By Tom Lanham

photo by Erica Lauren

he universe may seem unfathomably complex. But sometimes, it’ s much simpler – and more understandably linear – than we could ever dare to imagine.

A couple of decades ago, for instance, No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal bought himself a house in Los Angeles, and unwittingly became the owner of an initially feral cat left behind by a previous tenant. Since she viewed his back yard as her home turf, he began feeding her, named her Kitzie, and gradually trained her to be an indoor cat.“ So she basically moved in and we became good friends for many years, and she lived with me until she …. she passed, I guess,” he says. His pause signifying the closure he never got once she disappeared one rainy night, even after he consulted a pet psychic in answer-seeking frustration.

Cut to 2004, when the musician and his missus, Erin Lokitz, rescued three kittens from the same litter, Donatella, Jupiter, and Waffles, who quickly proved himself to be the alpha-male instigator of any feline mischief. And all three sleep with Kanal in bed every night, one on his head, another beside him, and the third in his arms.“ They’ re still with us, and they’ re going to be 13 in May,” he adds, proudly.“ They’ re a part of the family, and they were our kids long before our human kids came along.” But the couple has raised their daughters Coco, 6, and Saffron, 3, to treat the pets like siblings.“ And obviously, being the animal-rights proponents that we are, that’ s been a big part of my daughters’ growing up – having them respect all species, and seeing that firsthand with our cats I think

22 illinoisentertainer. com april 2017

is a great life lesson for my girls,” he reckons.

What does this have to do with Dreamcar, you may ask? The surprise supergroup that Kanal quietly put together over the past three years, featuring himself on bass, plus fellow No Doubt members Adrian Young on drums and keyboardist / guitarist Tom Dumont( sans Gwen Stefani, who is currently pursuing a solo career and a stint on TV singing competition( The Voice) and the unexpected addition of AFI frontman Davey Havok on vocals? Everything or nothing, depending on how you view the synchronicity of daily events, it appears. Because the Dreamcar debut disc for Columbia feels as if it was simply fated to serendipitously coalesce; It’ s awash in playful‘ 80s Gothic / New Wave riffs and melodies, often recalling the retro-chic brilliance of Bauhaus(“ All of the Dead Girls”), The Cure(“ Kill For Candy”), Human League(“ Slip on the Moon”), Duran Duran(“ Don’ t Let Me Love”), even The Thompson Twins( the slap-and-pluck funky“ The Preferred” and“ On the Charts”). With – given Havok’ s preference for the darker side of that halcyon decade’ s music – a little Wayne Hussey / Mission and Andrew Eldritch / Sisters of Mercy thrown onto the shiny coffin like so many dying roses(“ The Assailant,”“ Ever Lonely,”“ Show Me Mercy”). Without Kanal’ s deep, abiding love of animals, it’ s a summit meeting that might never have taken place. So why question kismet, he’ s always figured. Just go with it.

Just as their first daughter was born,

the musician and his wife made the wise decision to completely change their diet and go vegan.“ So my kids were brought up vegan, with a respect for all species, because we don’ t – as humans – have the right to exploit those species,” he declares, adamantly.“ And they have to respect the cats, because the cats were here before them.” The kids never catch a whiff of KFC while passing by a restaurant and beg dad to drive in.“ They wouldn’ t say that because we don’ t go to KFC. They also know the truth behind what happens to those animals, because we have those conversations. And those were the conversations I had with my parents( Kanal’ s folks hail from India, although he was born in the city where they first immigrated, London, England), but it took me 35 years to understand how much suffering goes into the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and the entertainment that we sometimes partake in. So for me and a lot of my friends who are also raising vegan kids, those discussions of compassion are a very important component of their upbringing. So we don’ t limit our compassion – we extend our compassion to all species,” he adds.“ There’ s no,‘ Oh, we love our dogs and cats, but yet we eat these other animals.’ That makes no sense, especially when you have a choice not to do so.”

As a staunch vegan, Kanal started frequenting hip Los Angeles eateries whose menus catered to that lifestyle. Meanwhile, No Doubt went on hiatus, Stefani stayed busy in her own demanding realms, and the members – instead of twiddling their thumbs-- began working on new music

without visualizing her as its mouthpiece. And who should he bump into on a regular basis at various vegan restaurants but Havok, who had recently relocated to Hollywood and was himself a firm animalrights activist, living a straight-edge existence that also precluded alcohol. The AFI leader also had three separate lines of vegan clothing, was voted PETA2’ s Sexiest Vegetarian two years running, and recently appeared nude in one of the organization’ s anti-fur print campaigns. The duo’ s conversations at first were cordial but simple, with both just discussing the various albums they had been listening to or films that they’ d seen. Then it gradually began to dawn on Kanal – the new vocalist they might soon be auditioning wouldn’ t need an audition at all. He was right there in front of him, eating the same healthy food, coming from essentially the same sonic background, and thinking the same envelope-pushing experimental thoughts.

The No Doubt team had come up with four melodic ideas that it was proud of. So rather than blindside Havok with them over lunch, Kanal and pals invited him out to dinner, which felt almost like a first date. They were no stranger to Havok’ s performing prowess – his techno-punk side project Blaqk Audio had opened for No Doubt at the Universal Amphitheatre in 2012, and the members, watching his set from the side of the stage, were suitably impressed. So that fateful evening, Havok was asked about joining the new group, although they weren’ t even sure it was a group yet, and he was handed the four snippets of music. Busy as he was with a

Continued on page 26