By Saheli Dutta

For a while it has seemed like Gwen Stefani was hoarding all the fame points from No Doubt‘s hit parade, despite the fact that their richly textured sound undoubtedly owes a lot to bassist Tony Kanal. When Rolling Stone took a tour of his house and his room full of memorabilia, this bit made me cringe for him:

“He pulls out a daybook, in which he’s listed a chronology of each day’s events for the year of making Rock Steady. “Adrian has golf, Tom has surfing, Gwen has Gavin, I guess, and this is all I have,” says Kanal. “I wake, eat and sleep No Doubt.”

It looks like he’s finally making a life for himself outside of No Doubt, if not outside of Gwen — In March Billboard reported that Kanal has launched a new record label, Kingsbury Records (named after his British birthplace), and his first production “Together As One” is the debut of reggae singer Elan Atlas.

Unsurprisingly, though, Kanal can’t seem to shake off his diva bandmate–she apparently makes a guest appearance on the album, due in stores on June 13. Kanal met Elan when Elan was touring with the Wailers. Since Kanal’s been immersed in No Doubt since he was in high school, it will be interesting to hear sounds he starts collecting on his own–will he keep hunkering back down into the original Jamaican influences, get a little more punk and political, or maybe finally let his darker roots show?

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