The couple that works together, stays together! As Avril Lavigne pieced together her Love Sux album, out now, she enlisted her boyfriend, Mod Sun, to help with some of the tracks.
“I mean, he’s a really incredible songwriter and like [when] we met, I loved his song ‘Karma.’ I was like, ‘Who did you write this with and who produced it?’” Lavigne, 37, exclusively told Us Weekly of her beau, 34, on Friday, March 4, while promoting Love Sux. “And he was like, ‘John Feldmann.’ And so we got together to work because I was a fan of his music and he introduced me to John Feldmann and then the three of us just wrote so many songs and had so much fun together.”
She continued at the time: “He really complimented, like, a lot of my ideas and really understood [my vision]. They all really understood me as an artist.”
Us previously confirmed in February 2021 that the “Sk8er Boi” songstress and the rapper were dating after he debuted a neck tattoo of her name. “They’re seeing each other,” a source told Us at the time.
The Grammy nominee, who was introduced to her man by fellow Love Sux collaborator and DTA Records owner Travis Barker, was initially hesitant to pursue a romance after her past relationships. (She was previously married to Sum 41 rocker Deryck Whibley from 2006 to 2010 and Nickelback lead singer Chad Kroeger from 2013 to 2015.)
“Honestly, I really believed in love. And then I went through the wringer with it,” the “Complicated” singer told Nylon in December 2021. “Then I finally got back up on my feet and had a relationship just to get f–ked over again. I was just like, ‘I can’t believe that I’ve been hurt or mistreated by this many people. I need a break from relationships. I feel like I’ve had the wind knocked out of me over and over. I’m f–king sick of it. I need to take care of me right now.”
Lavigne, who initially tried to pump the breaks on her feelings for the “Flames” rapper, added: “So I bought a house, and I wasn’t waiting for a guy to start a future with. I was like, ‘I’m doing this for me now. I’m the only person, I’m the only one I can rely on.’”
After the Canada native eventually gave into her blossoming connection with Mod Sun, that also impacted the production of Love Sux, which was released February 25.
“Even though the album’s called Love Sux, it’s kind of just, like, all about the crazy things that it puts us through, but it’s very lighthearted and there’s a sense of humor that goes through it,” she told Us about the record. “Kind of just like having fun with all the stuff that we go through [because] it’s just inevitable. I’ve learned to laugh at like all the ridiculous things that love does to us. It’s very tongue in cheek. I mean I started making this record coming out of a breakup. … I’m a woman now writing from all of my experience in life, and it felt fun to just like really go there.”
Lavigne further gushed over the “really cool” album production, noting that her bonds with the 46-year-old Blink-182 drummer, the Minnesota native and Feldmann made it a natural songwriting process.
“I went in without deadlines, pressure, people telling me what direction to go in. I went in, I was like, f—k this s—t, I’m making the album I’ve always wanted to make,” she recalled. “I also just wanna have fun and rock out right now. So the album, I was like, let’s make a pop-punk record from front to back. Like all my albums have been diverse … but like this song, this style and spirit has carried with me through my whole career from the first album to now.”
Love Sux, Lavigne’s first album recorded with her new label, DTA Records, is available now everywhere music is sold and on all major streaming platforms.
With reporting by Leanne Stanton
