth solo album, 'Bouquet,' set for release on November 15.
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00:00look at this Gwen Stefani back on the world famous k-rock here we are guys
00:05back on k-rock what we were talking about earlier like how extremely big
00:12fans we were as kids of k-rock right and like we used to go to the skating rink
00:17to see Richard Blade and well I happened one time but I'm saying like it it was
00:23like it's like first time I ever heard Red Corvette like by Prince was on k-rock
00:28that's incredible isn't that weird yeah and just all of that music it was just
00:32it was such an incredible inspiration like life inspiration you know absolutely
00:38every morning the Breakfast Club I'll show all of it like yeah we knew all the
00:43DJs like that's amazing and now you're back this is like I would imagine like
00:47visiting your home ec teacher in high school or something yeah yeah that would
00:51be actually fun I learned how to make chocolate cake all over again oh well
00:55you're back for a good reason we're here to talk about bouquet the new album
00:58from you and I guess let's just get down to where you were when you made this
01:01album because it sounds like you're in a beautiful place in your life and you had
01:04these gorgeous things to say to people magazine I was reading last year about
01:07just this escape if you will to Oklahoma and just how positive it's been you
01:11really feel like maybe you're finally where you have always wanted to be and
01:14where you belong how is that disposition informed the album well I mean it's
01:18weird because I know everyone's like oh it's been so long and it has it has but
01:24it went so fast like there was so much destruction that happened about ten
01:29years ago in my life and like that takes a lot of healing like a lot of picking
01:35up the pieces and you know then there was kovat and like during that time
01:40period I felt like I've got really inspired like I really wanted to write a
01:43new record and I wanted to make something that like joyful and happy and
01:46I'm gonna make a reggae record I'm gonna make a ska record like I was getting
01:50nostalgic cuz I think we all went through like those like that kovat brain
01:54like what's happening like it's it was a really a game-changer for our lives you
02:00know and I was sitting in Oklahoma and it was kind of like the end and we just
02:07about to open up again and Kelly Clark Clarkson was like texting me all these
02:11like songs she'd written and I was like hey you're getting me jealous like when
02:15do you write these like she's the babies I'm like when are you writing she's like
02:18oh I stay up all night and I'm like what like how and meanwhile I'm like
02:23doing homeschool and I try to you know do the whole thing making the bread all
02:27the stuff we were doing but I ended up going in a studio but I think I was like
02:30really chasing like chasing the wrong direction like not knowing how to not
02:37repeat myself or you know even like trying to find the right room like with
02:42the right collaborators like we all have chemistry with each other you know like
02:45I'm a certain person with you than I am with maybe her but I'm also the same
02:49person but like maybe I feel more comfortable you know I'm saying like
02:52yeah totally especially when it's such an intimate thing and you're trying to
02:55find like it's one thing to be like a kid and try to find your identity
02:59through music and then it's just there and you get it and it's like the tragic
03:03kingdom comes out right but it's like every time you have to evolve on and at
03:07this point in my life I'm like what is that you know and then I finally wrote
03:11purple irises and that was crazy because I went in the room with this young girl
03:15this she's just like a cool LA girl artist called um oh my god I'm like
03:21yeah Nico I'm with you Nico I love you so much because Nico was like my mom
03:27used to listen no no doubt like it's just like so interesting to meet a girl
03:33that's like an artist like right now like a songwriter that's so confident
03:38and so open to letting me be myself and like it was just like a safe place with
03:43her and when we wrote that first song together I was like okay like she's
03:47letting me like have space in the room like it was just like a it just landed
03:51finally you know and I knew like sonically like where I would wanted to
03:55go finally and yeah so I had written like a lot of songs before I landed and
04:01picked these songs for the bouquet because it just I wanted it to be honest
04:07and I wanted to be pure and I wanted it to be not competing with me not
04:11competing with everyone else that's happy I just wanted to be an art piece
04:15of art you know yeah pure and so I feel like I got there and it's like it's
04:19really emotional because like just sharing it is another level because like
04:24when you write the songs they're speaking back to you in that emotional
04:27way like I didn't even know I was really saying that now when I hear it I hear it
04:30like you're it's therapy you know and then when you share it and then someone
04:34else responds like the way you want them to or you're what you're trying to say
04:38they understand it or they like appreciate or they are going through
04:41that you're like oh it's just so healing yeah music is so cool
04:45well it's incredible to hear all of that and hear the context and realize you've
04:48whittled it down somehow to the ten tracks that we're gonna get when bouquet
04:51officially comes out of course November 15th and I love the lyrics on these and
04:56I'm kind of a lyric geek myself you are oh yeah I mean I think it's funny you
05:00probably like this too you know people in your life some people it really is
05:03like the beat right it's the music that speaks to them yeah for me it's always
05:05been the writing it's always been lyrics and so the opening line of
05:08somebody else's I think is just my favorite kind of lyric is that when you
05:11can capture the sentiment of what you're trying to express right perfectly which
05:14is probably always the goal and that first opening line of somebody else's of
05:17what was a heart like mine doing in a love like that it's you know it's
05:21something we can all relate to or you that sense of losing yourself along the
05:24way of life at times well talk to me about writing that song in that lyric
05:28okay it's kind of a loaded question because I had worked with this girl
05:34Madison love who is the other super cute hi Madison girl talented beautiful
05:41like everything girl right and when I walked in the room I'm like who is this
05:45girl you know to me like it's like it's it's weird it's like I walked in here
05:49and started writing a song with you like I don't know you know how people do it
05:52it's so scary and and she was very like very like maybe could be this maybe that
06:00because and then I was like oh my gosh let me think like I don't know like I
06:04don't even know you right but then all of a sudden it's like the trust starts
06:08happening and I start seeing how unbelievably gifted she is it's like
06:11ridiculous right and just confident and like cool and stylish like everything
06:17that you want in a girl like is this girl Madison love and so this particular
06:24song is like after we had written a bunch of songs together she texts me and
06:29I hate this when people do this so like I wrote a song like and I'm like I don't
06:34even want to open this song cuz I know that like what if I don't like it you
06:38know and then I'm gonna have to say Madison like I'm good like yeah you
06:42know I mean and so and subject wise I was like I'm good like I don't want to
06:47talk about that like I'm good but um long story short it was just such a good
06:53idea and it was so written for me about my everything that we had talked about
06:59in all these sessions and the fact that she it was so right and so spiritually
07:05right that she handed me the song because this record needed to show the
07:08dark of what I'd been through to show where the love grew into like you know
07:13it's like it's like I wanted this record so bad to heal me but I needed to I
07:19didn't want to even talk about that but it was like I don't know she did it in
07:23a really fun clever way in a freeing way and so anyways we ended up going
07:28actually after that I was like hey you guys I was like we should go to Oklahoma
07:34and we could have like a writing session all of us and it's like Nick Long, Madison
07:37Love, Henry who's Circuit and Jay Cash who's you might people might know all
07:44these writers are so cool and we all hopped on the plane went to Oklahoma and
07:49like set up like a just a studio like in the in the room and and wrote this song
07:54called Swallow My Tears and we finished the other song somebody else's and yeah
08:00that was it and then I then I still wasn't gonna put the song on the record
08:03I was like still not gonna put it on the record. Why? Because you're just like too
08:06vulnerable or? I just was like I don't know if it really goes with it you know
08:09and then I went in this this is when I went in the studio with I did then at
08:15that point this record has been going on forever but I was like you know and it
08:18doesn't matter because it's art so if I if it takes that long then it doesn't
08:22even matter it never comes out really because it's the process is what I
08:26needed like that I needed that process and I ended up sending a couple songs to
08:32this guy Scott Hendricks who's a country music producer and when I say country
08:37music producer I did not grow up listening to country music I don't know
08:41anything about country I did not go country except for go for Blake but I'm
08:44saying like I wanted to work with this guy because he is like the most
08:48eccentric weirdo like amazing gifted like producer I've ever like I mean I've
08:55worked with so many amazing I don't want to discount anyone else but this guy is
08:58like he's like he's out there when it comes to like listening to music it's
09:03like he can hear everything and so I I'd worked with him through Blake and I was
09:06I was like always fantasizing that he'd work with me but it's just weird like
09:10Anaheim and it didn't make you know sense but I sent one of the songs and
09:14he wrote me back I was like Scott Hendricks just wrote me and he's like I
09:19can't stop listening to these songs and I was like are you serious are you
09:22serious and anyways like four days because he retired so we weren't able to
09:27work with each other blah blah blah but right in the perfect timing when I was
09:30like you know what I think I need to rerecord this whole thing and make it a
09:34bouquet like I can't just be like this is this is this it has to have that
09:38organic live sound like those records I grew up on when I was a kid like in the
09:42back of the station wagon going to church like it needs to be like alive
09:46people humans and so four days after he retired from his other thing he was able
09:53to we got in the studio and we did the whole thing in two days and you would
09:58have died like I mean talk about you love lyrics but like talk about amazing
10:03musicians I mean these guys like all they had to listen was like a demo of me
10:07singing it with acoustic guitar and then everybody like stood around like a
10:11hippies like spiritual like experience and everybody just kind of like based on
10:17like that's the sound I wanted like they all went in just started playing live
10:21and we did it all live and it was just an incredible experience I can't even
10:26tell you so I'm just super excited to share it yeah definitely and you talked
10:29just just there about you know these songs you grew up on you mentioned you
10:32know hearing red Corvette on my prints of course I'm Karach for the first time
10:36and just being here at Karach just to go down memory lane for a moment freaked me
10:39out well don't say all those things or I'll get super emotional but nobody
10:43seriously though I one of your most popular records of course as no doubt in
10:47the Karach days was of course rocksteady and it's a record that we probably still
10:50play multiple singles off of every day and I didn't know this I read this I
10:54want you to confirm it or maybe share some details that Prince actually helped
10:57on that album through waiting room yes yeah he did it was um really crazy I
11:04mean I basically I remember I was in London and I got it was like when there
11:09used to be telephones like ring at your house this is a while ago and I got a
11:13call in there like the artist formerly known is on the phone and and basically
11:20at that time I think he was called the artist I yeah remember having had like
11:24a symbol yeah I don't think he's gonna use a symbol but it was like the artist
11:26formerly formerly known cuz you can't say symbol I don't know at that time but
11:31he was on the phone he called me and he was like hey he's like I'm wanting to
11:39come to you know Minneapolis and come to Minnesota do like do these do a song
11:43with me or whatever and I'm just sitting there going is this is this real life
11:48right now because Prince is on the phone and I mean I was obsessed with him like
11:53obsessed like under the cherry moon like I was a little late like because in high
11:58school like I wasn't really in I was more into ska and like that kind of
12:02music and everything popular was like kind of like ah you know I mean it's
12:06like it was there but I wouldn't admit it I liked anything outside of this like
12:12little because I was like you know 15 like learning this music whatever but
12:17anyways long story short his deal with us was okay you guys come out here and
12:21I'll help you finish one of your songs or write a song with you and then you
12:27Gwen will be on this song right and so I sent him the song that we were having a
12:33hard time finish called waiting room and I get off the plane we're walking to
12:38the airport with his like bodyguard guy this tall guy and he's like the artist
12:42is on the phone I was like and he's like hey I had to rewrite your song I was
12:46like okay and he basically used waiting room that was pretty much it just that
12:52title and rewrote this whole song that he tortured me in the studio when I was
12:57singing it was really really intense like going there and and and being like
13:02like me and you right now and there's glass and he's like the next note will
13:08be and then he'd like sing it softly and then I'd have to do like the heart and
13:12there's like all these harmonies like I was Wendy and Lisa like I was that girl
13:16and I didn't leave the booth for like eight hours like just to pee like no
13:20food oh yeah surreal would you would you say just in closing here would you say
13:25you've done so many cool things throughout your career from no doubt I
13:28mean this amazing TV crew you've had the past decade to your acting of course the
13:31roles you've had is there something where you look back and you go that is
13:34the most probably surreal moment of my career whether it's in music or
13:37otherwise right now being at k-rock I mean it's just it's totally surreal I'm
13:44not even kidding like that's the first thing I can do my I mean there has been
13:48so many weird things I just always think about like my purpose and like how did
13:54God choose me like because I was just this little nothing dyslexic girl from
13:58Orange County that was like like okay I'll sing like I I don't even know how I
14:04got here like it just makes no sense but what is so magical and so incredible is
14:11to be able to like write the songs and and be able to share them and then I get
14:15healed and then somebody else gets something good out of it too and it's
14:19like music is just so cool isn't it oh yeah it's so powerful you don't even see
14:23it you just hear it it's just so amazing but um yeah I feel really blessed right
14:29now yeah well you too thank you thank you you're awesome
14:32thanks for having me