sofia22
Aug 5th, 2005, 09:58 AM
Avril Lavigne has upcoming Canadian tour dates in Victoria (Aug.4-5), Halifax (Aug. 31) and Montreal (Sept. 3)
VICTORIA -- Teen years are tough enough for Jane or Joe Average. Balancing those dramatic ups and downs with the daily activities of a millionaire teenage rock star can often flat-out suck.
The usual mistakes made in the company of a few close friends, or in the comfort of your own bedroom, are magnified considerably when your life is of concern to the public. When MTV wants to know about your failed relationships and Entertainment Tonight has called about your latest temper tantrum, stress can be a killer.
It comes with the territory of being a rock star, according to Avril Lavigne, but it doesn't make life any easier.
Lavigne, who turns 21 on Sept. 27, has been in the public eye since she was 16, after dropping out of school in Grade 10 in order to make music for a living. And she's made headlines for the simplest of things -- gossiping about other girls, clowning for her friends, bucking authority. But when you're rich and famous, like Lavigne is, everyday teen behaviour can get you into hot water.
"I learned from the beginning you can't really say stuff about other artists because it gets in every single magazine all over the world as soon as you do,'' Lavigne says during a tour stop in Germany before embarking on the North American leg of her extended tour. "After the first couple of things I said about Britney Spears I knew I couldn't be talking like that. So I just learned to shut my mouth.''
The native of Napanee, Ont., made her name as the anti-Britney, a skateboarding "punk princess'' who wore men's ties and Chuck Taylor sneakers and did normal teen things on an abnormally large public stage. By the time she was 18, she had sold 14 million records; when she turned 20, she had received eight Grammy Award nominations and sold another eight million records.
The key to it all was that she looked real. Lavigne was adamant from the start that she wear her own clothes and sing her own songs. It was all an effort, despite her impending fame, to stay true to herself.
"I have never had a challenge with that,'' she says. "My first record, people expected me because I was 16 to have people write for me. Right away I said, 'Well, actually I can write, so I'd like to write.' So I was collaborating with people, and I never had a problem. The first record did so good everyone let me do what I do. It's been like that my entire career. Anything and everything I have a say in.''
Lavigne's second record, 2004's Under My Skin -- which topped the charts in Canada and the U.S. upon its release -- is not a sensation on the scale of her 2002 debut, Let Go, but it proves there's more substance to her than hits like Sk8er Boi and Complicated ever would have indicated. While former teen acts like Spears and Christina Aguilera are faced with lingering indifference to their pre-fab pop music, Lavigne is a safe bet to outlast them all with her unique pop-rock style.
She has grown up, too. Lavigne has toned down the goofy antics -- it's been a while since she flipped a middle finger at an MTV camera or mooned the press gallery on MuchMusic -- a move that has seemingly won her even more fans. And her current world tour, which will wrap in October after hitting the one-year mark, has been described by critics and fans as her best outing yet.
Part of the appeal is that Lavigne appears to be having more fun this time out. She plays piano and drums at various points in each show and has grown more comfortable addressing her audience.
"I only played guitar on my first tour, but keep in mind my first tour was only three months long. This tour has been a year, so I wanted to do everything I ever wanted to do on stage.''
Lavigne and her band (drummer Matt Brand; guitarists Devon Bronson and Craig Wood; and bassist Charlie Moniz) will take the remainder of the year off following the tour.
Lavigne says she will relocate to her empty home in Toronto for some much-needed respite. "I'll venture out somewhere else, but right now I'm on tour. This year, I think I've been home maybe twice. Last year, probably five times. And I'm trying to currently decorate my home. Now is the time. I'm not married, I don't have kids. I'll do it now while I can.''
While Lavigne is not yet married, she is no longer single; she was engaged to longtime boyfriend, Sum 41 frontman and fellow Ontario native Deryck Whibley, in late June. She won't discuss details of the upcoming nuptials, nor will she entertain rumours about the Los Angeles mansion the pair is expected to share. She has made every effort to keep aspects of her life private, in part due to legal battles with a stalker (who was later convicted) and a former boyfriend who attempted to auction Lavigne's love letters on eBay.
Complicating the matter even further are scurrilous media-types who base their opinions solely on how Lavigne acts in her videos.
"When I first came out with Complicated, I was skateboarding in the videos and jumping around, so when I would walk into a room to do the interview, everyone would go, 'Come on! Where are your rock signs?' They expected this really hyper girl and I'm not like that. People would meet me and they would be like, 'Why are you so quiet?' And I'd be like, 'Because we're talking. Do you want me to jump up and down while we're having a conversation?' No thank you.''
Truth be told, the limelight is something Lavigne has never been comfortable with.
"It's weird,'' she explains. "When you do these interviews and you walk into a room all quiet and this radio DJ starts going, 'Hey! Avril! Blah-blah-blah-blah-blah!' He's being all auditory and loud and I'm in a complete introverted mood, so I get thrown off. But it's my job so I put myself into their mood and go, 'Hey, I'm great!' It's like acting sometimes. Eventually you learn that you have to be like that or they take you the wrong way.''
Lavigne has been taken the wrong way plenty of times in the past. The early report on her was that she was a spoiled brat. Her interview skills, which at first were less than stellar, are now at a point where she comes across as simply a funny, down-to-earth twentysomething from rural Ontario.
She concurs with the in-progress report card.
"I'm quite different now,'' she says. "But when you have a strong personality, that can either come across as you being a bitch or just being a straight-shooter and knowing what you want and going after it.''
Now that Lavigne is in her 20s, engaged and by all accounts finding her footing as an artist, can we expect a full-scale makeover next?
Considering she describes herself as anti-girly clothes, perhaps not.
"I have a really hard time at photo shoots because I go in with my book bag and all my clothes in it, and they'd have all these racks of clothes with pink shirts and blouses and little skirts and high heels.
"They would all be offended on the shoot because they had this stylist, but I can't wear that. Uh, no -- I'm going to wear my stuff.''
-- Victoria Times Colonist
http://www.canada.com/entertainment/story.html?id=0dd29f5e-9ef9-4acb-9845-4aec10b28778
:music: :sunny: :laugh: :) :roll:
VICTORIA -- Teen years are tough enough for Jane or Joe Average. Balancing those dramatic ups and downs with the daily activities of a millionaire teenage rock star can often flat-out suck.
The usual mistakes made in the company of a few close friends, or in the comfort of your own bedroom, are magnified considerably when your life is of concern to the public. When MTV wants to know about your failed relationships and Entertainment Tonight has called about your latest temper tantrum, stress can be a killer.
It comes with the territory of being a rock star, according to Avril Lavigne, but it doesn't make life any easier.
Lavigne, who turns 21 on Sept. 27, has been in the public eye since she was 16, after dropping out of school in Grade 10 in order to make music for a living. And she's made headlines for the simplest of things -- gossiping about other girls, clowning for her friends, bucking authority. But when you're rich and famous, like Lavigne is, everyday teen behaviour can get you into hot water.
"I learned from the beginning you can't really say stuff about other artists because it gets in every single magazine all over the world as soon as you do,'' Lavigne says during a tour stop in Germany before embarking on the North American leg of her extended tour. "After the first couple of things I said about Britney Spears I knew I couldn't be talking like that. So I just learned to shut my mouth.''
The native of Napanee, Ont., made her name as the anti-Britney, a skateboarding "punk princess'' who wore men's ties and Chuck Taylor sneakers and did normal teen things on an abnormally large public stage. By the time she was 18, she had sold 14 million records; when she turned 20, she had received eight Grammy Award nominations and sold another eight million records.
The key to it all was that she looked real. Lavigne was adamant from the start that she wear her own clothes and sing her own songs. It was all an effort, despite her impending fame, to stay true to herself.
"I have never had a challenge with that,'' she says. "My first record, people expected me because I was 16 to have people write for me. Right away I said, 'Well, actually I can write, so I'd like to write.' So I was collaborating with people, and I never had a problem. The first record did so good everyone let me do what I do. It's been like that my entire career. Anything and everything I have a say in.''
Lavigne's second record, 2004's Under My Skin -- which topped the charts in Canada and the U.S. upon its release -- is not a sensation on the scale of her 2002 debut, Let Go, but it proves there's more substance to her than hits like Sk8er Boi and Complicated ever would have indicated. While former teen acts like Spears and Christina Aguilera are faced with lingering indifference to their pre-fab pop music, Lavigne is a safe bet to outlast them all with her unique pop-rock style.
She has grown up, too. Lavigne has toned down the goofy antics -- it's been a while since she flipped a middle finger at an MTV camera or mooned the press gallery on MuchMusic -- a move that has seemingly won her even more fans. And her current world tour, which will wrap in October after hitting the one-year mark, has been described by critics and fans as her best outing yet.
Part of the appeal is that Lavigne appears to be having more fun this time out. She plays piano and drums at various points in each show and has grown more comfortable addressing her audience.
"I only played guitar on my first tour, but keep in mind my first tour was only three months long. This tour has been a year, so I wanted to do everything I ever wanted to do on stage.''
Lavigne and her band (drummer Matt Brand; guitarists Devon Bronson and Craig Wood; and bassist Charlie Moniz) will take the remainder of the year off following the tour.
Lavigne says she will relocate to her empty home in Toronto for some much-needed respite. "I'll venture out somewhere else, but right now I'm on tour. This year, I think I've been home maybe twice. Last year, probably five times. And I'm trying to currently decorate my home. Now is the time. I'm not married, I don't have kids. I'll do it now while I can.''
While Lavigne is not yet married, she is no longer single; she was engaged to longtime boyfriend, Sum 41 frontman and fellow Ontario native Deryck Whibley, in late June. She won't discuss details of the upcoming nuptials, nor will she entertain rumours about the Los Angeles mansion the pair is expected to share. She has made every effort to keep aspects of her life private, in part due to legal battles with a stalker (who was later convicted) and a former boyfriend who attempted to auction Lavigne's love letters on eBay.
Complicating the matter even further are scurrilous media-types who base their opinions solely on how Lavigne acts in her videos.
"When I first came out with Complicated, I was skateboarding in the videos and jumping around, so when I would walk into a room to do the interview, everyone would go, 'Come on! Where are your rock signs?' They expected this really hyper girl and I'm not like that. People would meet me and they would be like, 'Why are you so quiet?' And I'd be like, 'Because we're talking. Do you want me to jump up and down while we're having a conversation?' No thank you.''
Truth be told, the limelight is something Lavigne has never been comfortable with.
"It's weird,'' she explains. "When you do these interviews and you walk into a room all quiet and this radio DJ starts going, 'Hey! Avril! Blah-blah-blah-blah-blah!' He's being all auditory and loud and I'm in a complete introverted mood, so I get thrown off. But it's my job so I put myself into their mood and go, 'Hey, I'm great!' It's like acting sometimes. Eventually you learn that you have to be like that or they take you the wrong way.''
Lavigne has been taken the wrong way plenty of times in the past. The early report on her was that she was a spoiled brat. Her interview skills, which at first were less than stellar, are now at a point where she comes across as simply a funny, down-to-earth twentysomething from rural Ontario.
She concurs with the in-progress report card.
"I'm quite different now,'' she says. "But when you have a strong personality, that can either come across as you being a bitch or just being a straight-shooter and knowing what you want and going after it.''
Now that Lavigne is in her 20s, engaged and by all accounts finding her footing as an artist, can we expect a full-scale makeover next?
Considering she describes herself as anti-girly clothes, perhaps not.
"I have a really hard time at photo shoots because I go in with my book bag and all my clothes in it, and they'd have all these racks of clothes with pink shirts and blouses and little skirts and high heels.
"They would all be offended on the shoot because they had this stylist, but I can't wear that. Uh, no -- I'm going to wear my stuff.''
-- Victoria Times Colonist
http://www.canada.com/entertainment/story.html?id=0dd29f5e-9ef9-4acb-9845-4aec10b28778
:music: :sunny: :laugh: :) :roll: