Avril Lavigne: want sass? crave bratty attitude? but need sugar on top? here's the fix

Back in 2002, 17-year-old Avril Lavigne's kohl-eyed, pissed-off persona helped move pop music away from the teen queens who were expected to dress themselves up in sexy-cheerleader garb and Britney their booties. If that revolutionary look now seems decades ago, Lavigne has retained something of its pop-punk princess core. The feeling on her latest album, The Best Damn Thing, is more grown-up than the girl on the early hit single "Sk8er Boi," but the hard edge and sonic defiance remain. The girl from Napanee, Ontario, still commands a crowd: The Best Damn Thing and its first single, "Girlfriend," both reached No. 1 on Billboard. Another Canadian artist who knows hitmaking, Nelly Furtado, talked with Lavigne about the reasons for all the continued success.

AVRIL LAVIGNE: Are you still living in Toronto?

NELLY FURTADO: Yeah. And you're in L.A. But do your parents still live in Napanee?

AL: Yeah

NF: Do you ever get crap from Canadian people for moving to America? A lot of Canadian artists experience that.

AL: I dont fool like I've gotten that. no

NF: I wanted to ask you about this song on your album, "Everything Back But You." It's got a different sound to it. What were you going for?

AL: Butch Walker and I wrote it together, and we were just writing about how stupid guys are. It was done for my last record, but it didn't fit. I don't usually put cut songs on the next record, because I'm over them at that point. The song's not a personal experience, which is different for me. Most of my songs are about personal experiences.

NF: How do you feel about ballads versus fast songs? You've said that fast ones are more fun to sing live.

AL: I like the fast songs, but once in a while I love to break down the show and sing a ballad. I love getting the crowd going, so I have a lot of anthemic songs.

NF: I noticed with your new album that your voice has changed a whole lot. What happened?

AL: I don't know. When I listen to the first record, I can't stand the way I sing. I was 17 then. Now I'm 22, so my voice is older, and I have more control over my vocals.

NF: Some of your new songs remind me of really good Blink-182 stuff sung by a girl.

AL: I love Blink-182.

NF: People say that you can't teach somebody how to write a melody, that it's innate. What kind of music did you listen to as a kid?

AL: The first band I was into was the Beach Boys. I always listened to them in the car when we went on road trips. I know every single song. My parents didn't really listen to music that much, except the Beach Boys and the Beatles. Then I got into Alanis Morissette. And in high school it was Blink-182. When I started writing music at 14, I felt like I didn't sound like anybody, but that was because I didn't know a ton of music.

NF: If you'd grown up in a big city, would your career have had a different path?

AL: Yeah, because in a small town there weren't concerts, and my family didn't have money to buy much music.

NF: Being from a small town may actually have helped your street credibility in rock music. But what kind of music do you see yourself developing?

AL: I know I have to have pop songs, because they're catchy, and they're on the radio, and people can sing along. My albums have full-on rock songs, and they're always my favorites, but they could never be singles for me.

NF: Is your stuff more for yourself or for your fans?

AL: I try not to think what other people are going to like. Sometimes I want my songs to be universal, but I write them for me. The last two records were total girl-pissed-off-at-the-guy things. This record is not like that. There are a couple of boy-bashing songs, but they're done in a really playful way.

NF: You've published a manga book using a fictional story based on your life. What inspired that?

AL: My manager brought that up, so I was like, "Yeah, I'll do a comic book." NF: Are you big in Japan?

AL: That's my biggest or second-biggest market. That was another reason we did the book, because manga's so big over there.

NF: Did you purposely choose a more urban-sounding mixer on new songs like "Girlfriend"?

AL: Yeah. My producer, Dr. Luke, recommended that. I'm really involved with the mixes. Sometimes when I'm not happy with something, I'll get other mixers to do versions and compare them even though it gets really expensive.

NF: What hangs you up more, vocals or rhythm?

AL: I get involved with all of it, especially now that I'm older.

NF: You've said that you drink in the studio a little bit. Did you drink in the studio with your latest album?

AL: I drank in the studio: Jager, limoncello, vodka, beer. But I wasn't drunk the whole record. I was only kind of drunk on a couple songs. I wouldn't sing a nice song, a mid-tempo, or a ballad drunk, because it just would not be good. [laughs]

NF: Sometimes you can get away with more in the studio.

AL: You know how it goes during a six-month period in the studio. Some days we'd party, and other days we didn't. It was just some choruses I was drunk or tipsy or whatever. I've done a couple of shows drunk, but I don't like to drink when I go onstage live, because I suck. I forget words. [laughs] I've been really lucky, because I can be hungover and have a hard night of partying and, like, totally still have my voice. And I can eat whatever I want.