Post by Thorn,Cery,Anya,Tobias,Sparrow on Jul 27, 2006 13:43:53 GMT -5
"I'm Not Afraid Anymore..."
Evanescence vocalist Amy Lee explores personal issues with 'The Open Door'
Evanescence vocalist Amy Lee has spoken exclusively to Kerrang! about the band's forthcoming follow-up to their 2003 major label debut,'Fallen'.
'The Open Door',which was recorded in Los Angeles at The Record Plant by 'Fallen' producer Dave Fortman,is heavier,darker and sonically more elaborate than anything the quintet have put their name to,so anyone expecting the band to have gone soft during their time away will be disappointed.
"I think that the natural perception,"ponders 24-year-old Lee."I'm the girl,I'm the lead singer and the piano player,so obviously all the heavy rock influence must be from [former guitarist] Ben [Moody] or the rest of the band,and it's not true at all.The time the guitar parts are more intricate,interesting and musically complex,and the piano too.I just went back to practicing piano and I re-learned a lot of classical pieces that I hadn't played in forever,got my chops up then just started having fun writing because it had been so long.It felt so good and we just went crazy with it."
The new album's gestation,though,has been anything but easy for Lee and her bandmates.There has been much turmoil-both professional and personal-in the Evanescence camp.First,there was the sudden departure of Evanescence co-founder Ben Moody in late 2003,who was replaced by ex-Cold guitarist Terry Balsamo.The band had also been battling an ongoing multi-million dollar lawsuit with their former manager,which included claims of professional negligence and sexual assault,Lee's new writing partner Balsamo suffered a stoke last November but is now on the way to recovery,and Lee broke up with her boyfriend of two years,Seether frontman Shaun Morgan.The band's bassist William Boyd also quit at the start of the month.Needless to say,all the drama was pivotal in fueling Lee's creativity on the new album.
"It always does,"Lee admits."The big scary difficult things in my life seems to inspire the best music.As I've said I'm sure many times before,music is my therapy:I really do write when I need to heal.Things got rough.Everything slowly got weirder and weirder in a lot of areas of my life,and I had a relationship go sour,and a lot of the writing is just about that:It's a simple thing,but everybody's been through that,and it's just life,it's just what happens."
Lee also revealed that the first single to be taken from the album,'Call Me When You're Sober',was inspired by her disintegrating relationship."It's about breaking up but it applies to a lot of people at that time in my life,actually,"she says."I wrote it,and I meant it about the break-up I was going through,and then I was like,'Wow,this applies to three other people I'm dealing with right now.'The drama that happened was great energy for those songs and then I listened to my own advice and stepped out of the situations and grew up."
The 13-track album,which features programming by Limp Bizkit's DJ Lethal,features the following tracks: 'Sweet Sacrifice','Call Me When You're Sober','Weight Of The World','Lithium','Cloud Nine','Snow White Queen','Lacrymosa','Like You','Lose Control','The Only One','Your Star','All That I'm Living For' and 'Good Enough'.
It traverses lush and darkly epic territories somewhere in the space between Danny Elfman and Dimmu Borgir,and also includes an adaptation of Mozart's 'Lacrimosa' from his infamous 'Requiem',with plenty of stomping metal guitars on top,of course.
"I did a lot of breaking through,"confesses Lee."A lot of the writing process was like me kicking my own ass out of the door.I think last time I was stuck at one end of the spectrum,and this time I went through a lot more emotions and feelings.Musically I felt free to do whatever I wanted,that's part of it,in a literal sense,and as far as in my personal life,I feel that so many doors have been opened for me.A lot of it's me kicking the door down: on 'Fallen' I feel like I sound trapped,and trapped by fear and sort of like 'help me,help me'.This time I feel I've opened the door and Stepped outside,and I'm not afraid anymore."
Evanescence's single 'Call Me When You're Sober' will be released on September 25th through Wind Up/Columbia.The album 'The Open Door' follows on October 2nd.
Taken from Kerrang! Issue 1118
. 3 Oct. can't come soon enough then. And I so can not wait either.