Evanescence's Amy Lee
By: Brett Hickman |
Sunday July 29, 2007 |
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A New Twist On Family Values |
| Evanescence's Amy Lee doesn't come across as the sort of band leader whose ego would be so intolerable that four members total would feel the need to jump ship mid-stream. But with the departure of original member Ben Moody (Lee and Moody met at a youth camp and struck out originally as a duo), bassist Will Boyd (replaced by Tim McCord, formerly of The Revolution Smile), and more recently, the ousting of guitarist John LeCompt and drummer Rocky Gray, many have speculated that perhaps Lee is an intolerable force. This despite the fact that guitarist Terry Balsamo has become an indispensable writing partner to Lee. Another key that perhaps disputes claims of Lee being a tyrant are unwarranted is the fact that Balsamo wasn't cast aside after suffering a stroke in the fall of 2005. Balsamo (formerly of Cold) has only recently become strong enough to play up to his old potential according to Lee, something that brings her much relief. Ahead of co-headlining the Family Values Tour with tour founders Korn, Lee participated in a tele-conference call with journalists. With the intention of clearing up confusion over her band, her desire to be on the Family Values Tour with her friends in Korn and touching on the band's spiritual/religious background, Lee comes across as having weathered some growing pains to come out of them a bit weathered, a bit relieved, but more determined to keep her vision for the band intact above all else. So obviously, it's been a dramatic couple of months with everything that's gone on. What is your general sense of things and what happened and were you surprised by the way (guitarist) John (LeCompt) and (drumme) Rocky (Gray) handled things? Amy Lee: Well, it's something that had been building for a long time. I wasn't even sure what you were talking about when you said, 'Dramatic couple of months.' I was like, 'Hey, which thing is he talking about?' I am also married and I'm stoked about that. It all sort of happened in the same weekend, actually, with the lineup change and getting hitched and all that stuff and finding [Dark New Day's] (guitarist) Troy (McLawhorn) and (drummer) Will (Hunt). But yes, honestly, it's been something that is very, very good for the band and we are feeling a lot healthier. And we're out there enjoying each other and we're out there because we want to be out there, not because we have to be. It's made everything a lot better. Do you see is this the line-up of Evanescence now? Can you see making an album with Troy and Will? AL: Troy and Will are both very passionate and creative. I love playing with them. Actually, I feel like we are creative with the music that's already there, and I think there's definitely potential there for us to write together at some point. I would love to. We just wanted to really work on making sure that the tour for the rest of The Open Door was set and we're set now. So I just don't want to get in the way of what they want to do with Dark New Day because I really admire and respect the band. So I just want to leave it up to them, but we're definitely having a great time playing together, and I hope we get to play together a lot more. And I would write with both of them; I think they're very talented. Is there new music around yet? AL: Dark New Day? Evanescence. AL: It's the spin that they put on the songs that are already there and sort of formulating intros and [the moments] in-between songs and things like that that we just couldn't do before. It was like we were sort of trapped, playing song after song. It's a little bit of a rebirth for the band right now. Are you at all documenting the tour? Are you planning a DVD, live album? AL: I haven't really figured out exactly what I want to do with it yet. We got a bunch of pictures and I finally right now decided, okay, I'm just going to put a ton of our pictures right up on tour because there's too many priceless photos from us in Japan and Russia and all over the place that are really fun with fans and stuff like that. I think it would be cool to make a DVD. I just don't want to do it any time soon because we did do one on the last album. And every time we put something out, I just want it to be something new. I don't really want to make the same product again, so I think we need to find a creative way of doing it, so it's something different. I was wondering why you decided to do Family Values, as opposed to maybe your own tour for the summer. AL: Well, we are going to do our own tour at the end of the year, so it's kind of the right thing. Since this is available for the summer, it's definitely good for us to hit more people. I think that being able to be a part of a festival with a lot of other good bands is a good thing. And it's fun; it's the whole summer vibe. There are so many festivals going on, and I think Family Values is a great one to be a part of because there are a ton of great bands, and it's $10. I think if I was going to choose which show I would go to this summer, it would be Family Values. Can we expect any collaborations on stage? AL: Not as of yet. I know people keep asking if I'm going to do the acoustic version of "Freak On a Leash" with Korn and obviously that's up to them and I haven't heard anything about it. I've seen the set that they've been playing this summer. We played three shows together in Europe and it's awesome and heavy and I wouldn't be surprised if they just want to play all their songs heavy and sort of skip the whole acoustic thing, so don't plan on it. But if they ask me, I'm totally willing. Are you surprised at how many different radio formats have embraced Evanescence? Now it's rock, hits, adult contemporary. AL: I definitely think that's a huge compliment for us and it's something that makes sense to me because musically for me as a writer, I listen to everything. I listen to stuff on every format we're played on, so it makes sense to me that our music touches all those people because I'm definitely influenced by music all the way across the board. I know you're a classically trained pianist, it's obvious. Your voice is so unforgettable. It's haunting, it's beautiful. Were you trained professionally to sing as well? AL: Thank you, no. I actually was a big choir nerd. When I was 13 all the way through high school and when I did take college for one whole semester, choir was really the big thing in my life. A lot of what I learned there was not only how to warm up the right way, but how to blend your voice and not always try to be standing out, but how to make it fit as an instrument with other instruments. What can people expect from Evanescence's performance at the Family Values Tour in terms of production and such? AL: We've been all over the country this year and honestly for most of touring The Open Door, we've been all over the place. Actually, I think we hit every inhabited continent in six months and that's not even an exaggeration; that's the real truth. So we've been having to tour around with sort of a minimized production. We have the opportunity to spend some more money and get some rad set going. My lighting director and I got together and brainstormed. It's all basically LEDs and mirrors and things and it's just going to be really, really cool. We're just hoping that we're going to be on late enough that we get the sun down and it's not all in the light. What is it about Korn that made you want to join with them for this tour? AL: I'm definitely inspired by them musically. I loved them when I was younger, too. I remember going, I think, to Family Values a long, long time ago when I was probably 17 or something, if that's right. Maybe it wasn't Family Values then, maybe it was just Korn, but it was something that was very exciting for me. And especially them live, I think is something that's really inspiring. I just don't see the downside. One thing I've always loved about the music of Evanescence is there's a lot of spiritual overtones throughout. Naturally a lot of people would misrepresent that with religion, but from your opinion, how would you differentiate spirituality from religion? AL: That's a really hard question. For me, music is spiritual. I think when you're soul searching and putting it into art, that is a spiritual thing and music has always been that for me. It's definitely me trying to find myself or fix my problems somehow, just by talking about them. It's therapeutic and definitely something really special, so I do look at it that way. Do you listen to other music other than metal? Is there a lot of soul music that inspires you? AL: I don't listen to a lot of metal, that's for sure. I really do listen to all kinds of music, how can I even say? It changes all the time. I sort of go through moods. So I'm listening to John Mayer a lot and a lot of, I guess I'm feeling like I'm getting older and sappy. I love Tori Amos, I always have. To me, she is very passionate and heavy. So I don't know; it all depends on how you listen to stuff. I love Depeche Mode. I love Korn and I love Nine Inch Nails. I love Soundgarden so much. Why don't they get back together? But it doesn't mean I don't listen to Marvin Gaye and love it a whole lot. So there's definitely a whole lot of music that I embrace. It doesn't matter what genre, what feeling, as long as it's real. Are there certain songs that you didn't expect that you would grow to love more than others, or that you are looking forward to playing every night? AL: There's a song that's not a single called "Your Star" and on The Open Door. And I remember when Jay and I were writing it, we loved it so much. Well, we loved all his songs so much. When you write every song, you think it's the single for like two weeks and you're obsessed with it and then, you get over it. But "Your Star" was definitely one that was special when we were writing and dreaming of playing it live and how awesome it would be. And then when we first started touring, of course, Terry had had a stroke and a lot of the songs were harder for him than they had been before. And that was one of the songs we couldn't play originally when we were touring this album. And as his arm has improved and his playing has improved, we finally decided we were going to start really practicing it and try to play it. And we started playing it and it's become the favorite of the set every night and we ended up putting it at the end and making it the big finale. And every night when we play that song, it's not only the most fun and passionate because it's difficult to play, and it's heavy and fun and groovy, but it always reminds me of how lucky we are to have Terry and how grateful I am that he's been able to recover and shred again. It's a very interesting time in your life when you just get married. You never experienced it before. Are you worried at all or think about how this may affect your writing? I know sometimes it's easier when you're troubled or you're going through something to write. AL: Right now, I'm not writing. I definitely kind of delve back into the times when I've hurt, when I'm writing. But it's really hard for me to write when we're on the road just because I'm so focused on the show and the production of the show and the songs and how we're going to fill up all the time in between the songs and everything else. There's so much going on. Plus interviews every day and sound checks, there's just too much going on for me to really zone out and get alone with the piano for hours on end and write a song. It hasn't affected me in any kind of bad way and I definitely think it's okay to be happy. It feels good to be happy and it doesn't mean that I can't write anymore. The first question is I was wondering, do you think this will be the most diverse group of fans you've seen at a concert? You're going to have your rap metal enthusiasts from back in the day, your Top-40 fans and I'm sure you'll have some old Panterra metal heads. I was wondering, do you think you will have seen a group of fans this diverse in any live show you've ever played? AL: I definitely think we have. Especially, I think, just now on our last tour in Europe, we went all over the place. We were in Scandinavia and the Middle East and Europe all together. And every show you play is with a different band or a different group of bands because it's a festival. We not only play with Korn, we also played with Iron Maiden, Lamb of God. I definitely have seen a lot of different crowds and there is a distinct difference between the pop crowd who just wants to hear "My Immortal" and the metal crowd who just wants you to get off the stage usually. So I think it's going to be great. I think we fit pretty well into this despite what people think. As a woman who's getting hard rock play on radio, did you think it was a little bit tougher to make that crossover to getting play on the same stations as Korn and your Static Exes and your Lamb of Gods and bands like that? AL: I think we definitely did face some prejudice in the beginning, sexism, whatever it is. I just remember when "Bring Me To Life" was a single that we were trying to push at radio and get play and when they were going to the big stations that think they know everything in the big cities a lot of them were saying, 'Look, you've got a song that the first power of any first ten or fifteen seconds of is a girl on the piano. There's no way we're going to put this on active rock.' I think it was a great song and the fact that it picked up really, we owed to the fact that fans were calling and going, 'Wow, why aren't you playing this song? This song rocks. They're playing it on this other station in this other town and I'm listening to it on the internet. It's incredible; you should play it.' And then it sort of caught up and became a hit. I hope, honestly, that that can happen with great music still. Is there a sense of relief with the reception fans have had for this album? AL: I would say relief is a good word, also just kind of excitement. It makes me happy and it makes me love our fans more. You have to know that the hardcore fans are pretty much usually going to like whatever you do, just because they love you and they're happy to hear something new. But at the same time, it definitely has the opportunity to go the other way and go, 'Ah, this sucks, nothing's ever going to be as good as the first album,' and all of that. I don't feel like there's been very much of that, which makes me very happy because I definitely did write a lot more on the second album than on the first one. And I definitely did take a lot of chances with writing with Terry and the way that we wrote and the way we abandoned structure and that sort of thing a lot of the time. What's the worse thing about riding on the tour bus? AL: Well, being the only girl on the bus most of the time usually means there's pee all over the floor and on the seat and seat's up and that's pretty miserable. So I'm basically the cleaning lady of the bathroom all the time. What do you feel that the state of music is right now? AL: I think it's a little confused. I don't think rock is dead or anything like that, I just think that we're definitely going through a weird period with the internet. A lot of bands are struggling and luckily a lot of new bands that I think a lot of times you would never hear are coming through. If you have the time and if you know what you're doing you can internet and just go to MySpace and search bands that don't have record deals. But at the same time, labels are pushing signed artists to do things more and more and more that they wouldn't want to do and put out less music and everything else and water it down because they're so afraid of losing money. You mentioned before when someone was asking a question about facing some sexism - how is it being the female, the front of your band, how is that for you? AL: I don't know it any other way. I definitely don't feel like I get treated badly or anything. As far as just getting respect from the public as a writer was the hard part for me. And I feel like I've gotten it now, but for a long time in the beginning, it was a tough fight. When Ben was in the band...because it was very important to him for some reason to prove to everyone that I wasn't doing anything. And that I was just up there singing and that there was some mastermind guy behind the whole thing. So by the time he left the band and we made another record and it was really good and we sort of proved everything he said wrong, I think that that changed for us. And just the fact that the music is good and there you go. I'm wondering how the various lineup changes back in the spring may have affected the band's momentum or rhythm or that kind of thing. AL: I feel like it's made us a lot better. Since things were at a point that they were so bad that something like that had to happen with the lineup change and that's never something you want - it's a last resort. It's kind of like a relationship. When you try and try and try to make it work and you hope it does, but sometimes, it just doesn't work anymore and you have to break up. But the fact that it did happen and now we have Will and Troy who are such passionate players and such cool guys. And when we're up there now we're having a lot of fun. And I think when you're on stage and you're in a rock band, you're playing in front of 10,000 people, you should be having fun. I think that that has made the show a lot better and given the show the ability to really grow and evolve. And we are changing things more often now and getting more creative with the set because it's not like we're limping through and having a hard time working together. We enjoy working together and we enjoy playing, so I think it's really given the band the kick start that it needed and a real breath of new life. You've collaborated with a lot of different artists. Which one has been your favorite so far? I think the Korn collaboration is my favorite so far. "Freak On a Leash" is a song that I've known for years and would listen to in my car before we ever got signed. And it's really amazing to me that I can actually be considered to appear with people like that and that they would have called on me to do a different version of the song. And I think it sounds really amazing, and I'm just really proud to have been a part of it. You've talked a lot about the transition in the band with the new guys coming and John and Rocky leaving. There's been a lot written about exactly what went into it, a lot said from both sides. I thought I'd ask for the record, to you, what you think kind of went wrong... AL: It's actually pretty simple. John and Rocky joined the band after Fallen was written and after Fallen was recorded. And they joined the band to be touring members of the band. And I don't think that that means they should be treated any less and not have their picture on the album and all that stuff so they definitely were brought on like full members. And we had every intention of keeping them around forever. And after Ben left the band, there was sort of this new feeling that we would all really be a real band and all write together and everything would be perfect and happily ever after. But when it came time to write The Open Door and we tried to write together, their writing, and actually Will's writing, too, it just didn't work. It didn't fit with Evanescence at all. It was really, really difficult to write together. And Terry and I bonded really well as writers. And I think that something that maybe not a lot of people know is that most bands the whole band doesn't just get together and write a song. It's written by one or two or three people out of the band and that's about it. And this is the case with us. It wasn't like we could really just sit down and write together and that was very, very hard for John and Rocky and they became just very bitter about it, but decided to stay in the band anyway and stay on as just live guys. And they got to play on the record and everything. But it just wasn't enough for them and they weren't satisfied creatively, which is definitely understandable to me. I'm very creative and I guess I wouldn't want to be a part of something where I couldn't be creative either. So with touring, the more it went out and the more the new album did well, the more they expressed that they didn't like the new music. That they were unhappy or they would rather be somewhere else and were trying, I think, to get record deals with different side projects that they had going on at the same and that sort of thing. So they weren't planning on leaving us high and dry, so we went ahead and just made the cut where we could manage it and not cancel any shows. Not fun, but something that definitely had to happen and ever since, it really has been a much happier thing being in Evanescence. It's not so much of a downer every day. Photos By Benjamin Haber |
