Tony Kanal: No Doubt's Coachella Reunion Felt 'Amazing'
Like all who witnessed No Doubt’s return at Coachella, Tony Kanal is still “buzzing” from the performance.
“It’s hard to put into words how incredible it was,” says Kanal, 53, when speaking with Us Weekly exclusively, days before No Doubt’s bassist and the rest of the band – his ex Gwen Stefani, Tom Dumont, Adrian Young, Stephen Bradley and Gabrial McNair – return for the second Coachella weekend (April 20-21).
“It was just an amazing experience for all six of us,” says Kanal. The band’s performance on April 13 was the first time No Doubt had performed together in nearly a decade. Despite the time away, Kanal tells Us he had no “fear” before stepping on stage in front of the thousands attending Coachella.
“We haven’t played in almost nine years,” he tells Us. “We prepped really well for the show,” continues Kanal. “We rehearsed a lot and put a lot of time into the production. So, we were ready to go. When you play a festival, you don’t know what the response is going to be. Festival crowds can be tricky, but it was everything we hoped for. It was pretty spectacular.”
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The set was spectacular for No Doubt fans. The band played hits from all their eras, from 1995’s “Just a Girl” to 2001’s “Hella Good.” It was mainly a family affair, though the group brought out No Doubt superfan Olivia Rodrigo to help perform “Bathwater.”
When asked if the second Coachella weekend would be a repeat of the first or if they could switch it up, Kanal was careful not to spoil anything. But he did hint that there might be something special in store. “We can change up the set list,” he says. “There’s a possibility of a couple substitutions or switch-outs that we’re going to do this coming weekend.”
Regardless, No Doubt will head into the second Coachella weekend with the same reserve and focus as the first.
“Normally, when you prepare for something like a big tour, it takes two or three shows before you’ve kind of gotten to that really comfortable place,” he explains. “We’re not going to have that opportunity here because these are the only two shows we’re doing as of right now.
“So I’m going into it the same way we approached weekend one,” he says. It’s like, ‘Let’s do this and bring the same energy.’
Rehearsal ahead of this reunion was “incredible,” he tells Us. “I felt like going into this, I was 16 again — when the band started — and it just felt like that same type of energy that we were bringing to it.” He cited how the ska bands the group loved while growing up – Fishbone, The Specials and Madness – all focused on having fun and bringing an “infectious” vibe when they played.
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That energy will carry Kanal throughout the rest of the year. After Coachella, he and his group Dreamcar—featuring his No Doubt bandmates Young and Dumont and AFI’s Davey Havok—will play Cruel World on May 11. After that, he’ll resume his blossoming career as a composer for television and film.
“I’m just starting in that world, and it’s so exciting for me,” he says of writing music for visual media. I’ve had the opportunity to do a couple of projects so far, and it’s a completely different world than being in a band for 37 years. It’s an exciting and different way to create music.”
Kanal explained that he began scoring movies and television when composer and conductor Blake Neely called him to play on some composing he was doing. “We kind of hit it off, became friends, and I moved into his studio, and then we ended up doing [music for] a movie called Purple Hearts together a couple of years ago,” says Kanal.
This new way of writing and making music sparked something inside Kanal, who has since worked with Neely on projects like gen:LOCK and Crisis on Infinite Earths. Kanal has worked on some projects as a solo composer, scoring Hulu’s Single Drunk Female.
Composing offers a new artistic outlet for Kanal, one that will be there for him after his gigs with No Doubt and Dreamcar.
“When you’re writing in that world, it’s more of a solo thing,” he shares. “You’re sitting in a room, sometimes with the scene you’re writing, which is a completely different way than writing with your bandmates. But it’s creative nonetheless, and it’s a cool new experience. I’ve already been so lucky to experience the band stuff for so many years, and to be able to do this now is just icing on the cake.”
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“I’m old enough now to have gone through lots of peaks and valleys in my life, and the one thing I’m realizing is that as long as I’m staying creative and working, that’s when I’m kind of in my best place,” says Kanal. “And whether it’s preparing for Coachella with No Doubt or writing a Dreamcar record or composing, I think as long as I’m staying creative, I’m in a happy, good place.
“And I’ve been so fortunate to experience all these different things, and especially this year, it’s kind of like ‘when it rains, it pours,’” he says with a laugh. “There’s so much great stuff happening, and it’s so exciting, It just feels so awesome right now.”
