British-American musician

Musical artist

Tony Ashwin K* (born 27 August 1970) is a British-American musician, record producer, songwriter, and animal rights activist. K* is the b*ist and co-writer for the American rock bands No Doubt and Dreamcar. His musical work outside of the band includes producing and songwriting for artists such as Pink, Weezer, Elan Atias and No Doubt bandmate Gwen Stefani, among others.

Contents

• 1 Early life
• 2 Career
  • 2.1 Early beginnings and No Doubt
  • 2.2 2004–2014: No Doubt hiatus, writing, and producing
  • 2.3 2014–present: DREAMCAR and other bands
• 3 Personal life
• 4 Musical equipment
• 5 Discography
  • 5.1 Writing and producing credits
• 6 References
• 7 External links

Early life

K* was born in Kingsbury, a northwest district of London, England. K*'s father Gulab and his mother Lajwanti "Lajju" are originally from India. His parents emigrated from India to London, England, where K* was born. While most of his early years were spent in London, K* and his family also briefly lived in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and Munster, Indiana, before eventually returning to London. At age 11, his family once again moved to the United States, where they settled in Anaheim, California. K* attended South Junior High School and Anaheim High School. Upon entering seventh grade, K* decided to join his junior high school concert band. K*'s father suggested that K* learn to play the saxophone since it was the former's favorite instrument. In tenth grade K* learned how to play the electric b* guitar with *istance from his schoolmate Dave Carpenter.

Career

Early beginnings and No Doubt

After being invited to No Doubt's first official club show on 14 March 1987 by original drummer and fellow Anaheim High School student Chris Webb, K* joined the band as its b*ist at age 16. After high school, K* enrolled at California State University, Fullerton to major in psychology.

In 1991, No Doubt signed with Interscope Records and began recording their first full-length album. Their self-*led debut was released in 1992, and that year they embarked on three U.S. van tours, playing clubs and theaters. Over the next decade, No Doubt released the albums Tragic Kingdom (1995), The Beacon Street Collection (1995), Return of Saturn (2000), Rock Steady (2001), as well as two compilation albums, The Singles 1992-2003 (2003) and Everything in Time: B-Sides, Rarities, Remixes (2004). The band toured the world and earned several awards, including two Grammy Awards and 5 MTV Music Video Awards.

2004–2014: No Doubt hiatus, writing, and producing

In 2004, after touring the U.S. to promote The Singles 1992-2003, No Doubt went on hiatus. During this time, K* began producing and writing outside of the band. That same year, K* produced three songs for the soundtrack to 50 First Dates. Also in 2004, K* produced and co-wrote three tracks on Gwen Stefani's first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. K* then produced Elan Atias's debut album, Together as One, which was released in June 2006. K* again worked with Gwen Stefani for her follow-up solo album The Sweet Escape, released in 2006.

He created several remixes, including ones of Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" and Gang of Four's "Ether". K* produced the song "Rent" for the ska punk band Pepper's 2006 album No Shame.

In 2008, he collaborated on two songs *led "Sober" and "Funhouse" with Pink for her album Funhouse. K* also co-wrote the song "Smart Girls" for Weezer's 2010 album Hurley.

In 2010, K* co-wrote, produced, and performed b* on the track "Kiss You Up", recorded by Barbadian artist Shontelle for her second album, No Gravity.

With Stefani promoting her second solo album, No Doubt began initial work on a new album without her and planned to complete it after Stefani's tour was finished. In March 2008, the band started making posts concerning the progression of the album on their official fan forum. Stefani made a post on 28 March 2008 stating that songwriting had commenced but was slow on her end because she was, at the time, pregnant with her second child.

K* during No Doubt's 2009 summer reunion tour.

The band toured in 2009 for their first full-fledged band tour in nearly five years. The North American 2009 Summer Tour was the band's largest tour, playing over 50 shows.

In 2009, No Doubt made an appearance on the television series Gossip Girl, playing a fictional band called "Snowed Out" in the episode "Valley Girls". They performed their cover version of the Adam and the Ants song "Stand and Deliver". In 2010, the band performed at the Kennedy Center Honors in Washington, D.C. to celebrate the life's work of Sir Paul McCartney. Their performance was attended by President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama.

In 2012, No Doubt released Push and Shove, their latest release. They celebrated the album by performing seven sold-out shows in Los Angeles at the Universal Amphitheater. In 2014 and 2015, they played the Global Citizens Festivals in New York City and Washington D.C. and headlined music festivals in the United States.

2014–present: DREAMCAR and other bands

In 2014, K* and No Doubt bandmates Tom Dumont and Adrian Young, along with Davey Havok of AFI, formed the band DREAMCAR. They released their debut self-*led album through Columbia Records in 2017 and toured the U.S. to support it, including performances at the Coachella Festival.

In October 2018, K* joined Danny Elfman during the encore of his three Nightmare Before Christmas shows at the Hollywood Bowl to play Oingo Boingo's "Dead Man's Party". On 31 October, K* performed a set of 8 Red Hot Chili Peppers songs with musicians Adam Levine, Chad Smith, Andrew Watt, and Darren Criss at Maroon 5's annual Halloween party in Los Angeles.

In December 2018, K* played b* for The Offspring on their Australian festival headline tour. In January 2019, K* again joined the band for their tour in *an.

Personal life

K* dated bandmate Gwen Stefani from 1987 to 1994. They continued to have a successful creative relationship after they broke up which led to many of No Doubt's songs, most notably "Don't Speak". Many years later, Stefani co-wrote her song "Cool" about their relationship as friends for her 2004 debut solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby.

K* is married to American home designer Erin Lokitz. On 24 January 2011, their first daughter, Coco Reese Lakshmi K* was born. On 22 November 2013, their second daughter, Saffron Rose Kiran K* was born.

K* is a vegan and Animal Rights activist. In addition to promoting and speaking publicly about animal rights issues, he has supported animal rights organizations including Farm Sanctuary, LA Animal Save, and Animal Hope and Wellness Foundation and has done numerous hen rescues with Animal Place.

Musical equipment

K* endorses Yamaha b*es which he runs through Gallien-Krueger heads into Ampeg cabinets.

Discography

No Doubt

• 2012: Push and Shove (Interscope Records)
• 2004: Everything in Time (b-sides, rarities, remixes) (Interscope)
• 2003: The Singles 1992-2003 (Interscope)
• 2001: Rock Steady (Interscope)
• 2000: Return of Saturn (Interscope)
• 1995: Tragic Kingdom (Interscope)
• 1995: The Beacon Street Collection (Interscope)
• 1992: No Doubt (Interscope)

Writing and producing credits

References

External links

• No Doubt's official website
• Tony K* at IMDb
• Kingbury Studios website
• Tony K*'s producer profile on The 1 Second Film