Avril Lavgine‘s debut album, Let Go, dropped 20 years ago this week — June 4, 2002 — which is why it’s a good time for the now 37-year-old singer to reflect on how far she’s come and her plans for the future, which include movies, cookbooks and her first Christmas album.
In a career-overview chat, Lavigne told England’s The Guardian that she plans to do more work with her label boss, Blink-182’s Travis Barker and her upcoming tour mate, Machine Gun Kelly, as well as tick off some big items on her bucket list.
“My food is, like, gourmet,” she said, “I can do everything! Pasta, sauce, vegan, salads and soups – I can do every kind of soup.” In addition to wanting to work on a cookbook, Lavigne said she’d like to record her first Christmas album and launch a makeup line, while revealing that she recently found a director to helm the film adaptation of her breakthrough 2002 hit, “Sk8er Boi.”
“I can’t wait to learn this process of making a movie,” she said. “I think I’ll want to make more.”
The Ontario-born singer from the small town of Napanee (pop. 5,000) told the Guardian that she was totally unaware of what she was getting herself into when she decided to try her hand at being a pop star. “I didn’t even know what Hollywood was or what record deals were,” she said, describing an endless string of awkward meetings in corporate boardrooms in search of co-writers and producers who would understand her point of view. The frustrating process, and her lack of knowledge of music production techniques, made it hard to find her distinctive voice.
“They didn’t care what I had to say; they had their own style and didn’t bother to look at me and try to let me lead,” she said. But, as her music has always shown, Lavigne did have a lot to say and a very specific way of saying it. “I was very clear on what I wanted to do and what I didn’t want to do,” she continued. “I wanted to be angsty and to sound more like a band; I didn’t want to be all bubblegum pop. I wanted to turn my emotions into lyrics. I was honestly just very, very pure.”
Though she was barely into her teens, Lavigne’s rise had her moving out of her parent’s house directly onto a tour bus with no rules, which was disorienting for the singer. “I was like: ‘I can drink beer now and eat pizza every day’ and I just got to hang out with my band and travel the world. It was crazy, but it was pretty special,” she said.
Earlier this year Lavigne promised a 20th anniversary deluxe edition of Let Go, but a press time a release date had not yet been announced.
