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17 year-old wild child Avril Lavigne literally came out of nowhere - nowhere being the town of Napanee, Ontario - and rose to the top of the North American charts with her single "Complicated" earlier this summer. With her hummable radio-friendly rock music and doe-eyed appeal, she has got the girls listening and the boys looking.
Her magic is clearly working as Avril´s has seen her debut album gone triple platinum in both Canada and the States, and double platinum in Japan. She is, without doubt, one of the hottest names in music right now. And she´s likely to be around for a while.
MTV´s Lars Beckung got the opportunity to talk to the skate punk princess when she visited Stockholm for her only Scandinavian gig.
You´ve just been to Japan. How was that?
It was good. I spent most of my time in the hotel room. [Laughs] And we´re going to Australia soon so it´s all cool.
What´s the best place in the world you´ve been to so far?
Italy I think. Paris. And Stockholm.
What´s the worst thing with the job then? Is it this, the interviews?
Yes, promotion is the hardest part. All you want to do is, you know, write your songs, record them, then share them with the world and go out and perform. To be able to perform you have to promote yourself and do tons of interviews and photo shoots. There´s so much more to it than what everybody thinks.
If we go back to the roots a little bit, you´re from a little town in Ontario, Canada. In small towns, people either do sports or music. Was music always the natural choice for you?
Yeah, my mum said when I was two that she knew I was going to be a singer. And I started performing when I was around six. There wasn´t much to do in that town. I played hockey a lot. And when I come home from school I´d go to my room and play on my guitar and stuff. I was always grounded and there was nothing to do so I had to entertain myself. I spent a lot of time writing.
So being grounded was actually a pretty good move from your parents. Now we can see the fruit of being grounded a lot.
Yeah, totally man. They wouldn´t let me stay after school. They thought I would get into trouble or something so I had to go home and sit in my room and play guitar and keep myself busy.
There you go. That´s the way forward, to get grounded a lot... Was there one band or artist that you listened to a lot and made you want to become a musician?
There wasn´t like that one band or one artist who I watched and thought, ´Oh my God, I wanna do what they´re doing´. I didn´t even know any secular music before I started singing. I heard music in church and I knew naturally that this is what I wanted to do. But someone that I look up to now is Johnny Rzeznik from Goo Goo Dolls. They´ve been around for a long time but I just think his song writing is amazing.
A lot of good music comes out from Canada as well. Why do you think that´s the case?
I don´t know. Maybe it´s the water! [Laugh] There´s like Sum 41, Alanis, Nickelback... Do you know Nickelback?
Yeah yeah, of course! Then obviously there is one exception, Bryan Adams, but you government has apologized many times for Bryan Adams... Or maybe you´re a fan?
I´m not really that familiar with his music.
OK. How did this sort of bedroom dream become reality then?
Basically I just performed a lot. I was constantly performing all over until I made a name for myself. Then a producer in New York saw a videotape of me and had me come down. I went to New York, co-wrote my first song and the first day in the studio with him, someone from Arista [Record Label] came by and said, ´Wow, I wanna work with this girl!´
Did you know who he was, Antonio "L.A." Reid?
No! [Laughs] I was like this 15 year-old kid and I didn´t even know anything about the music business. All I knew was that I wanted to make a record. I sang for him and he liked me right away and I got signed.
Like that! I also heard that you weren´t too happy because they were trying to get you to sing songs that weren´t your own and stuff like that. As you said, you didn´t really know the music industry. Were you ever afraid to say no to these guys?
They weren´t like forcing me to sing these songs. The producer I was working with gave me his songs to sing, which is what they had to do, but I didn´t really feel like it so I went up to "L.A." Reid and said that I wanted to write and sing my own songs and he was like, ´OK, cool. Do that!´ You know, this is something everybody mixes up. Arista never forced me to sing any songs.
And the rest is history now. "Complicated" has been played all over the world this past summer. When did you write that song?
About a year ago. I was talking to one of the guys in my band last night cause we heard "Complicated" on the radio and he was said, ´Do you have memories of singing that song in the studio?´ The thing is that I only sang that song three times, which is like really cool, cause sometimes people sing 50 takes and they comp their vocals and stuff. It was all magic.
Where did you write the song?
In L.A. It was my favourite time in L.A. And I´ve never seen orange trees before. I remember sitting in the backyard behind the studio I was working in and I was just freaking out because of the orange trees. I was like, ´Oh my God. You do have orange tress around here!´
The video for "Complicated"... It seems very much like a band thing. You´re a solo artist, but you got your band in the video? Is that the way you want it?
Yeah. It´s the way I want it. It´s very important to me. The guys are like my best friends. Ever since the came along, they´re in my dream with me now.
Do you have anything to say with the video? What´s the concept?
What usually happens before a video is that several directors send in different concepts and my management and I go through them, and agree on one together. But I definitely talk to the director and say, ´Can we do this or that?´ I´d never do anything I wouldn´t want to do.
Did you do a lot of spontaneous stuff in the video, like the shopping mall scene for example?
Some yeah. They were going to have us driving around in those carts. Then we all of a sudden started crashing into stuff. The mall was open and we started bumping into each other and we were all laughing and pissing ourselves. There´s also a part where I skateboard. I wasn´t going to skateboard, but did and I screamed. ´Somebody shoot this!´ It´s a really crappy shot because they just grabbed a camera on the spot. It was really spontaneous.
Are you a good skater?
Not any more because I don´t do it any more. I used to be when I was in high school.
Was it fun making it though?
Yeah, videos are fun. It´s very cool cause you´re the star of the day and everyone´s doing your hair and your make-up and taking care of you. It´s fun!
Your next single is Sk8tr Boi. We haven´t got the video over here yet, but what´s the concept?
In the beginning there´s a bunch of kids getting together putting up flyers with the red star [Avril´s symbol] and the open up a lap-top with a red star, which means that Avril´s performing right here. And there´s a big star in the middle of this intersection and we all drive our cars in, stop and jump up on top of the cars and I grab a microphone. We´re all rocking out. And then a whole bunch of kids run in and we block the intersection.
Have you gotten used to seeing your videos on MTV and all that or is it still weird for you?
I never really watch TV to be honest, but when I do see it I´m like, ´God!´
In Sk8tr Boi you sing about a skater guy who then goes on to bang his guitar on MTV. Is this you, this guy?
[Laughs] So many people ask me that. No, it´s not. But it is when you think about it. It totally is.
How much of yourself do you put into songs?
That is the only song that has a story. What I went through in high school and what I saw in high school, and how different people acted and treated each other... I just kind of took that and put it into a story. I wasn´t talking about a certain guy or girl.
But you´re not sort of getting back at people in high school through your songs?
No. But all my songs are basically about my own experiences. The stuff that I go through.
So have you got a favourite song on the album?
Yeah. "Losing Grip".
Any specific reason?
Well, I just went nuts when I wrote that song. I got it out of me and it made me feel a lot better. Sometimes I still go through that, those feelings, and I want to re-write that song, but of course I can´t. I always feel that I go through those emotions again. But I´ve already written a song about this. I can´t do it again. So I´m singing it and performing it instead.
Is it like therapy?
Totally!
Your album has sold millions of copies worldwide. How does that feel?
Yeah, I went triple platinum in the States, triple platinum in Canada, double platinum in Japan and the album´s just been released in Europe. It is a really big deal. Everyone´s like, ´Oh my God´ but it still hasn´t hit me. I still act the same way and think the same way. But it´s weird.
With all the success, obviously there´s always envy on the other side. You have been getting some stick from people saying like, ´TRL angst´ and that you´re a major label product. How do you handle that sort of criticism?
I don´t really care what people say cause I´m fine and I´m doing good. It´s working out all right so they can you know... whatever.
It´s weird though, because you always think that rock and punk people would be happy to see guitar based music on the charts, but still they complain and say it´s not the real thing. Don´t you find that a bit weird?
I can understand why punk people are saying that cause I´m being labelled as punk, and punk is so not commercial. I´m not punk. I never said I was punk. And my music is definitely not punk. People are calling my music punk sometimes and I´m like, ´OK... I don´t think so´. It´s funny because my fans go, ´We love you cause you dress like you wanna dress, you act like you wanna act, you write all your songs, you so real, bla bla bla´ and then you have all these people on the side saying, ´Oh, she´s a product all made up by the record label´. You know, people read things differently.
What´s the most important feedback for you?
The fans. It´s really cool when they talk to me and say that they like my songs. Or like when I have inspired them to start a band or whatever.
Finally, I´ve got to ask you about the Video Music Awards. You were there performing for the pre-show and you got the Best New Act award as well. Was it a good experience?
Yeah! [Laugh]
Did you meet any cool people?
Yeah, I mean, sitting where I sat... The only people that were around me were famous people. I met Eminem...
What´s he like?
It was really weird. Backstage there were so many people and everybody was rushing. P Diddy was running by with his whole crew and everyone´s got their bodyguards and stuff. I met Eminem and I looked at him and he said, ´I respect your record.´ That was cool. Maybe that means that he won´t be dissing me on his next track. [Laughs] I also hung out with Lisa Marie Presley at P Diddy´s after party. I talked to Usher... It was all really cool!
/Interview by Lars Beckung
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