Avril: Marriage turned me from a tomboy to a real woman

Avril married Sm 41 singer Deryck Whibley a year ago

I wear heels and a dress once in a while, but I still have my rock sensibility.

"Off stage, I'm actually quite shy. I might get a bit crazy when I'm around my friends, but I'm not a big talker.

"Interviews have always been an odd thing for me, especially when I was younger.

"When I was first promoting my music, I had all these adults asking me these really serious questions. Why would a 17-year-old girl want to sit and talk to adults all day?"

Avril married Sm 41 singer Deryck Whibley a year ago

Perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised by Avril's transformation. Most of the singer's core values were established by her humble, church-going upbringing in Napanee, Ontario.

Raised in a tight-knit French-Canadian family, she was a typical outdoor type, heavily influenced by a sports-crazy older brother.

And though she admits to being "a tough little s**t" when she was in high school, her more rebellious instincts didn't fully surface until she signed her first record deal at 16.

Now she is planning a future with husband Whibley, whom she met in 2004 and married a year ago in California.

The frontman of Ontario poppunk band Sum 41, who once released an album with the alarming title Does This Look Infected?, Whibley seems to be an ideal match for Avril.

"I'm really happy and things are good,' she says. 'I don't know how marriage will affect my outlook, but it's cool to be with someone who does the same thing as me. We have both chosen the same life, so things tend to work out.

"We understand everything about one another. We were working on our new records at the same time, and we have the same management team. That helped us to have 18 months at home together."

Recording their new albums simultaneously, and in adjacent studios, even allowed Deryck and his Sum 41 bandmate Steve "Stevo" Jocz, a drummer, to put in cameo appearances on Avril's latest effort, The Best Damn Thing.

A refreshingly upbeat affair, the album builds impressively on the foundations laid by 2002's debut, Let Go, and 2004's Under My Skin.

Whereas Lavigne's first collection spawned Complicated and the equally catchy Sk8er Boi, Under My Skin dealt with more serious teenage issues (a family bereavement, the pressure on young girls to have sex too soon) and showcased a confused young lady on the cusp of the adulthood she has now embraced.

"When I was making The Best Damn Thing, I didn't want to sing any mid-tempo songs," she explains.

"After spending a year-and-a-half touring, I realised that my favourite songs were always the fast ones, like Sk8er Boi.

"So I didn't want this album to be serious. I wanted it to be fun.

"Under My Skin was deeper and darker. I was a moodier person when I was making that album and the songs reflected the things I was going through at the time.

"I was only 18 then, and I felt the need to make my music more personal. Now I've grown out of that darker thing"

Lavigne, with composing credits on all three of her albums, is indignant at suggestions that her contributions to the writing process are minimal.

Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk, with whom the singer worked on Under My Skin, has made disparaging comments about her writing abilities while Lavigne and her collaborator Luke Gottwald are facing legal action over claims that recent hit Girlfriend bears a striking resemblance to the 1978 Rubinoos hit I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend, written by bandleader Tommy Dunbar and his cohort James Gangwer.

Avril, who strongly refutes any accusations of plagiarism, says: "I've been involved in the writing on every album.

"I don't feel as if I've got to prove anything as a writer, and it doesn't matter to me what people think. I write the songs and I don't really need to say anything more about it.

"I've never made any secret of the fact that I collaborate with people. I prefer to work that way.

"It helps me get stuff done quicker. If there's someone else involved, I always make sure I show up at the studio.

"I had a real vision for this album. I knew exactly what I wanted to do with every song.

"Having had lots of experience touring, I wanted the songs to be catchy but still rocky."

Having made her Hollywood debut in the animated film Over The Hedge and acted alongside Richard Gere in the forthcoming movie The Flock, Lavigne is also stretching her talent into other areas.

With any young sk8er boys or girls still a long way off ("I'm not planning on having kids for a really long time") the singer, with new single When You're Gone already in the Top Three, will also be kept very active by next year's world tour.

"The live show will be different this time," she says. "There will be more production and more dancers. People will see how I've grown."