A 'more confident' Avril Lavigne puts more energy into her show
The term "mall punk" begins and ends with Avril Lavigne, the 23-year-old Canadian who earned her chops playing concerts in food courts, only to work her way up to arenas by selling brash punk attitude to the Hot Topic set.
She is older, wiser and -- a surprise -- not in rehab or prison like much of the stricken pop royalty of her generation. Instead, Lavigne is prepping a tour to highlight songs from "The Best Damn Thing" (Arista), her third album, which hit stores last year. She plays the Allstate Arena tonight.
She recently spoke about her new album, tour and why she's not bubble gum. What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation.
Q. Talk a little about the production and look of the show.
A. The show is going to be very upbeat and the production will be bigger in the sense of … dancers on a couple of songs and LED screens, and I'm going to have checkered flooring. I have a pink sparkle drum kit, a pink piano being made, flags. Over time I just learned how I need to be on stage. I'm more confident. It's just more dynamic, brighter, and more colorful.
Q. What brought on the new confidence?
A. Well, a lot of people don't know this about me but I'm actually shy. With my first concert, my first tour, I didn't really talk on stage, I was like, "Thank you, I love you guys," or whatever. But now I've just kind of learned to work a crowd. I've played so many shows -- it's been five years -- and I've just kind of learned how to talk to an audience. I was always comfortable singing, but being a performer is a totally different thing. You want to keep the crowd watching you and interested and excited, so that's why now I feel like, "Alright, I get to do this." Finally, I have enough songs that are singles that people know so I can put them in certain points that I want in the show. I can bring it up with songs like "Girlfriend" and "Sk8er Boi," open and close with those big songs and bring out dancers, but I can also come down and come out on the piano with "When You're Gone," "Alone" and "By Myself."
Q. As you've gotten older, do you feel the need to move away from show choreography so that it follows more of a conventional rock show?
A. There's dancing on maybe like four songs, and it's not really much dancing. It's very me, it's very much kicking and punching and stomping and marching, stuff that I was always doing on stage, songs like "Girlfriend" and then the next song after it, "I Can Do Better," like boom, boom, the first two songs and then they're gone. And then it's me playing my guitar, me on the piano, me with my band the entire show, and then at the end they come in again, so it's not a lot. The show is very me. It rocks. And it's exciting because the reason why I wanted to bring in more people and I got a new band and added more players to it is because I wanted more energy on stage. I always wanted it to be bigger and just more fun, like a party, have more people on stage to have fun with.
Q. You've recently been photographed going out on the town in L.A. with Britney Spears but it sounds like the new album and tour are definite moves away from the stage extravaganzas she's most associated with.
A. My songs aren't bubble gum pop dance songs and I don't have background dancers on every single song. I'm not wearing a headphone microphone. It's a totally different thing. I'm playing guitar. I'm playing the drums. I'm playing the piano. I've had dancers a couple of times and they're like "my girls" and they come out with their attitude. Planning this tour, I wanted it to be big and bigger, and I was very careful to make sure that I didn't do anything too much. Anything that ever feels uncomfortable to me, or if I ever question something, I scrap it. I'm just very clear on who I am and what I like and don't like.
Q. How much of this tour is a reaction to your previous tour, just as your new record's definitely a shift from your last record? It's very upbeat, super catchy pop.
A. My inspiration for this record came from my live show, knowing what kind of songs I wanted to play live. I wanted to play fast, fun songs. I loved playing songs like "Sk8er Boi" on stage because the crowd just reacts, and I love it when everyone is freaking out and jumping. I like playing fast songs. I want my entire set to be fast. My last record, "Under My Skin," was pretty mid-tempo and darker and serious, it was like every song was bringing down the audience, or whatever. I was like, I want to go up. I just wanted to rock, so that's why I've made a really up-tempo record just for the tour and was just over that serious break-up thing, you know.
Q. Sure, and tell me about your guitar playing. Is that something that you work on as time goes on? Do you practice?
A. I'm not a lead guitarist, so I don't pick. I'm rhythm. I will always say I'm not the greatest player, but I'm good. I love to play guitar. I use it as a writing tool and I love to play it live. And yes, I'm better than I was on my first tour because I've been playing longer now, like with anything. I enjoy playing the piano and I enjoy playing the drums.
Q. With three albums in, what kind of creative control do you have over your own music?
A. I basically went in the studio and I told my manager and my record company nobody could hear anything until I'm done. So I was literally in the studio racking up studio bills for six months and no one heard anything, which I'm sure made them very nervous. And finally I was like, I just don't want to play anything for anyone because I don't want to hear anyone's opinion or thoughts. I don't want it to mess up what I'm thinking, and I wanted to be clear on what songs I thought were best and what I thought needed to make the record and what I thought were the singles. And I did that and then I sat my manager and my record company down and played it, and that's what I'll probably do again. But maybe not, maybe I'll be, whatever, and excited and want to play songs for people right away.
Q. With record sales not as robust as they were when you started out, do you try to do anything to combat that?
A. It's one of those things I don't think about. I'm not really in control of that. The music industry has kind of taken a hit right now, but I just focus on singing and writing, and I'm just going to keep doing it as long as I can and have fun with it. And I get to tour, and that really hasn't been affected, so I know that I can always do that. I'm fortunate to have a fanbase worldwide, and so I think I can do that for a while.
Q. You recently trademarked your name, which follows the trend for pop stars to create new revenue lines other than music.
A. Well, I'm going to be doing a fragrance and I'm also going to be doing a clothing line. This is something I wanted to do. It's a clothing line I wanted to do for about three years. A lot of times what people do is they do a licensing deal and I didn't want to do that, I wanted to own a company and really be able to be a designer and be creative. And I've finally found someone to partner up with, and I'm very excited about it because I love clothes. I love anything visual. I'm excited to be able to focus on something else creatively. I love music. By the time I get off tour I think it will be me doing music straight for seven years, so I look forward to something new to put my energy into, and to take a little break, even though I'll still be writing. I'll never stop.
Avril Lavigne with Boys Like Girls
When: 7 p.m. Friday, March 21
Where: Allstate Arena, 6920 N. Mannheim Rd., Rosemont
Tickets: $35-$45. (312) 559-1212