ON THE FACE OF IT, Southern California's No Doubt and Ireland's Cranberries are an unlikely match. The Americans' sound was built on ska, new wave and punk while the Cranberries are best known for their lilting melodies and occasional angry guitar bursts. But cross-fertilisation is a feature of today's musical landscape and the pairing play Singapore on Tuesday night before heading our way.
The bands' paths have never crossed, as No Doubt's drummer Adrian Young explains: 'We haven't even met them yet, but I guess my favourite Cranberries album would be the one with the song Zombie on it.' For No Doubt, next Thursday's Hong Kong show marks the end of a hectic tour schedule since the December release of their third studio album, Rock Steady.
The quartet - of Young on skins, Tony Kanal on bass, Tom Dumont on guitars and Gwen Stefani on vocals - recently completed two months on the road in Europe, but managed to find some time to rest at home in Los Angeles before heading to Asia.
Climbing as high as number nine in the Billboard charts, Rock Steady marks a new direction for the band, if only because a different producer was used for each song. There are collaborations with established roots reggae and dancehall musicians from Jamaica - Sly and Robbie and Steely and Clevie - in addition to the Cars' Ric Ocasek, Prince, Nellee Hooper (of trip-hop band Massive Attack and long-time Bjork collaborator) and William Orbit (who twiddled the knobs for Blur and Madonna). It's an impressive list. And despite the divergent influences, the album fails to be anything but pure pop. The most challenging track is the band's collaboration with Prince - pairing his vocals with Stefani's is an inspired match.
'I wouldn't especially call Prince my favourite person to work with on this album,' says Young. 'The best experience for me was working in Jamaica with Sly and Robbie and Steely and Clevie. It was the combination of them and the environment - it was just a good time,' the drummer adds.
No Doubt were named after a Southern Californian phrase much used by original founding member Eric Stefani, older brother of Gwen. Though the elder Stefani has long since left the band to be an animator for the popular cartoon The Simpsons, the name stuck.
