Born in Napanee, Ontario to conservative parents, Lavigne grew up singing country music and in a church choir and taught herself guitar. She was signed by Arista Records head L.A. Reid when she was 16 years old. She moved to New York City to work on an album.
Apparently, early attempts to co-write songs for her failed to meet her approval, and she eventually moved to Los Angeles, California and cowrote her album with Clif Magness and a songwriting team called "The Matrix", whose previous work included songs for Sheena Easton and Christina Aguilera. Her first album, Let Go, was released by Arista on June 4, 2002, and was certified "Quadruple Platinum" less than six months later by the Recording Industry Association of America. She was named "Best New Artist" at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards and at the 2003 Juno Awards, where she led all musicians with six nominations, winning four Junos. Singles off the album include her breakthrough hit Complicated, and Sk8er Boi (txt for skater boy).
Press accounts frequently credit her, along with singers Vanessa Carlton and Michelle Branch, with bringing a new sense of earnestness and genuine creativity to an often vacuous and pre-fabricated teen pop music market. Whilst her marketing has been every bit as sophisticated as, for instance, that of Britney Spears and her competitors, a profile in the Washington Post found that in the flesh, her personality reflected the marketing and found her, if anything, something of a wide-eyed innocent, citing the fact that she was intending to purchase her first Ramones CD. In another interview, she listed her current listening tastes as including Blink 182, Sum 41, and System of a Down.
Her "skater punk" fashion style was one of the most imitated of 2002.
She describes her first album as a pop album with "a couple of rock songs on it," and has indicated a desire to write more rock-oriented songs in the future.
More
Unapologetically original. Unabashedly
in your face. Avril Lavigne's
2002 debut Let Go gave young women a
defiant voice and set it to music they
could rock out to. Fourteen million
albums and eight Grammy nominations
later, the Canadian chanteuse returns
with Under My Skin but if you're
expecting a whole lot of the same,
you've got another thing coming. This is
not a girl who rests on her laurels.
Under My Skin opens with the dramatic
tracks "Take Me Away" and "Together,"
which set the scene for the kick-ass
guitars and radio-ready chorus of "Don't
Tell Me," a song of willful female
empowerment that picks up where
"Complicated" left off. From there it's
a one-two punch of three-chord guitar
licks ("He Wasn't") and head-bopping
optimism ("Who Knows") alongside
swirling, brooding melodies ("Freak
Out") and moody tracks ("Forgotten,"
"Nobody's Home") that reveal a darker
side of Avril Lavigne.
"I grew up so much in the past two
years," admits the Napanee, Ontario,
native. "I've been through a lot, I've
learned a lot, and experienced a lot
both good and bad. These songs are about
all of that, and each is very personal
to me." Working with producers, Butch
Walker (of the Marvelous 3), Raine Maida
(of Our Lady Peace), Don Gilmore (Linkin
Park, Pearl Jam), Avril co-wrote the
dozen introspective songs on Under My
Skin in near secrecy. "I'd just come off
my world tour and got back to Toronto
and was writing right away," the
19-year-old says. "I had no idea what I
was going to do. No one did. People
wondered if I'd run out of things to
write about, but it was the opposite."
After a lunch date with fellow Canadian
singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk
turned into a major chick-bonding
session, Avril and Chantal sat down to
write. The chemistry was ineffable. "We
got together one night and all of a
sudden we had a song," she says. "No one
knew what I was up to, not my
management, not my label." The duo got
together the next night and wrote
another song. "We did that for two weeks
and wrote 12 songs." Momentum took over
and by summer Avril was moving into
Chantal and her husband Raine Maida's
Malibu house to record. "I was only off
my tour for a couple of weeks, and I was
ready to record," Avril recalls.
The California air provided a needed
escape from Avril's frantic life. "It
was a great time for me, living out
there, being out of the public eye, and
having my independence. And my
friendship with Chantal evolved into one
of the best I've ever had." Chantal and
Avril would spend all night in the
studio perfecting the songs. During the
day, Avril learned the city by driving
to and from the studio and wherever she
needed to be. No photos, no interviews,
no pressure. Eventually they recorded
most of the songs in Raine's studio, and
those songs appear unaltered on Under My
Skin. The rest of the tracks, co-written
with her guitarist Evan Taubenfeld (and
one track with former Evanescence
guitarist Ben Moody), were cut just up
the road. "I was involved in every
aspect of making this record. I'm very
hands-on," she says. "I knew how I
wanted the drums, the guitar tones, and
the structures to be. I understand the
whole process so much better this time
because I've been through it. I'm really
picky with my sound."
Picking favorites out of her 12
hand-made babies is another matter.
"They all mean so much to me, but I love
‘Together,’ which is all about being in
a relationship and knowing it's not
right. It's a song that basically says,
it's not working out honey." A couple of
other tracks mine dysfunctional
relationships and have hooks as catchy
as those on "Complicated" and real-life
narratives (like "Sk8er Boi"), but what
truly underscores Avril's growth are the
more positive tracks, such as "Who
Knows" and "Take Me Away." "I guess
that's just the way that I am now,"
admits the former supposed attitude
junkie. Deep, piano-driven tracks like
"Together" and "Forgotten" reflect
Avril's growth, maturity, and change
since the release of Let Go. "I'm happy
with what I'm doing and have faith that
everything is going to work out for the
best." She's also found a feminine side
to offset her well-publicized
tomboyishness. "I'm such a chick. I'm a
hopeless romantic, and surprisingly
old-fashioned," Avril laughs. "That's
why I wrote a song about not giving it
up to just any guy ["Don't Tell Me"]."
Girly quirks aside, Avril's anxious to
get the show on the road. "It feels so
good to be singing new songs," she says.
"I feel refreshed and I'm looking
forward to the next thing."
Optimistic or melancholic, Avril's
two-year wild-ride on the rock-star
express has shaped her world view and
taught her a whole lot about balance.
"The songs on Under My Skin are
definitely deeper than those on Let Go,"
she says, "But I still love a good pop
song. I'm basically just a girl who
likes to write, who likes to rock out,
and who wants music to be a part of my
life forever."
She's also just a girl with a bell-clear
voice and the ability to bottle youthful
anguish and enthusiasm into tidy,
infectious songs. Avril Lavigne's Under
My Skin is sure to get under yours.