FINALSAY...
The music industry’s biggest names have the last word on their time in the biz... THIS WEEK: Amy Lee, vocalist/composer, Evanescence
Last month, multi-platinum, Grammy-winning rock band Evanescence released Wasted On You – the brilliant comeback single from their first new album in nine years, due later in 2020. Here, the group’s singer Amy Lee reflects on the global success of breakout hit Bring Me To Life, and the importance of artists taking control of their music...
We’re working on our album in lockdown… “We have a handful of songs that are already mixed and finished and ready to go. They’re all different, but I think so far the one thing that ties them together is it’s going to a place that’s even more raw. The last thing we put out was our orchestral and electronically-driven reimagining of old songs on [2017’s] Synthesis. That was incredible, as was the experience of performing with a live orchestra, but it took a lot of work on an internal level. By the end of it we were all really ready to get back to rocking. I don’t want to say our new album is stripped back, because it’s not – it’s big, powerful and luscious. But we haven’t done any orchestra [parts] on any of the new songs, and that’s not because we couldn’t get together with one because of the pandemic! We’re still writing our new music and the pressure’s definitely on now we’ve released Wasted On You. We lit the fuse and now we’re screwed... [Laughs]”
We’re lucky we had great success with our first album… “Because [2003’s] Fallen did afford me some power to say, ‘No’. I’ve had to say, ‘No’ a lot throughout my career: to bad ideas, things that weren’t going to be good for us in the long run, things that were a money grab. I don’t like to re-release things unless there’s a reason to buy it. So many times you can make a choice that is either a business decision or something that you believe in as an artist. I feel that so often business and art are just opposites, they’re enemies. I’ve definitely had to make some tough choices that were really difficult and inconvenient on every level to enable us to have the freedom that we have today. It’s felt like I’ve been fighting battles for the majority of my career – and I feel like I won most of them. I’m so glad we fought them because now we’re able to have complete freedom. That’s an incredible, beautiful and, I think, rare thing.”
I used to struggle with Bring Me To Life being our calling card... “But I feel we’ve got enough ground beneath us beyond that now to really show a clear picture of what we are to the mainstream. Do they get it on an overview level? No, I don’t think people who aren’t big Evanescence fans know who I really am. But that’s OK. It doesn’t really matter if they don’t get every tiny nuance, but part of my goal always is to express more and more of my whole self. Yes, in my heart of hearts, I wish everyone could see the real me – and is that relevant to Bring Me To Life? No. I’m not goth. Yes, I put on
42 | Music Week 04.05.20 INTERVIEW: GEORGE GARNER
Talking common ‘scence: Evanescence’s Amy Lee
eyeliner for the stage, but it’s not actually that heavy! And I don’t wear corsets anymore…”
“I’ve been
fighting battles for the majority of my career – and I feel I won most of them”
There is that classic pressure of feeling you need to release an album every two years, but... “Artists know when it’s the right time. And it can’t be on the timeline of the old, ‘Strike while the iron’s hot!’ and, ‘Everyone loves you right now, put something out quick and you’re going to get an automatic number of views because that’s the math!’ That’s bullshit. That math is wrong. That’s the quickest way to really mess up your career, in my opinion. I’m never ever going to put out anything I don’t love and I’m not proud of. Sometimes that takes a few years of figuring out who you are and what you want to say. I finally feel I’m overflowing with stuff and I need to make an album. That started happening two years ago, so here we are doing it!”
One time, Evanescence had to go onstage after… “Lionel Richie! Sometimes you have to do little performances that are more about pleasing people in the music industry, and I remember we had to do this Clear Channel thing. We were going on last and were told to put together an acoustic set. I don’t know why I didn’t realise until we got there that day, but it was Lionel Richie who was on right before us. He had a laser show and it was fantastic – and I was watching it laughing to myself, like, ‘Our set is not going to fit when we go up there...’ And it didn’t!”
musicweek.com
PHOTO: P R Brown
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