Avril Lavigne Song and Dance Girl

[Jimmyzz]

Song and dance girl

Avril Lavigne livens up her latest tour with uptempo songs and—backup dancers?

By Andy Hermann
Metromix
March 12, 2008



When Avril Lavigne first burst onto the scene in 2002, she was a breath of fresh air—a punky and unpolished young singer at a time when carefully packaged, high-gloss stars like Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson dominated the airwaves. Her biggest hits, “Complicated” and “Sk8er Boi,” had more in common with pop-punk acts like blink-182 than they did with the plastic dance-pop favored by other young female artists of the time.

A lot of Lavigne’s early success was built on a persona that was more accessible, and seemingly more genuine, than the Britneys and Jessicas of the world. Underneath all the punk posturing and snotty attitude, Lavigne seemed like a real teenager—awkward, earnest, a bit unsure of herself. Millions of teenagers—and older fans in touch with their inner teenager—could instantly relate.

On her sophomore album, “Under My Skin,” Lavigne tried to shed some of that über-teen image with a darker, more serious set of songs. But last year, at 22, she returned to her bratty, youthful persona with a vengeance—“The Best Damn Thing” is pure bubblegum, with handclap beats, text-message lyrics and singalong choruses galore. She’s even cribbing a few style notes from those plastic teen queens, adding backup dancers and costume changes to her latest tour.

At a recent press conference call, Lavigne sounded excited—and maybe a teensy bit defensive—about her first forays into glitzy production values. She also talked about creative control, her return to more upbeat pop and her expansion of the Avril Empire into fragrance and fashion.

What form is your show going to take on this tour? I know you were talking about working with dancers this time out.

The show is going to be very upbeat and the production will be bigger…dancers on a couple of songs, and LED screens, and I’m going to have checkered flooring. I have a pink sparkle drum kit [and] a pink piano. 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.

Are you dancing in it, too?

There’s dancing on maybe like four songs, and it’s not really much dancing. It’s very me, it’s very kicking and punching and stomping and marching, stuff that I was always doing on stage. The show is very me, it rocks. It’s very much me, but just the next level. I always wanted it to be bigger and just more fun, like a party, [with] more people on stage to have fun with and stuff.

I know you talked for a long time about being the alternative to the Britneys and the Christina Aguileras and all the production number kind of shows. Do you worry about getting compared to them now?

No, because my songs aren’t bubblegum pop dance songs and I don’t have background dancers on every single song like them. I’m not wearing a headphone/microphone on my head. 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.

How much creative control did you have on this latest record?

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. [But] 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 did that, and then I sat my manager and my record company down and played it.

It’s almost like a return to your first record; it’s very upbeat, super-catchy pop.

My inspiration for this record, a lot of it 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 like bringing down the audience…and I was like, I want to go up.

You recently trademarked your name. Does that mean we can expect some fun new Avril Lavigne merchandise in the near future?

Well, I’m going to be doing a fragrance and I’m also going to be doing a clothing line. 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.

©2008 Metromix.com

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