Biography
-
Born
27 August 1970 (age 53)
-
Born In
Kingsbury, Brent, London, England, United Kingdom
Tony Kanal (born Tony Ashwin Kanal, August 27, 1970) is an English-born American musician and record producer. Kanal is the bassist for rock band No Doubt and produced Together as One, the debut album of reggae singer Elan Atias.
Early life
Kanal's father Gulab is from Sukkur, and his mother Lajju is from Bombay. His parents moved from India to London, England, where Kanal was born. He lived in London until age eleven, when his family moved briefly to Indiana and then settled in Anaheim, California. There, his parents opened a store named "Kanal's Gifts and Fashion". When he was young, Kanal wanted to become a doctor.
Musical career
Kanal's father suggested that Kanal learn to play the saxophone since it was the former's favorite instrument, so he bought one for Kanal. Kanal later learned how to play the bass guitar from his schoolmate Dave Carpenter. After seeing one of third wave ska band No Doubt's early shows, he joined the band as its bassist. Kanal stated that his parents were ultimately supportive of his decision to pursue a career in music; however, they had wanted him "to go into a safe profession" and often reprimanded him for devoting so much time to music, sometimes at the expense of school.
Kanal enrolled at California State University, Fullerton to major in psychology. In October 1991, No Doubt hit the studio with help of producer Dito Goodwin. Even though unhappy with the result, the band toured in support of the album but No Doubt did not gain any popularity outside the West Coast.
When Interscope Records began turning songs down, No Doubt did it on their own. Over two years they recorded ten songs and released it independently. After hearing some of their independent work, Interscope gave No Doubt the go-ahead to start work on another album.
During a party celebrating the release of No Doubt's The Singles 1992-2003, the directors of The 1 Second Film approched him, and Kanal donated US$100, becoming an executive producer.
When No Doubt went on hiatus, Kanal began a career behind the mixing console. In 2004, Kanal produced three songs for the soundtrack to 50 First Dates, one of which was a reggae cover of Bryan Ferry's 1985 song "Slave to Love" by Kanal's friend Elan Atias with a cameo from Gwen Stefani. Kanal then produced Atias's debut album, Together as One, which was released in June 2006. He created several remixes, including ones of Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" and Gang of Four's "Ether". Kanal produced several songs for the ska punk band Pepper's 2006 album No Shame.
Personal life
During a party where No Doubt performed in mid 1987, Stefani tried to kiss Kanal when the two went for a walk. Kanal initially rejected her, later commenting, "It was pretty much an unspoken rule that nobody dates Gwen…almost like a bunch of brothers and our sister." He gave in, and the two began dating secretly. The band was suspicious of them, warning Kanal against dating her, but he disavowed the relationship.
While the band was working on its third album Tragic Kingdom, Kanal broke up with Stefani. She later explained that he was feeling "claustrophobic" in the relationship since he did not have any previous experience being in a relationship. She stated that the break-up "took ages" because the two were close friends and Kanal did not want to hurt her. After the break-up, he offered to leave the band, but Stefani replied that she wanted him to stay. Many of the songs on that album were written by Stefani about the breakup, most notably the hit "Don't Speak". Many years later, Stefani co-wrote her hit song "Cool" about their relationship as friends for her 2004 debut solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby.
Kanal is dating the American actress Erin Lokitz.
Artist descriptions on Last.fm are editable by everyone. Feel free to contribute!
All user-contributed text on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
