Avril Lavigne Gives Advice To Young Female Musicians
Avril Lavigne has spoken about her experiences as a woman in the music industry, her new album, and given advice to young female musicians in a new interview with Ultimate Guitar.
Avril remembered early attempts by stylists to change her distinctive look, “I would show up at photoshoots and they would want me to wear like, pink laced blouses, and I’d be like, ‘No’. After that, a manager would have to come in and fight the magazine. I’d be like, ‘Can I just wear my ties?’ And they’d pull out my duffle bag, and pull out my stuff [and try to decide what I should wear]. [Ultimately,] I ended up getting to kind just be me. But I mean, I was just a little fighter and I had to fight to be a writer, and then production-wise, for the songs to rock a little harder and be more pop-rock-driven and guitar-driven and even how they were stylized.2
The singer went on to give advice to young female musicians starting out in the industry, “Put a lot of time into it. You really have to work hard and give it chance. I know a few people who have bought a guitar and they never gave it the chance or the shot that it deserves. You have to learn it, you have to spend time practicing, because once you know it, you’ll know it the rest of your life, and it’ll be part of your life no matter what.
“You’ll be at a party, and you’ll be like, ‘Oh, I know how to play this.’ Or you know, you might turn into a songwriter for a living, or you might just want to grab a guitar at a bar and jump on stage or you may end up doing that for a living. But you’ve got to own your craft. I remember doing that – being at a pub one time, and randomly, I took some guy’s guitar just played one of my songs. You never know. When I have kids, I’m definitely going to have them take music lessons. Because once you spend a couple of years and you learn to play piano or you learn the guitar, you learn the drums, you take that with you your whole life. I think it’s totally worth it to at least know a little bit of the basics of an instrument. It really gives your kid an opportunity if they want to play and then if they don’t, they don’t.”