Gwen Stefani on Recording With Kids: 'It Was Just Chaos'

Michael Rozman/Warner Bros.

No Doubt's new album may sound like their previous efforts, but the recording process was a whole different ballgame.

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In the decade since the band recorded Rock Steady, their last studio album, all four members have had families, prompting new challenges in the studio.

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"It was challenging," frontwoman Gwen Stefani says of balancing kids and music during a Tuesday appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. "We would get together like three times a week, and I tried all versions where I would be like, 'Oh, today I’m going to bring them with me.' And that didn’t work. And then I’d go, 'OK, today I’m not going to see them and then I’ll work all day and then I’ll be with them tomorrow.' It was just chaos trying to figure it all out, which is one of the reasons it took as long as it did. Because I have to do that and I want to do that."

Stefani's youngest son, Zuma, gets his time in the spotlight during the episode, when producers show a clip of the 4-year-old playing along during the band's soundcheck earlier that day.

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With two musical parents (Stefani married Bush frontman Gavin Rossdale in 2002), it would seem inevitable that their boys, Zuma and 6-year-old Kingston, would boast some talent.

"Zuma is the one who is showing more interest in the guitar," says Stefani. "But since he was tiny he always played the guitar. I mean he doesn’t really play the guitar, but he thinks he does."

No Doubt's new album, Push and Shove, hits shelves Tuesday.

Email: Sophie.Schillaci@thr.com; Twitter: @SophieSchillaci