Avril Lavigne's Manager 

1999 - 2002

CANADIAN ARTIST'S SEEK OUT AMERICAN LABELS TO BOOST THEIR FAME

The extraordinary success of the 20-year-old sk8er girl from tiny Napanee, Ontario, opened the borders for a raft of precocious female talent from up north.

Ken Krongard, the music executive who discovered Lavigne for Arista Records, recalls the mind-set of her first manager. "Cliff [Fabri] was all about the American labels," Krongard notes. "The deals are much bigger, and the [promotional] power of the American labels is far superior. They can break artists on a worldwide level. 

Cliff Fabri and Josh Sarubin

(A+R Arista Records for first two Avril Lavigne Records).

'Let Go' (2002) and 'Under My Skin' (2004)

(VIDEO) early MS LAVIGNE

Fabri's major contribution on 'Let Go' was insisting that Ms Lavigne receive publishing on co-writes for every track on "Let Go', unprecedented at the time for a teen artist.

(The trend in 2000 was manufactured teen pop acts like Britney Spears, n'sync and the Backstreet Boys).

New York City Apt-Loft

Los Angeles 2001

"Complicated", peaked at number 1 in many countries around the world,

as did the album 'Let Go' selling over 20 million copies worldwide.

FULL RECORDING BUDGET ON THE MAKING OF 'LET GO'

$302,500.00 usd

Co-writers / Producers

Peter Zizzo NYC /  Kurt and Sabelle Frasca NYC / The Matrix Team LA / Clif Magness LA 

Clif Magness and Avril Lavigne LA 2001

Clif Magnus co-writer 'Unwanted".. first song to make it on the record 'LET GO' and

truly was the foundation setter for Avril Lavigne's debut disc 'LET GO'. When Lavigne and Fabri left NYC for LA , Fabri called a friend in the Publishing world. Paul Morgan was a respected 'song guy' and Fabri was asking him for an introduction to some writers in LA. As fate would have it Morgan suggested Clif Magness. Magness had worked with Glen Ballard, Ballard co-wrote and produced Alanis Morrisette's 'Jagged Little Pill'. Fabri states, "It was serendipitous that Paul had mentioned Clif, I had based a lot of what I was doing on Alanis Morrisette's career path". On meeting Magness, Fabri knew Lavigne had met a kindred spirit. Fabri went into his Alanis Morrisette spiel and then left Lavigne and Magness to it.Returning later that evening Lavigne and Magness had co-written the song 'Unwanted'.Fabri and Lavigne were over the moon, only to find out later that the Label wasn't thrilled.

THE MATRIX

Writer-Production Team responsible for 5 songs on 'Let Go',

along with 3 number one hits,

'Complicated', 'Sk8ter Boi' and 'I'm With You'

(They never worked with Ms Lavigne again after 'Let Go'.

Reports of a rift developed between The Matrix and Ms Lavigne surfaced in Rolling Stone Magazine after the Matrix become increasingly frustrated with Ms Lavigne's assertion that she didn't have much help writing her songs on 'let Go' )