One thing is far sure.The bell has tolled. Alternative rock is dead. Shut the coffin,tighten the bolts. After some brilliant contributions (Nirvana,Nine Inch Nails, Sonic Youth) to the music world over the lastdecade, the flame is now extinguished, sending its last, weakenedplume skyward. Eh....better to burn out than to fade away, right?

Though "serious" players maybe breathing a collective sigh of relief at the news -alternative rock having served as a thorn in the side of many ofyou for quite a while - it's death leaves a few questionsunanswered. First, how did it die? Wasn't it just storming theairwaves? Second, what will take its place in the nationalmarket? And last, does anybody care?

The truth is, the music wasn'tdeveloping lasting relationships with its fans. No sooner wouldBand A release a decent record attracting a handful of us whenBand B would come along and steal us all away. There was no bandloyalty on behalf of its fans and no band development on behalfof their labels. So really, in a attempt to capitalize on it, theindustry killed its own (bastard) son - shot it dead. What willtake its place, you ask? Whether you like them or not, bands like311, Counting Crows, the Eels, Fun Lovin' Criminal, Sponge, andthe sunject of this month's cover story, No Doubt. In lieu ofsuperstar mega-bands - which have grown rarer than dodo birds inDes Moines - these outfits have capitalized on the gaps,burrowing sizable niches between the alternative and mainstreamgroupings, with crossover potential most alternative bandscouldn't dream of (Weezer, where'd you go?). These bands talk thetalk of their fans, empathize with them in a way so manyalternative bands couldn't, and see the forest and the treeswithin it.

To most who see them, No Doubt is aboutover-exposed, kewpie doll singer Gwen Stefani. Her hiccup-y,hyper-dramatic voice stunning presence grabs mesmerizing commandof an audience, and her sweaty midriff, as omnipresent asjiggling buns on Baywatch, does hold a kind of hypnotic allure.But, dudes, let's take a step back and re-examine this band fromthe inside out. Strip away the Gwen visuals and what have yougot? You've got the engine- guitarist Tom Dumont, bassist TonyKanal, and drummer Adrian Young - that powers this band withturbocharged muscle. Together the trio guides No Doubt through aminefield of rollicking styles, from hard rock and metal to ska,soul, reggae, and funk. Guitarists should appreciate Dumont's andKanal's versitality, as well as their simplicity as songwriters;they're the keys that have unlocked the doors to hit singles like"Spiderwebs" and "Just A Girl."

Founded in 1986 by Gwen and her brotherEric Stefani (who later quit to become an animator - he now workson The Simpsons), No Doubt has caughed up the dues necessary tobecome one of the most coveted bands in the land. After giggingin and around L.A. for over five years, their eponymous debut in1992 sank like a stone. Not to be discouraged - their live showswere still anticipated events - the band regrouped and in early1995 released The Beacon Street Collection on it's own label.That also made little commercial impact, but its follow-up,Tragic Kingdom, the band's first album under aegis ofTrauma/Interscope, has sold enough to keep it at the top of thecharts for months. If you don't already have a copy of it you'rein the loser minority, 'cause 10 million others already do.

Needless to say, the L.A. crew proved tobe in demand and hellishly elusives to track down. After abreathless worldwide search, the band turned up in the wilds ofEngland on the brink of their first universal tour. Judging bythe sales of albums and concert tickets, the rest of the world isnot far behind the U.S. in their infatuation with No Doubt. Wehad a chance to speak with both Tom Dumont and Tony Kanal, two ofthe instrumental and songwriting minds behind the band's massivesuccess. Tom was up first.

HAVE YOU EVER WORKED SO HARD AS YOU'REWORKING RIGHT NOW?

TOM: No, no way. The day-to-day thingsaren't really that hard - talking on the phone, going to photoshoots - but being away from home for two months is hard, andsome days, frankly, it's hard to find a place comfortably take ashit. Sometimes you don't have time to take a shower and cleanoff last night's sweat. Overall, it's a lot easier than workingat McDonald's, but at the same time it's hard work.

ARE YOU SAYING FAME IS NOT ALL IT'SCRACKED UP TO BE?

TOM: No, not really. I'm just beingrealistic. Honestly, it is really fucking great. All my life Iwanted to be doing this, I just thought I'd end up doing it inclubs, on a more modest scale. And although this ends up beingdifferent from what my romantic notion of a successful rock bandreally is, I'm still happy that we are super busy and have alotof things to work on.

IS IT A CASE OF TOO MUCH TOO SOON?

TONY: Too soon? I'd say no, becausewe've been together for 10 years. But it has happened prettysuddenly in a large way. For a while we worried about it, becausewe really want to build a lasting career out of this - do it forfive or ten years. But at some point the success just got out ofour control. We don't know if we're gonna be the next MilliVanilli or whether next year people are going to want to hear usall over again.

YOU GUYS SEEM TO BE EVERYWHERE THESEDAYS. HAVE YOU COMPROMISED YOURSELVES IN ANY UNCOMFORTABLE WAY INTERMS OF MARKETING OF MUSIC?

TOM: Tricky question. I guess the answeris no. But there have been moments where I've compromised myself,personally, like in photo shoots where I to wear something I feltfoolish in. But musically we never have. We're pleased with whatwe've done, and even though we made Tragic Kingdom in 1994 andwe're way past that now, we're still pretty happy with therecord. We're not the kind of band that got its respect for... Idunno, it's kind of hard to explain. We're not known for beingmusicians' musicians - not like Steve Vai. We're more known forcertain visuals and being song-oriented, which is fine with us.We never set out to be Rush, and we couldn't pull it off anyway.

YOU STARTED OUT AS A METAL GUITARIST.

TOM: Yeah, I was really into Rush, BlackSabbath, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and some progressive rock:Kansas, Yes. I loved all that stuff, but then I moved on. That'swhere I came from, though, learning Rush songs.

WHEN DID YOU FIRST START PLAYING?

TOM: I first picked up a guitar at 12. Ireally wanted to be a great player and play really fast and fitin, but I couldn't do it. I just didn't have it. I love playing,but couldn't pull off the guitar wizard thing, so that's when Iquit metal and started playing for the fun of it. That's when Ijoined No Doubt.

HOW DID YOU BEGIN LEARNING TO PLAY?

TOM: I got a 12-string guitar from arelative and took the extra strings off and played it as asix-string. My dad paid for lessons at the local music store. Istarted out playing James Taylor and the Beatles and I learnedregular chords and fingerpicking patterns. I picked it up prettyquickly. From there on I was self-taught. My older sister - whowent - on to get her degree in Classical Guitar at UC Irvine -taught me a lot of stuff, and then it was all listening toSabbath and Rush and trying my best to learn the stuff. In myfirst band in high school we played tunes like "Jacob'sLadder" and "Natural Science" at talent shows. Webit off quite a lot there for kids our age.

WHAT HAPPENED IN COLLEGE?

TOM: When I started college I was amusic major. I took theory from two and a half years at OrangeCoast College. Learned a lot of classical stuff: Italian 6 chordsand Neapolitan chords and four-part harmony writing. I learnedsome piano and singing. It helped, but at the same time itconstrained me because there were all these rules that you had toheed. At the same time, I was starting with No Doubt, and Eric[Stefani] was breaking all these rules I was learning. He came upwtih the greatest, most fucked-up chord progressions, so I wasgetting an education from both sides.

DID YOU FINISH YOUR FORMAL EDUCATION?

TOM: I finished the two-year program atOrange Coast College, then moved to Cal State Fullerton, the maincollege, but that's where it ends. To get a degree I needed tospecialize in one of their instruments. Classical guitar was theclosest to what I played, but I felt like I was starting over.After getting a command of rock, I had to start over. I'd muchrather have an amp and crank power chords, so I dropped out.

YOUR SOLO ON "DON'T SPEAK"SHOWS SOME CLASSICAL TRAINING.

TOM: Oh, yeah. As I recorded it I wasthinking about how any true classical players would've hated theway I did it. I played it with a pick - a huge no-no. I hated theanal sitting position and the fingering positions. We did anumber of run-throughs and we tracked them and spliced ittogether from six different solos, but I'm pleased with it. WhenI hear it in the supermarket I think we pull it off. It soundsvery poppy, but it works as a piece of music.

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST ELECTRIC GUITAR?

TOM: A black Les Paul copy, when I was13. I got it because I liked Ace Frehley. To this day i'mobsessed with the idea of Gibson guitars.

YOU'RE INTO HAMERS, TOO?

TOM: Actually, I play Hamers a lot live.Right when we finished the album I bought a Flying V, and I likedthe idea that it was a '50s kind of space-age design, but itsimage was very much '80s metal. Same with the Explorer - it was agood visual element. So I looked around for companies that madeExplorers and V's, and Hamer, for me, was the company that madethem best. I've got mahogany and maple top Hamer Explorers [knownby Hamer as the Vector -Ed.], plus a Korina Explorer and a KorinaFlying V [the Hamer Standard]. They're very much in that oldstyle. They play great, they sound great, and look great.

YOU SOUND LIKE YOU'RE ACQUIRING SOMENICE GUITARS. ARE YOU A COLLECTOR?

TOM: I don't have any great vintageguitars, just some fun ones now. When we recorded Tragic KingdomI didn't have any of my own guitars. I had to rent them. I renteda couple of Gibson SG's with P90's, and then got the Hamers whenwe started touring. But when we got back and record I'll have ahuge assortment to draw from.

WHAT ABOUT EFFECTS?

TOM: Traditionally, I've been ano-effects kind of guy, just playing through clean or distortedchannels. I used to think that guys who have a lot of effectsspend too much of their time using them and not enough timeplaying straight guitar. But I've changed my attitude about that.I've always had a Cry Baby wah pedal around, and a box made byDunlop that's kind of like an octave pedal but produces a tonethat sounds like Moog synthesizer. It only works for high notesand solos but it's really amazing. I have a tremolo pedal, and mysetup is in stereo, where I can shift between two amps.

THERE ARE SO MANY GUITAR STYLES ONTRAGIC KINGDOM. JUST WHAT KIND OF GUITAR PLAYER ARE YOU?

TOM: That's a hard one. Songs on thealbum aren't, for the most part, written around the guitar.They're written more from the rhythm of the bass and drums, and Ireally want to complement that with my guitar playing. I like tobe versatile enough to make each song different from the next."Just A Girl" is a rock riff, "Excuse Me Mr."is a kind of a country-ish guitar thing in D minor for theverses, and pretty punked-up. Every song is different.

DO YOU FEEL LIKE THE THIRD MEMBER OF THERHYTHM SECTION?

TOM: It started out that way, but wemoved into more of a rock sound on the last record. On"Spiderwebs," for example, Tony wrote it as asingle-note bass line, so I had to write something around it, tofill out. That little octave thing there is me trying to fill ina guitar part without stepping on the vocal or the bass line.

THE INTRO RIFF ON "16" SOUNDSLIKE LED ZEP RIPOFF.

TOM: Yeah! Tony wrote that, and I, notbeing too creative, just doubled Tony's bass line and made itfatter. In between I put this little pick harmonic thing on itthat I got from Mötley Crüe did it, and so did Missing Personson "Words".

YOU FINALLY GET A CHANCE TO GO NUTS ONTHAT FLASHY HAMMER-ON PART AT THE END OF THE TITLE TRACK.

TOM: I knew it was a totalmetal-sounding thing, but to me it fit the part. Like when"Eruption" came out - I half-assedly learned that solo,but nobody does those these days. I don't know what kids thinkwhen they hear me do it, but it's simple, just two chords goingback and forth. It's a lot of fun but hard to do live becauseit's doubled and there are octaves in the second section of itafter the hammer-on thing.

ARE THERE OTHER MOMENTS LIVE WHEN YOUGET TO STEP OUT?

TOM: In "Spiderwebs," we breakthe middle bridge section down and I get a chance to do a lot ofnoodling during that - trying to be tasteful in between Gwen'santics on a stage. I never really get a chance to break out anddo "Freebird" solos, which I would like to do, butnever in the history of the band have we had that thing going. Iguess it's that whole new wave/punk idea that they're notnecessary or they're too showy. I do them but they're short. Alot of times I just copy the vocal melodies.

WHAT WILL YOUR NEW MATERIAL SOUND LIKE?

TOM: We're going in two directions. Oneis that same new wave-y, Cars approach. The other is morerhythmic, leaving a lot of open space for vocals and horns. Butwe've only got eight new songs since starting this whole touringcycle. I think we'll be more profile when we get home.

DID YOU HAVE A CLEAR IDEA OF WHERE YOUWERE GOING MUSICALLY WHEN GWEN'S BROTHER ERIC [THE BAND'S MAINSONGWRITER] LEFT?

TOM: We did once we sat down down andstarted putting together songs. We hit on this theme of '80s newwave, trying to use those types of sounds for keyboard patchesand musical influences as a guide. But because I was into metal,all new wave I knew was from the radio: the B-52s, Devo, theCars.

IT MUST BE SATISFYING TO WRITE SONGSTHAT SO MANY PEOPLE HAVE A CHANCE TO HEAR?

TOM: It feels great. I co-wrote"Just A Girl," and when it started getting played itwas really thrilling, and it gave me confidence. I had finallyput together something that worked and that people could reactto.

IS IT DIFFICULT, AS A GUITAR PLAYER, TOFIND YOURSELF BEHIND AN ATTENTION-GRABBING SINGER LIKE GWEN EVERYNIGHT?

TOM: Good question. Yeah, there aretimes when I think all of us musicians would like more attention.We've been "real" musicians for 10 years now and we'reall good players and we all take ourselves seriously. We're nottop musician guys, but we can be pretty creative and I'm proud ofwhat we've done. But the attention we get is because our songsare hits...well, you know why. Even though Gwen is what theythink of when they think of this band, I still feel proud thatI've played a really big role in helping this band succeed. Allof us did.

Having joined at the age of 16, No Doubtis Tony Kanal's first real band. As the rubbery heartbeat of theNo Doubt sound, Kanal has already received accolades from basspundits, and deserves credit from guitarists, too, havingprovided the nasty bottom from which many of Dumont's licksspring.

HAVE YOU HAD ANY TIME TO ENJOY YOURSELFDURING THIS MEGA-SUCCESS?

TONY: Yeah, a little bit. In the pastwhen we toured we did five or six shows a week. This time it hasopened up a bit, because Gwen can't sing more than four shows aweek. She has had a problem with her voice and didn't want topush it. But the off days get filled up with press.

SO THIS IS YOUR 15 MINUTES OF FAME?

TONY: Absolutely. But it's been a veryfulfilling 15 minutes. We started to have a good time - you know,"Let's be in a band!" We never set out to makesignificant change in the world. We were here to make music andhave a good time. We've had such huge ups and downs. We're justhappy to be able to enjoy it while it's happening.

DID YOU START OUT AS A BASS PLAYER?

TONY: No, I actually played saxophone upuntil high school. My best friend's brother, Dave Carpenter, wasthe bass player in my high school band and he was graduating, sowhen I became a sophomore he asked me if I wanted to be hisreplacement. So I tried it out and haven't looked back.

WHAT WAS SO COOL ABOUT THE BASS THATMADE YOU DROP THE SAX?

TONY: Dave Carpenter was cool about thebass. He was so inspiring to me. He still plays, and he was myteacher that first year. Then I started listening to records tohear the bass player. Dave introduced me to Stanley Clarke andJaco Pastorius, and the other great jazz bassists.

BUT YOU DIDN'T GET INVOLVED WITH AWORKING BAND UNTIL NO DOUBT RIGHT?

TONY: Yeah. Prior to No Doubt I listenedmostly to funk, but when I met Eric and Gwen I was 16 and gotexposed to the two-tone ska thing: the Specials, Madness, theSelecter, English Beat. Then I got into the southern Californiapunk-funk scene, with the Chilli Peppers and Fishbone. Flea,Horace from the Specials, and Norwood from Fishbone were hugerole models for me as a bass player.

HOW DO YOU FIT IN WITH THAT ELITECOMPANY?

TONY: I don't fit in. I don't feel likeI'm a musician's musician. I don't think I've reached that level.Maybe in the future. Those guys are very high caliber. I don'tpretend to have gotten to that level.

IF YOU HAD TO DO A SOLO RECORD, WHATWOULD IT SOUND LIKE?

TONY: What No Doubt is is what I am. Allof us came from such diverse influences, and we've incorporatedall those different styles into the band and actually made itwork. The direction No Doubt is heading is the direction I head.This band has been my life for the last 10 years. I'm 26 now. Sowhere it goes I go. This is it. When I was younger I neverenvisioned myself becoming a rock star or anything. I alwaysenvisioned going to college and becoming a doctor or somethingprofessional. But destiny just happened and I've never lookedback. Realize that up until two years ago we were still workingand going to school while the band was going. We had our day jobsto get by.

MANY OF THE SONGS ARE DRIVEN BY YOU AND[DRUMMER] ADRIAN YOUNG.

TONY: If there's any compliemnt that wecan pay ourselves it would be that myself, Tom, and Adrian workvery well together as a rhythm section. His style as a drummer isincredible. There's no other drummer I can name I'd rather playwith.

TELL ME ABOUT YOUR BASS RIG.

TONY: When I started I was playing thathigh school standard Rickenbacker bass. The first bass Ipurchased was the one I still have, the Yamaha BB1500. It hasbeen my main bass for the last 10 years: a passive bass with abolt-on neck, and it has never let me down. I'm always lookingfor other basses but I know I can always count on that one. Ibought a BB3000 in Japan, a one-piece of the same bass. Theoriginal bass. the 1500, is easier to slap and less rigid, andit's light - I'm not the biggest guy and I like to get aroundonstage - but the 3000 gets better tone. Maybe that's becauseit's newer, but I get a more solid sound of it than the 1500. Ihave a MusicMan now, too, a four-string and a five string. I playthrough a Gallien-Krueger 800RB head that I bought a year ago,and an Ampeg SVT 8x10 cabinet that I bought in1989. I have acouple of G-K 2000RB's too, but it's pretty straightfoward - noeffects. I'm always trying stuff out. I might add a compressor tomy rig.

DO YOU STILL PUT TIME INTO LEARNING?

TONY: No, to be honest, I don't. Thelast few years I've been on the road and that takes a lot out ofyou. Your daily routine is made up of checking in and out ofhotels, finding decent places to eat, soundchecking, and doingmajor amounts of press. I have to say, I can't see myself sittingdown to play bass just to play bass. It's been such a whirlwind.Maybe after it settles down I'll get back to learning.

DOES THE CRITICISM OF NO DOUBT AS ALUCKY MARGINAL TALENT BOTHER YOU?

TONY: Yeah, I guess it does somewhat.People have to realize that we spend our time playing, writingsongs, rehearsing, doing press, touring...we play a lot ofdifferent roles. A lot of musician's musician only do one thing:play. If we only had to play, we'd probably get pretty goodourselves. But I think it would be an unfulfilling carreroverall.

DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT NODOUBT'S ROLE IN HELPING TO KILL ALTERNATIVE ROCK?

TONY: We can't claim to be thatsignificant. We just do what we do, and have ended here. Iwouldn't say that alternative rock is dead. I would say that thegrunge scene's mellowed. All of us like Soundgarden andNirvana...But the grunge label has almost totally faded. Musiccomes and goes in phases, and the record-buying public is fickle,too. Right now we're lucky to be what people want to hear. Nextyear they'll listen to something else. Because of that, we needto write music for ourselves and not to appeal to someone else'sidea of what the public wants.

Bob Gulla