Get ready to hear a softer side of Avril Lavigne. The Canadian pop singer tells Billboard.com that she's taking a 更多 serious, stripped-down approach to her fourth studio album, tentatively slated for a November release on RCA. "A lot of the songs are mainly the acoustic and my vocal," says Lavigne of the as-yet-untitled project. "It's a lot different from anything I've done before. It's not a pop rock record. This is 更多 about emotion and feeling."
Lavigne's husband (and Sum 41 frontman) Deryck Whibley produced eight of the album's projected 12 tracks, half of which she says were were written 由 her alone. On the other half, she's been working with former bandmate Evan Taubenfield and songwriter/producer Butch Walker, who co-penned her 2004 single "My Happy Ending."
"I'm kind of just keeping it in the family with all of my close friends," says Lavigne, whose last album, 2007's "The Best Damn Thing," has sold 1.6 million copies according to Nielsen SoundScan. "I started this record off really slow, just 写作 songs at 首页 on my piano. I didn't work with a ton of people this time."
Though the album's first single hasn't been confirmed, the 25-year-old says it could "possibly" be a song that emerged from the TV commercial for her new "Black Star" fragrance, which will also launch in the U.S. this fall.
"It's the first song that I recorded for this record," she says. "A lot of people like it. It's kind of like a lullaby." The ethereal, piano-driven chorus was originally written just for the ad, but Lavigne has since decided to turn it into a full recording.
One of the album's other standout tracks, "Darlin,' " was written when Lavigne was 15 years old and still unsigned. "It was probably the 秒 song I [ever] wrote; I was trying to figure it all out," she recalls. "It's really special to me." The 更多 mature-sounding "Everybody Hurts," meanwhile, boasts weighty 吉他 riffs, impressive vocals and comforting lyrics like, "It's okay to be afraid." Lavigne describes the track as "different…but not different to stray away from who I am and what I am."
For now, though, Lavigne's primary focus remains her music. Once her album drops, she expects to tour North America in February of 下一个 year, and she won't be bringing any backup dancers on the road this time. Instead, she'd like to keep the vibe of her live shows similar to that of the album. "I want to do a cool theater tour in America because I feel it will really suit this record," she says. "I'm ready to go out there and just mellow out and sing."
Avril Lavigne didn’t mean to start recording a new album. “It just happened,” she says of the still-untitled November 17th release. “I made a record without even feeling like I made a record.”
Sitting in a studio in Tarzana, Calif., with her feet — clad in a pair of vinyl hightops — propped up on a mixing board, the now 24 年 old pop-punk princess barely looks a 日 older than she did when “Complicated” took the airwaves 由 storm in 2002. “I’m sitting on the 钢琴 写作 in the foyer, and he’s in the studio, and it’s like, ‘Hey. I like that.’”
“He” is Lavigne’s husband (and Sum 41 frontman) Deryck Whibley, who has used the couple’s 首页 studio to produce eight of the nine tracks she’s recorded so far. “I think this is taking the spirit of what she’s done on 前一个 records so much further,” he says. “It’s way 更多 meaningful, has 更多 of an impact, 更多 emotional. It makes me feel something 更多 than the other stuff. And I wanted to match that musically with the track.”
Lavigne seems thrilled to have such a crack in-house production partner. “He knows me. We spend a lot of time together,” she laughs, in her habitual cackle. “And the cool thing is, if he’s recording something and I don’t like it, I can be like, ‘No, no, no, I don’t like that. 更多 like this.’ 或者 I can walk in and be like, ‘Love it. Keep going.’”
It was a song snippet called “Black Star” — intended for her fragrance commercial — that launched the recording process back in November; Lavigne played that intro and two complete tracks for EW called “Everybody Hurts” and “Darlin’.” The first has a trademark Lavigne acoustic beginning, then explodes into a loud chorus of “Everybody hurts some days.”
The 秒 is a 爱情 song Lavigne wrote when she was 15: “I always really liked this song,” she says, “and I never recorded it.” There are other songs from her past on the record, too, including one she wrote at 17, and one she wrote at 20. “I always had material, but some people that I worked with didn’t really care, because they wanted to write the stuff,” she says, when asked why the tunes haven’t surfaced before. “Some people were just like, ‘Ah, whatever. You’re a little girl. What do 你 know?’ I know how this works. It’s my fourth record. It’s not rocket science. I think people doubted me before, and I’m finally just like, ‘I’m doing this.’”
Both new tracks also demonstrate quite clearly that the rapping/Toni Basil affliction that plagued 2007’s The Best Damn Thing has left her system, and she’s back to the emo-heavy strengths of her first two albums. “[Best Damn Thing] was intended to be fun, to be rockin’,” she explains. “All I had in my mind was my live show, running around on stage, getting the crowd involved. This record, I just really, really wanted to sing. We started recording each song, some of them, just with acoustic 吉他 and the vocal and building it from there. It’s stripped down. I 爱情 performing that way, so I really felt like it was time to make a record like that. To just make it all about the vocal and the performance, and the vibe, and the emotion.”
She’s thinking about doing a theater tour in support of the new album, so she can bring that emotion directly to the audience. “I just wanna have silence around me, and have these acoustic songs and really deliver,” she says.
There’s 更多 work to be done before the album release, but Lavigne doesn’t seem to be sweating it. “My new word right now is ‘balance,’” she says. “Work hard, play hard. Maybe that should be the album cover: Work Hard, Play Hard…Bitch.” With this, she cracks herself up again. “I swear to God I have not drank anything but green 果汁 today,” she grins. “Why am I 表演 like this?” Part of it may be that the little sk8er girl is finally growing up, and feels comfortable — and demonstrably happy — making an album that reflects where she is in life right now. “I was always really honest in my lyrics,” she says, “I think 更多 so when I was younger, and now it’s kind of come back to that. Just like, 你 know what? I’m not trying to write a perfect pop song. I’m just trying to write a song that’s honest right now, even if something sounds weird 或者 a lyric might not make sense to someone.
“I’m turning 25 this year. 25, but not 35! Half of me is really older-acting and the other half is a young spirit. When I’m really old, I think I’ll be crazy, and have a young spirit and be fun. But yeah. I am an adult. But sometimes I still feel like I’m 19.” She says. “Sometimes I still dress like I’m 19. I don’t think I’ll ever be super mad sophisticated. I think I’ll always be like this.”
*taken from a 脸谱 group about Avril's 4th Album.
-SORRY IT'S SO LONG!
Lavigne's husband (and Sum 41 frontman) Deryck Whibley produced eight of the album's projected 12 tracks, half of which she says were were written 由 her alone. On the other half, she's been working with former bandmate Evan Taubenfield and songwriter/producer Butch Walker, who co-penned her 2004 single "My Happy Ending."
"I'm kind of just keeping it in the family with all of my close friends," says Lavigne, whose last album, 2007's "The Best Damn Thing," has sold 1.6 million copies according to Nielsen SoundScan. "I started this record off really slow, just 写作 songs at 首页 on my piano. I didn't work with a ton of people this time."
Though the album's first single hasn't been confirmed, the 25-year-old says it could "possibly" be a song that emerged from the TV commercial for her new "Black Star" fragrance, which will also launch in the U.S. this fall.
"It's the first song that I recorded for this record," she says. "A lot of people like it. It's kind of like a lullaby." The ethereal, piano-driven chorus was originally written just for the ad, but Lavigne has since decided to turn it into a full recording.
One of the album's other standout tracks, "Darlin,' " was written when Lavigne was 15 years old and still unsigned. "It was probably the 秒 song I [ever] wrote; I was trying to figure it all out," she recalls. "It's really special to me." The 更多 mature-sounding "Everybody Hurts," meanwhile, boasts weighty 吉他 riffs, impressive vocals and comforting lyrics like, "It's okay to be afraid." Lavigne describes the track as "different…but not different to stray away from who I am and what I am."
For now, though, Lavigne's primary focus remains her music. Once her album drops, she expects to tour North America in February of 下一个 year, and she won't be bringing any backup dancers on the road this time. Instead, she'd like to keep the vibe of her live shows similar to that of the album. "I want to do a cool theater tour in America because I feel it will really suit this record," she says. "I'm ready to go out there and just mellow out and sing."
Avril Lavigne didn’t mean to start recording a new album. “It just happened,” she says of the still-untitled November 17th release. “I made a record without even feeling like I made a record.”
Sitting in a studio in Tarzana, Calif., with her feet — clad in a pair of vinyl hightops — propped up on a mixing board, the now 24 年 old pop-punk princess barely looks a 日 older than she did when “Complicated” took the airwaves 由 storm in 2002. “I’m sitting on the 钢琴 写作 in the foyer, and he’s in the studio, and it’s like, ‘Hey. I like that.’”
“He” is Lavigne’s husband (and Sum 41 frontman) Deryck Whibley, who has used the couple’s 首页 studio to produce eight of the nine tracks she’s recorded so far. “I think this is taking the spirit of what she’s done on 前一个 records so much further,” he says. “It’s way 更多 meaningful, has 更多 of an impact, 更多 emotional. It makes me feel something 更多 than the other stuff. And I wanted to match that musically with the track.”
Lavigne seems thrilled to have such a crack in-house production partner. “He knows me. We spend a lot of time together,” she laughs, in her habitual cackle. “And the cool thing is, if he’s recording something and I don’t like it, I can be like, ‘No, no, no, I don’t like that. 更多 like this.’ 或者 I can walk in and be like, ‘Love it. Keep going.’”
It was a song snippet called “Black Star” — intended for her fragrance commercial — that launched the recording process back in November; Lavigne played that intro and two complete tracks for EW called “Everybody Hurts” and “Darlin’.” The first has a trademark Lavigne acoustic beginning, then explodes into a loud chorus of “Everybody hurts some days.”
The 秒 is a 爱情 song Lavigne wrote when she was 15: “I always really liked this song,” she says, “and I never recorded it.” There are other songs from her past on the record, too, including one she wrote at 17, and one she wrote at 20. “I always had material, but some people that I worked with didn’t really care, because they wanted to write the stuff,” she says, when asked why the tunes haven’t surfaced before. “Some people were just like, ‘Ah, whatever. You’re a little girl. What do 你 know?’ I know how this works. It’s my fourth record. It’s not rocket science. I think people doubted me before, and I’m finally just like, ‘I’m doing this.’”
Both new tracks also demonstrate quite clearly that the rapping/Toni Basil affliction that plagued 2007’s The Best Damn Thing has left her system, and she’s back to the emo-heavy strengths of her first two albums. “[Best Damn Thing] was intended to be fun, to be rockin’,” she explains. “All I had in my mind was my live show, running around on stage, getting the crowd involved. This record, I just really, really wanted to sing. We started recording each song, some of them, just with acoustic 吉他 and the vocal and building it from there. It’s stripped down. I 爱情 performing that way, so I really felt like it was time to make a record like that. To just make it all about the vocal and the performance, and the vibe, and the emotion.”
She’s thinking about doing a theater tour in support of the new album, so she can bring that emotion directly to the audience. “I just wanna have silence around me, and have these acoustic songs and really deliver,” she says.
There’s 更多 work to be done before the album release, but Lavigne doesn’t seem to be sweating it. “My new word right now is ‘balance,’” she says. “Work hard, play hard. Maybe that should be the album cover: Work Hard, Play Hard…Bitch.” With this, she cracks herself up again. “I swear to God I have not drank anything but green 果汁 today,” she grins. “Why am I 表演 like this?” Part of it may be that the little sk8er girl is finally growing up, and feels comfortable — and demonstrably happy — making an album that reflects where she is in life right now. “I was always really honest in my lyrics,” she says, “I think 更多 so when I was younger, and now it’s kind of come back to that. Just like, 你 know what? I’m not trying to write a perfect pop song. I’m just trying to write a song that’s honest right now, even if something sounds weird 或者 a lyric might not make sense to someone.
“I’m turning 25 this year. 25, but not 35! Half of me is really older-acting and the other half is a young spirit. When I’m really old, I think I’ll be crazy, and have a young spirit and be fun. But yeah. I am an adult. But sometimes I still feel like I’m 19.” She says. “Sometimes I still dress like I’m 19. I don’t think I’ll ever be super mad sophisticated. I think I’ll always be like this.”
*taken from a 脸谱 group about Avril's 4th Album.
-SORRY IT'S SO LONG!
