I’ve been working for 20 years but my secret to looking young is green juice and beer, reveals Avril Lavigne, 37
EVEN after a late night in the studio, Avril Lavigne looks way younger than her 37 years.
With her trademark black eyeliner and long blonde and orange hair, she is still the original pop-punk princess who released Complicated and Sk8er Boi in the Noughties.
Twenty years since those first hits, released when she was just 17 years old, she is keen to tell me how she has kept her youthful looks.
“My secret, I’m going to tell everybody is green juice and beer,” she says with a smile — before letting out a long yawn.
“I am so sorry for that. I just woke up so I’m literally having my first cup of coffee. I was working last night with (Blink-182 drummer) writing and recording a song, super-late, for the deluxe version of the record.”
The Canadian singer has gone back to her roots for her seventh studio album, Love Sux, which she says began in the pandemic after she started working on a couple of ideas with songwriter and new boyfriend rapper Mod Sun.
She explains: “I met Mod and he introduced me to (Goldfinger’s) John Feldmann who later produced the record. We then wrote the record in, like, two weeks — we wrote so fast.
“We really clicked and had such a good time together. I didn’t have a record company or management at the time so I got to make the record I wanted, and making it was organic and fun.
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“I worked with Travis (who writes, plays and produces tracks on the album) and he signed me to his new label DTA Records label. Since then I’ve been working with him, it’s been super- fun. He’s the president of my record company, which is, like, as cool as it gets.”
‘Album has energy of my live show’
Growing up, Blink-182 was one of Lavigne’s favourite bands and so working with Barker — and singer Mark Hoppus who guests on the track All I Wanted — was something special.
She says: “It was such an honour to work with Mark because I listened to Blink when I was very young. I don’t get nervous as I’m just, like, thinking about the song and, like, giving it my all. But working with Mark, I was, like, ‘OK, this is crazy’.
“It’s cool to work with newer and older artists like Machine Gun Kelly (on Bois Lie) and Blackbear (on Love It When You Hate Me).”
Lavigne says it was her collaborating with other artists that gave the album an energy that had been missing on last album Head Above Water, a collection of deep and introspective songs.
She says: “That album was full of ballads whereas this album had a totally different energy — it’s super-fresh. I’ve been wanting to make a record that’s all up-tempo the whole way through. All my albums have been quite diverse but this album carries the spirit and the energy of my live show.
“All my albums are a little bit different but this is where I started. This is the music that I really loved when I was in high school, aged 14 or 15.
All my albums have been quite diverse but this album carries the spirit and the energy of my live show.
Avril Lavigne
"I loved guitar-driven rock bands. That’s when I picked up the guitar and wanted to wear a low guitar and write guitar-driven songs.
“It feels good to come back to this sound, for sure, and make an alternative record all the way through. My favourite song is Love Sux — I guess it’s also why I called the album that.
"I also love Bois Lie and Love It When You Hate Me. My single Bite Me is super-fun. This is the album I’ve wanted to make for a long time.”
Lavigne says it was an exciting experience to collaborate with artists and use live instrumentation “because I haven’t done this before”.
She adds: “It was fun to team up with these dope artists from the scene like Machine Gun Kelly. I love what he’s done with his music and how he’s evolved from rapping to a pop-punk album with Travis in Tickets To My Downfall. It’s so great to see people appreciating rock music again.”
Love Sux is an album about female empowerment, influenced by Lavigne looking back at past loves and moving on.
‘Megan and Kourtney are super-sweet’
Lavigne, who has been married to Sum 41’s Deryck Whibley and Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger, says: “I love to be in a relationship and I’m really happy now. I wasn’t looking for one and I got into one so that was really nice because we are creative together.
“It (the album’s theme) began when I wrote the song F.U. with Travis at like 2am. We were in his beautiful new studio. I’d ordered a pizza and I drank beer and put lyrics to this track he sent me.
“I was feeling really angsty and was reflecting on past relationships and, like, everything, the whole record, is about that. But not every song is like a ‘f**k you’ type of song. Dare To Love Me is about going there after being hurt. It’s about letting your walls down when you’re vulnerable.”
Being friends with Travis Barker and Machine Gun Kelly means Lavigne has also been spending time with their famous partners, Kourtney Kardashian and actress Megan Fox — who announced her engagement to Kelly last month in a video posted to Instagram.
“I’m really happy for them and that they found love,” says Lavigne. “The girls are perfect for them. I’ve hung out with them and they’re both super-sweet, though the majority of the time everybody’s working.”
While Lavigne doesn’t look her age she says she doesn’t feel it either: “I don’t feel older, I feel the same the whole time I’ve been doing this. The crazy thing is I’ve been around for 20 years and I still feel young — the music keeps me that way. And I just want to make music my whole life.
I was only 16 when I made my first record, and I left home and was living in hotels. Then I was 17 when I had success.
Avril Lavigne
“I was only 16 when I made my first record, and I left home and was living in hotels. Then I was 17 when I had success.
“It’s wild, as I’m just this girl from a little town in Canada and I feel so lucky to have such special songs that have lasted.
“I have a Sk8er Boi tattoo on my wrist, as that song really struck a chord and I’m turning it into a movie. It hit and reached so many people and they still love the song. It was such an exciting time for me.”
She adds: “I had a very stable upbringing and grew up in a Christian home and there were a lot of rules, as my parents were really strict.
“So the minute I left, I ate pizza every day, stayed up all night and partied my ass off. I wasn’t out of control or into drugs and I had a good work ethic and was well disciplined and did everything I needed to do — that balance was there.
“I was like a normal teenager away from their parents for the first time. It was great. It was like when people first go to college. Well, I didn’t go to college, I moved on to a tour bus with a bunch of guys.”
‘Mom would say, “Put a dress on”’
As well as keeping her young, having a long career in music has allowed Lavigne “to just be myself” — and that includes with her own fashion.
She recalls of her early years: “The way I dressed wasn’t appropriate — I was into baggy clothes, I was a tomboy and my parents didn’t like that.
“When I would go to church, my mom would say, ‘Why are you dressed like a boy? Put a dress on’.
“Then when I was making my first album, I was told I had my own thing going on, my own style, which was cool because I immediately got to just be myself and have fun with that.
“And I was comfortable from the start. I still style myself for all my videos — it’s way more work but it’s fun, and I have my clothing line Abbey Dawn.
“It’s important for me to love what I’m doing and to really feel what I’m saying. I’m in love with every single song on this album — and the fans are so connected, they’re going to love it.
“I’ve always been very stubborn and stood my ground and fought for myself and my sound, especially when I was discovering myself. And I’ve always stayed as real and authentic as possible. It’s an energy and vibe I can feel.
I was told I had my own thing going on, my own style, which was cool because I immediately got to just be myself and have fun with that.
Avril Lavigne
“That’s just the kind of person I am. If I feel strongly about something then I stick to it because that’s my intuition.”
Earlier this week, Lavigne was forced to postpone her UK and European headline tour — which was scheduled to hit the road later this month — due to “travel and venue restrictions” as a result of the pandemic.
“I’m so bummed” she says. “I was so looking forward to going to Europe. I want to be there so bad, as I haven’t been in so long because of the pandemic.
“But playing in different countries, with different rules and regulations, wasn’t going to work. You could get there and not know who’s shutting down. You could only play 30 per cent of the capacity in some places and then you have to give back the tickets to the 70 per cent. And, well, you can do math — it sucks.
“I wish my tour was a couple of months later, because I feel like restrictions will lift. It just really sucks we had to move it, because I know the tour is going to be really magical.
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“But it will happen and it will be the same vibe and the same tour. And the album will be out and I will be much more warmed up, and better and ready for it. I can’t wait.”
- Love Sux is out on February 25.
