Gwen Stefani: ‘I Have Enough for Probably Two Albums’
Gwen Stefani recently unveiled her first post-divorce track “Used to Love You,” and in an interview with Beats 1’s Zane Lowe, the No Doubt singer talked about the surprise single, writer’s block, why she scrapped an entire LP’s worth of music and the rapid progress she’s making on her next album, due out in 2016. “I think I have enough for probably two albums,” Stefani said. “I have to write a few more songs, because I feel like, might as well keep going while it’s there.”
In addition to “Used to Love You,” Stefani talked about J.R. Rotem-produced tracks titled “Red Flag,” “Naughty” and “Make Me Like You,” as well as a “really happy song” called “Misery” that’s earmarked as her next single. “Dude, I got 20 songs. I have a whole record in eight weeks, but I want to keep writing,” Stefani told Lowe. “You have to understand how much I couldn’t write, and then all of a sudden I’m writing, writing, writing.”
In the interview, Stefani detailed her struggle with songwriting in recent years. “There’s this crazy thing where I was given this gift – which I didn’t know about until it happened – that I could write these songs,” Stefani said. “But I was always so not confident about it and worried about it, and like writer’s block, and all these things, and I was like that, I was so blocked for so long, and making that last No Doubt record was so hard, like knocking my head against the wall … But now it’s happening again, and it’s like the most incredible thing ever. It’s so incredible to be able to use my gift again.”
Stefani also talked about working with Lana Del Rey collaborator Rick Nowels on new music. “Everyone knows my life is in crazy turmoil, and I went in to write a song with this guy Rick Nowels … a real songwriter songwriter,” she said. “I walked in the room and he’s like ‘Okay, you’re gonna sit right here in the middle of this room and there’s an engineer you don’t know and you don’t know me and let’s go. And by the way, when Lana Del Rey comes in here, she just whips them out in 10 minutes’ … I was like ‘Okay, I’ve done this before.’ We did write a song that day, and it was the first taste of what I need to do right now.”