Avril Lavigne Keeps Head Above Water

Every week it seems like I am always featuring new artist after new artist. They quickly make their way into the music industry and sell lots of music. Sometimes the artist will deliver followup music that does well enough to spark a true music career. However, this week feels different. It feels very good. I’m able to write and discuss an artist who has delivered hit music for several years. I can write about an artist who has pushed to create despite many of life’s hardships. Yes, this week Weekly Music Commentary features the great singer, songwriter and actress, Avril Lavigne.

Several times in the past I have written how much I enjoy featuring musicians who have delivered music fifteen to twenty years. I also like that age group of mid thirties to forty years of age. It sends a message of accomplishment. In fact, if there is one word I would choose to describe Avril Lavigne, it would be “accomplished”. Why? Her entertainment career has been packed with every accomplishment known to an artist.

Lavigne was born in 1984 at Belleville, Ontario, Canada. She was named “Avril” by her father after the French word for the month of April. He and Lavigne’s mother recognized their child’s vocal abilities when she was two years old and sang “Jesus Loves Me” on the way home from church. When Lavigne was five years old, the family moved to Greater Napanee, Ontario, a town with a population of approximately 5,000. In school, she was sometimes kicked out of class for misbehaving. Her parents supported her singing. Her father bought her a microphone, a drum kit, a keyboard, and several guitars, and converted their basement into a studio; following his own love for music Jean-Claude led the family to church at Third Day Worship Center in Kingston, Ontario, where he often played bass. Lavigne also performed at country fairs, singing songs by Garth Brooks, the Dixie Chicks, and Shania Twain. She also began writing her own songs. Her first song was called “Can’t Stop Thinking About You”, about a teenage crush, which she described as “cheesy cute”.

When you look back at Avril Lavigne’s early, developmental years you see many ingredients that effectively help an artist become very good later in life. Music was a major and constant part of her young life.

In 1999, Lavigne won a radio contest to perform with the Canadian singer Shania Twain at the Corel Centre in Ottawa, before an audience of 20,000 people. Twain and Lavigne sang Twain’s song, “What Made You Say That”, and Lavigne told Twain that she was going to be “a famous singer”. During a performance with the Lennox Community Theatre, Lavigne was spotted by local folksinger Stephen Medd. He invited her to contribute vocals on his song, “Touch the Sky”, for his 1999 album, Quinte Spirit. She later sang on “Temple of Life” and “Two Rivers” for his follow-up album, My Window to You, in 2000.

By the time she left school to focus on her music career, Lavigne was musically more influenced by skate punk, pop punk and punk rock acts such as blink-182, Sum 41, NOFX, Pennywise, Dashboard Confessional, Green Day, the Ramones, the Distillers and Hole. She also enjoyed metal bands such as Marilyn Manson, System of a Down, Incubus and the Used; as well as alternative bands such as Nirvana, No Doubt, the Goo Goo Dolls, Radiohead, Coldplay, Oasis, Third Eye Blind and Matchbox Twenty.

In November 2000, Ken Krongard, an A&R representative, invited Antonio “L.A.” Reid, then head of Arista Records, to Zizzo’s Manhattan studio to hear Lavigne sing. Her 15-minute audition “so impressed” Reid that he immediately signed her to Arista with a deal worth $1.25 million for two albums and an extra $900,000 for a publishing advance. Lavigne’s band was chosen by Nettwerk, as they wanted young performers who were up and coming from the Canadian punk rock scene who would fit with Lavigne’s personality.

At this point in Avril Lavigne’s career, I always thought that the punk rock presentation was something that was part of her, and who she was as a musician. I recently learned something different. Lavigne’s close friend and guitarist, Evan Taubenfeld, said, “It’s a very touchy subject to a lot of people, but the point is that Avril isn’t punk, but she never really pretended to claim to come from that scene. She had pop punk music and the media ended up doing the rest”. Lavigne commented on the matter: “I have been labeled like I’m this angry girl, [a] rebel … punk, and I am so not any of them.” However, she has also said that her music has punk influences: “I like to listen a lot to punk rock music, you can notice a certain influence of punk in my music. I like an aggressive music, but pretty enough heavy pop-rock, which is what I really do.”

This fact explains much about her music and where we are today. It even explains a lot about seventeen-year-old Lavigne delivering the hit song “Complicated”, but growing into the thirty-four year old and her adult music of today. Album number six comes after seventeen additional years of life, complete with massive career accomplishments, personal life ups and downs, and a major bout with Lyme Disease. In fact, the illness has greatly influenced her album which was released February 15, 2019 titled Head Above Water. It is Lavigne’s first studio release since her self-titled fifth studio album (2013), marking the longest gap between two of her studio albums.

I listened to the album a few times in one sitting and I was impressed greatly by this work. Once you understand the circumstances behind the writing of the songs on the album, I believe anyone will appreciate the collection much more.

Lavigne shared many details about her ordeal by way of the album and interviews. Given time, she does make us all understand the physical and emotional pain one undergoes while enduring Lyme Disease. “This is me and my fight,” she affirms. “This album tells my story.”

“I’m in a battle,” she sighs. “One night, I thought I was dying, and I had accepted that I was going to die. My mom laid with me in bed and held me. I felt like I was drowning. Under my breath, I prayed ‘God, please help to keep my head above the water.’ In that moment, the song writing of this album began. It was like I tapped into something. It was a very spiritual experience. Lyrics flooded through me from that point on.”

“I fought Lyme Disease on antibiotics and herbs for two years. I tried to have a life, but was in bed the majority of the time, and it was very up and down with good days and bad days. “When you’re in bed for the better part of two years, you lose muscle mass,” explains Avril “and your entire body gets weak. I’ve had to work to get my endurance up. ‘Head Above Water’ was the first song that I sang. I was fresh off not singing for two years. I thought my voice would be weak, it ended up being stronger than ever. The break happened to actually be good for my vocal cords.”

“I went through a lot to get here,” she leaves off. “The positive side is I didn’t stop living my life. Having music while I was healing and in recovery definitely pulled me out of my darkness. I had a goal to work towards and a purpose. I hope the album touches people. We all go through challenges in life. Some unfortunately are more serious than others. Having gone through the battle of my lifetime, I’m stronger than ever and looking forward to sharing my renewed voice and energy for my life with my fans through this new music.”