EVANESCENCE singer Amy Lee spoke to Meltdown of Detroit’s WRIF radio station about why it has taken so long for the band to begin work on the follow-up to 2011’s self-titled album. “Lots of reasons,” she said (see video below). “I like to have an open mind about what I can be and what I can do in life.
“I love the music I’ve made with this band, and there are times that I have been more excited about it and passionate about it and in love with and wanting to pour into it than others. Sometimes you have to get away from it. It’s such a full saturation.
“The way that our cycles have always gone, really — it started to change now; we found a way to really break it up — that is all you can do for that however many years period of your life with each cycle. Between writing the music and everything that goes along with that, to then going on tour and all the amazing stuff that goes along with that, and releasing the album, and promoting the album, and then at the end of it, I’m always, like, ‘I quit’ — almost every time. I’m, like, ‘I don’t know if I’m ever gonna do this again. That was amazing. I love it so much.’ I don’t feel like I’m gonna have that kind of a struggle anymore. A lot has changed on the inside. Our representation on every level has grown and changed, and we are fully supported by an awesome team that believes in us and supports us. And it doesn’t feel so much like going to war to create an album anymore either, like it used to.
“But besides all of that stuff, the space between the third album and this one, a lot of it was I wanted to go down some different creative roads,” she continued. “I had my first and only child, Jack. And I did some film-score stuff.
“I kind of thought that becoming a mom would make me not wanna work — like I’d just wanna focus only on being a mom, but it actually just gave me so much — I don’t know — perspective. Like, you get a different perspective, and suddenly, as a creative person, you just think of different things that you wanna do, because your mind’s working in a different way. I made a kids album with my family, worked on a couple of different movie things and some little solo things. And I just found other ways to be creative. And then by the time the band got back together, we got Jen [Majura, guitar], who’s a beautiful, amazing addition to our band… We got Jen in 2015, and we started just touring again and really enjoying playing again. That was the first step back — just play shows and get into it and remember who you are and everything that this is and can be, with our fan community and just the whole world of what it is. And then we did the ‘Synthesis’ [2017] thing together, with a full orchestra and a lot of the electronic stuff, and just took our music into a different place with a different focus, which was challenging and fun and different. And then it was, like, ‘Okay, we’re ready.’ So we just started doing writing sessions. So it’s just been a long but natural road, just following what feels good.
“I can’t tell you how much fire we all have, but I — I can speak for myself — really had about making this music right now with my band,” Amy added. “It’s coming at a time when I need it very much, and a lot of the feelings that I pour into the music for the band are about a struggle — about going through something that’s difficult, and I’m processing it, or raging against. And this is a time where I feel those feelings, and I know a lot of people in the world do too. So I feel like I’m right where I’m supposed to be.”
Last month, EVANESCENCE released a new single, “Use My Voice”, which was written to celebrate the power of speaking out in order to promote more justice in the world. The track, featuring contributions from THE PRETTY RECKLESS‘s Taylor Momsen and HALESTORM‘s Lzzy Hale, was chosen by HeadCount in the USA to encourage voters to register, check their registration, or find out about their remote voting options amid the COVID-19 pandemic at UseMyVoice.org.
EVANESCENCE‘s long-awaited new album, “The Bitter Truth”, will arrive later this year.
The band’s new music is being produced by Nick Raskulinecz, who also worked on 2011’s self-titled LP.
EVANESCENCE spent much of the last two years recording and touring in support of the aforementioned “Synthesis”, which contained some of the band’s best-loved songs — as well as a couple of new ones — reinvented with full orchestra over a deep electronic landscape.
