Even after all of these years, Gwen Stefani is “just a girl” who wants to make great music.

While appearing on the cover of NYLON‘s new print issue, the pop superstar, 54, opened up about how she’s still eager to release new music, but isn’t necessarily “chasing” a hit. Stefani explained that she already has enough hits to make up her live set list and would rather focus on crafting something she’s excited by.

The “Hollaback Girl” singer admitted that she’s not looking for a “hit” while opening up about the disconnect that she’s felt while working with contemporary pop songwriters. She said, “A lot of the pop writers that I’d worked with started getting really different from the way I write. I was like, ‘Why are you counting syllables?'”

“Or they were trying so hard to go for a hit,” the Grammy winner continued. “Where I’m like: ‘I’m not chasing that.'”

Stefani added, “A hit is the greatest thing in the world, but it has to be from nowhere.”

She also mentioned that, although she feels the most inspired while working with a team of collaborators, at times it can make her feels as if she’s “going backwards” and they’re trying to capture a version of herself that existed decades ago.

Those early songs from her discography that songwriters have tried to replicate — like from her ska-fusion band No Doubt and her 2004 solo debut Love. Angel. Music. Baby. — are exactly why she isn’t looking to create more No. 1 singles.

“If I had another hit, that means I need to remove a hit [from my live shows],” the “Cool” singer shared. “I’m not going to play for three hours! So I’ve already won.”

Stefani also stressed that it “really” is important to her to continue creating new music, even after she’s been in the industry for over three decades and had 10 songs as a solo artist reach the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100.

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“I almost feel guilty about it, or like I have to justify it or feel bad that I’m doing it,” the The Voice coach and mother of three admitted. “Like, ‘You should just get on with your life.’ But I really still want to do it!”

The hitmaker explained that music feels like her “purpose” and added that, despite it sounding “cringe” and “conceited,” she feels as if she “was chosen” to continue to do so.

Stefani last released a traditional studio album in 2016 when she dropped This Is What the Truth Feels Like. It was followed by a holiday album,You Make It Feel Like Christmas, that was released in 2017.

Since then, the “Rich Girl” singer has dropped a handful of singles, like 2020’s “Let Me Reintroduce Myself” and 2023’s “True Babe,” and she’s teamed up with her husband Blake Shelton on duets like 2020’s “Nobody but You” and their recent track “Purple Irises.”

She has yet to formally announced her next full-length record.

Exciting things on the music front are still in store from the pop star this year. She and her bandmates in No Doubt are set to reunite at Coachella, which runs the weekends of Friday, April 12 – Sunday, April 14 and Friday, April 19 – Sunday, April 21.

In January, she spoke to PEOPLE about how thrilled she is to take to the stage with the “Just a Girl” band again.

“It’s just going to be cool,” Stefani shared. “It’s just going to be: get up there and do what we always do, which is play our music and try to connect and be so grateful that we got this amazing career that we never expected to have.”

The musician added, “You’ve got to remember, we were in No Doubt for nine years before ‘Just a Girl’ got on the radio. We weren’t doing it to make it. And so now to be here in 2024 and have that excitement of the announcement? It’s beyond.”