The Bite Magazine - Spring 2019 - Issue 24

Given some creative control, there were disagreements about who wrote some of the songs on her first album. The Matrix team consisting of Lauren Christy, Graham Edwards and Scott Spock said they wrote the bulk of the album while Avril implied she was the primary author.The singer knew in her heart that she “needed to be more pop to break” but the harder-rocking songs like ‘Unwanted’ and ‘Losing Grip’ co-written with Clif Magness had the sound she wanted for the whole album and the label wasn’t thrilled with the heavy guitar sound. In an article, she told The Guardian in 2003, “Arista was drop-dead shit afraid that I would come out with a whole album that sounded like ‘Unwanted’ and ‘Losing Grip’. I swear they wanted to drop me or something. I don’t feel like ‘Complicated’ represents me and my ability to write. But without ‘Com- plicated’, I bet you anything I wouldn’t have even sold a million records. The songs I did with The Matrix, yeah, they were good for my first record, but I don’t want to be that pop anymore.” While her mother instilled some well-valued rules around dating boys, her favourite track on the album ‘Losing Grip’ was inspired by a boyfriend who didn’t value her enough. In the same interview, Avril said she wanted a guy who is sensitive, has edge and would give her lots of attention and hugs all the time. As one of the lyrics says, “Right now I feel invisible to you,” she felt although she was this guy’s girlfriend, he didn’t treat her like one and would just sit there with his arm around because she was his chick and not because he loved her. Another track ‘Too Much to Ask’ was about a summer crush who smoked too much weed and blew Avril off more times than he should have.“He’d choose to go get high instead of be with me in certain situations,” she recalled. “He was never my boyfriend or anything. I was pissed off at the summer crush. I mean, he was a d**k. I liked him. And I wanted something. And he liked me. But if I had a boyfriend, I would cherish him so much. I might not look like a tough chick – and I am – but I’m also a hopeless romantic inside.” This ‘hopeless romantic’ led to the singer marrying twice: first to Deryck Whibley of rock band Sum 41 in 2006, who she divorced four years later and then to Chad Kroeger of rock band Nickelback in 2013, which ended in 2015. She still remains close to both of her ex-husbands, even supporting Whibley after he hit rock bottom and almost died from the effects of alcohol- ism. She and Kroeger worked on the track “Let Me Go’ together while still married to him but said in an inter- view with Fuse that it was originally a break-up song. With her second single ‘Tell Me It’s Over’ released in December 2018, the album Head Above Water followed and hit the record stores in February 2019. https://avrillavigne.com bite music celeb