ENTERTAINMENT
From Issue #9
Life's Like This
Faze Interview: Avril Lavigne
By Marianne Beattie
Avril's first interview
with the press was
one-on-one with Faze Magazine in Spring 2002
Deceptive,
frustrating, lonely, and difficult
“Life’s like
this,” sings 17 year-old Avril Lavigne in her first single,
“Complicated”, a song she wrote about dealing with
people who are insincere and phony. Avril’s debut CD,
Let Go, confronts her experiences with betrayal, rejection,
and life’s uncertainties.
“The worst thing that ever happened to me was getting
my heart broken,” says Avril. “I was 15 and I was
in love and the guy broke up with me for no reason. It took
me a long time to get over it. I wrote like 20 million songs
about that!”
An experienced singer/songwriter and self-taught guitarist,
Avril likes to write and play her guitar when she’s feeling
upset. The important thing is just getting the emotions out
she says, “Sometimes I have to cry it out, or vent to
my best friend, or call up my mom. Once I get everything off
my chest, I feel better.”
At 16, Avril left behind the comfort of family and friends in
her hometown of Napanee, Ontario to begin work on her debut
CD in New York. Moving on her own from a small town of 5,000
people to a city of over 18 million caused her to really grow
as a person and learn more about the world. It also challenged
her to continue doing life on her own terms no matter what the
consequences.
“I started working with these really talented people,”
says Avril, “but the songs weren’t representative
of me. They started to talk about having people write for me
but I had to write myself. I had to do my music.”
It was a stressful time but Avril never considered giving up.
She moved to Los Angeles where she hooked up with producer/songwriter
Cliff Magness, who gave her the freedom to write her own lyrics
and guide the creative process.
“It was awesome to work with him,” says Avril. “I
wanted to rock out and he wasn’t afraid of what the record
label would think of that.”
Avril Lavigne’s triumph as an artist and a person seems
to come from her no-fear-approach to the circumstances in her
life, “I’m not afraid of what people think,”
she says, “It’s way easier to be yourself than to
pretend you’re someone else. It’s better to be truthful
and honest because in the end you’ll be a lot happier.”
Photos courtesy of BMG Music Canada
