Celeb News: Amy Lee on Artistic Independence, the Future of EV [Update]

J-esper

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When Amy Lee invited Rolling Stone to her Brooklyn home last month, she wasn't sure which would come first: the War Story soundtrack she'd been working on for nearly a year, or the baby she was expecting with husband Josh Hartzler.

Lee became a mom on July 28; on August 6, she announced Aftermath, an album of music she'd recorded for War Story with cellist Dave Eggar and a host of other musicians. It's due August 25, and it's not only Lee's first release since Evanescence's 2011 self-titled effort, it's her first as an independent artist…the end result of a lawsuit she filed with the band's former label, Wind-Up Records.

In this exclusive interview, the newly liberated Lee discusses motherhood, declares her independence and details the future of Evanescence.

You spent nearly a year working on War Story. How was the experience different from making an Evanescence record?
This process was unique even for the film industry because it was super indie. [Dave and I] had a relationship with the director Mark [Jackson], and he'd come over and listen to stuff and tell us if we were on the right track, and we'd jam and we'd feed off of each other's work. It was a really cool starting-off point; it's different than going "How do I want to express myself on my new album?" He'd provide this framework, a map, of "OK, I want you to make the listener feel these certain ranges of emotion, make the character feel broken or feel isolated." You have these starting off points, and it's cool because it forces you to write differently. I felt like I was exercising a different part of my brain.

How would you describe the film?
For me it's very dark. We're calling the album Aftermath in part because film itself is about the aftermath, it's not about the war. It's called War Story, but you never see any war. It's about the aftermath of her dealing with the tragedy that she's witnessed. And then the album is us playing with the aftermath of doing all that music. Probably half of the music isn't in the film, we're just working in this big, black open playing field. And I hope you can listen to it and feel that.

What was it about this project that appealed to you?
I've always wanted to do a score, it's just hard to find the right opportunity when I have this baggage of already having this known persona. Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining and I don't view it as anything but positive, but when anybody wants to use me, they just think of me as either a rock singer or a goth singer, but I do a lot more than sing! It's hard to go "I want less, I don't want to be the center of attention, let me show you what I can do as a programmer and producer and arranger. " You know, rather than me coming in and singing the title track. So it was hard to find the right gig, but this has been it.

Do you feel that you are defined by your past?
Personally? Not at all. I don't feel like I'm two separate people. I never felt like I was playing a role, you just change. It's funny, people still talk about "My Immortal," and it's wonderful, it's so cool, but I was like 14 or 15 when that was happening. When I wrote "Bring Me to Life" I was 19 [laughs]. Imagine the things that you thought and the way that you spoke and things that you did when you were 19 years old. Even the way that you process relationships and everything, it grows from there. I'm a lot more mature and complex and I have a lot more to say.

I'd be lying if I didn't admit there's stuff on Fallen or the one we did before that, Origin, that makes me cringe. It's embarrassing. Mainly the lyrical content, oh my God, it's like my old diary. But I can embrace that innocence because I'll never have that again, it's special.

Earlier this year, you settled your lawsuit with Wind-Up Records. What can you tell us about the factors that led to legal action?
I can't say anything negative; I had to sign a non-disclosure, so that's the only way in any sense that I'm still bound. There's always frustrations when you're not in complete control of your project. Everything's a collaboration, like, really it is, even this project, we had someone to please, something we needed to work towards, somebody who needed to like it before it worked. But, what's been different about this project is how it was such a creative process…the director was a creative person, he wanted us to be as weird and creative as possible, let us do things our own way and respected and appreciated that. Instead of having a set plan that a million people have done before and try to force us down that path.

What were the ramifications of the settlement?
Everything's still the same for me; it's not like I no longer get paid any money when someone buys Fallen, but they sold it to somebody else. My back catalog is owned by this company Bicycle-Concord, and they're great, so there's nothing different there. But my future is mine, so anything I do from here forward is up to me, and it's awesome.

So what does all of this mean for Evanescence?
The situation is we're not doing it now. I don't like to make predictions about the future, because I'm honestly open-minded, and I would never want to say I'm done with any of it, because it's a huge part of me. I've loved my time with Evanescence, I wouldn't want to just throw it away, but, for the foreseeable future, I don't have any plans to do anything with the band. It's really important to me to take some time to show some different sides of myself.

I've said this all the way through Evanescence, especially on the second and third record: "I have the freedom to express myself completely within the band, so why would I want to do anything else?" And that's true only to an extent, because as much as I could go through a range of emotions, there's a certain expectation there. With the fans, with myself, I know what Evanescence is; it's an entity, it's bigger than just myself, which is awesome, but I can write a song and go "That is or isn't an Evanescence song," and they both happen. So there does need to be other outlets for me to make music.

You've started a family in New York, did that impact the band?
That's really nothing new; we've always lived all over the place. I wasn't any nearer to them when I lived in L.A. I still talk to them and we listen to each other's stuff; Troy [McLawhorn]'s working on something cool that I listened to the other day. I keep in the most touch with Tim [McCord] and Troy, but they're not here, we're all over the place, in different cities.

You seem firmly entrenched in New York City.
I love it here. I've lived in so many places, but this is the first place since I was a little girl in south Florida that feels like home, where I don't feel like I'm different from everyone around me. We have a good community here, a lot of great musicians. Everything's available here, nothing is too out of the ordinary and there's music everywhere. I get inspired all the time just walking down the street. I feel like I live in such an artistic place, and that's really cool. I take the subway all the time, and I don't have a car. I can just zombie walk to the steps and get on the train.

How has the idea of motherhood changed your view on the world?
I don't know where to begin. I'm mostly just excited because as you get older, it's not that there's not beautiful things around you, you've just seen a lot. You get to the point where you feel like you've had all of your first experiences, but I'm really looking forward to experiencing those things again like it's my first time, through my kids mind.

Has it changed your view on what you do professionally?
Yeah. I'm an artist, I'm never going to stop being me and I don't think I could ever stop making music. You don't change that much; I'm still going to be me and life is just going to be enriched and fuller and busier. But I do think that the days of living on the road and an album cycle be this giant daunting thing of working in the studio for six months then going on the road for a year or two, they're behind me. And it's not just being a mother, I just don't want to live on the road. I have the ability to just make something and put it out and it doesn't have to be 12 songs. It doesn't have to be a complete album, like the old-fashioned model. It's cool to think about things in a new way. I just wrote a really cool thing, so how can I just give it to the fans right now? It doesn't have to be a huge, daunting thing.

It seems like you're willing to sacrifice commercial gain for happiness.
Oh, I have been for a long time. I guess like I'm not like everyone else. Even the music that I gravitate towards…I'm not listening to the most popular thing. I guess that's always been me. I put a lot of value in great work, great music, things that really touch me. So much more than success or fame on a monetary level. Always have.

To that end, what do you hope to accomplish with Aftermath?
Honestly, it's going to sound weird, but I'm just looking forward to sharing it with the world. It's that simple. I don't have huge expectations, because it's an unusual project. Anytime I release something new, it feels really good, and I know I have supporters out there that will like something about it. I'm excited about "Lockdown." I'm excited to hear what the fans think about that, and I'm excited about "Push the Button," and I'm excited about all the score music, for my fans, and to show people something that they've never heard before.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/fe...dence-20140811

Part II

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If you thought you've heard everything Amy Lee has to say, you probably haven't been paying attention. During her decade-plus run as the frontwoman (and focal point) of Evanescence, she's proven time and time again that she's got plenty of opinions – all you've got to do is ask.

So we did. In the first part of Rolling Stone's interview with Lee, she weighed in on the future of her band, becoming a mother and releasing her first independent album, Aftermath, due August 25. Now, in part two, she talks about putting the past to rest, creating new songs and hitting the road as a solo artist.

"I've got a lot to say, I guess," she laughs. "I haven't done an interview in a while."

The music on Aftermath is a definite departure from Evanescence. Was that intentional, or just the result of working on a film like War Story?
I wanted it to be completely different. I didn't want it to be like Evanescence just because I've flexed that muscle so much, I wanted people to see different sides of me. I've written music all along the way that's just been mine that nobody hears but my friends, and I still want to do something with that at some point. But it's one of my first chances to show another side and this definitely plays with a lot of the same emotions I played with in Evanescence, but instrumentally. It's not trying to be mainstream; I feel like I've always made a point to make sure that Evanescence was true to my spirit and my heart and I wasn't just trying to make hits. But at the same time we were on a label, there needed to be a single, radio play, all those sort of things. It was cool to be free from all those things and make a piece of art, because the songs that are on this, I'd call three of them like song songs, most of them are scores. It's a lot more like music I listen to now. One's like an Arabic, weird thing, one's a sexy dance song and the other is – I don't even know what it is, it's electronic.

Wait, there's a song in Arabic on the album?
I don't sing in Arabic. They were like "We need a song with a little bit of a world-music type thing," but ultimately, it didn't get used in the film. It's me and Dave Eggar and the other collaborator, his name's Chuck Palmer he did a lot of the percussion, engineering and producing a lot of the stuff. Anyway, he made this drum loop beneath this whole thing and we had a guy play an instrument called an oud, kind of like an old-fashioned lute or mandolin or something. And Dave, he was the leader of the whole thing, he's like "OK, we've got this world singer Malika Zarra, she's really cool and I'm going to go in the other room and you just get something cool out of her."

So I'm with this girl who has no idea who I am, and I'm like "I wrote some lyrics in English, and I know you speak Arabic, can you use these as a basis, just go in there and change the order, scat for as long as you can, just sing." So she goes in there, she's got a beautiful voice and she sang for like 20 minutes. We did it two times and I coached her on a few parts, to get more material, and then I took it home and let it live in my studio. I never saw her again, but as I just listened to her voice, I heard these really amazing moments, so I'd clip them out and move it down to the track. It was like cherry picking. It probably makes zero sense, it might as well be Sigur Rós. But to work with an artist in a capacity like that was really, really amazing.

Did you take inspiration from any producers you had worked with previously?
Just myself. I'm so used to mixing my own vocals and producing and picking the takes, so it was very natural. It was fun, it was just such a weird process to create this melody out of a bunch of pieces of her voice and build a song around it. The whole experience was just thinking outside the box and that's why I love working with Dave, because he's always like "I know a guy who plays..." and he'll just name some instrument I've never heard of.

So when you were creating something like this, did you think about the past at all?
It comes to mind in a positive way, like when I was writing "Lockdown." At the end I was like "You know what this needs? Drums and guitars." So I thought of my past in the creative stages, because I was solely focused on pleasing myself and doing the right thing for the film. That's always got to be the root. My mantra is "If I make something that I love, other people will love it." I can't think about what everybody wants because there's always going to be people that criticize whatever you do. And you just have to be OK with that because if you're trying to please everybody you'll end up pleasing somebody, but if you don't please yourself then you'll be mad about it later. I'm proud to say I can listen to all the music I've made from the beginning and enjoy it. I always enjoyed it.

Do you have any plans to play these new songs live?
I haven't thought about it. I totally would and I probably will. There's a lot of little songs that I've done for different reasons and played live, like "Find a Way," that was really fun to do. I can do things from my entire career, from all along the way, because it's all part of me. I've played to my own fans a lot; I really enjoy the opportunity to win people over for the first time. It's the coolest thing in the world.

To that end, do you care what people think of your music?
Do I care? Well, it's always nice when they like it. But I never make music to that end. I think that our industry's flooded with that, and it always leads to something that comes off as less-than-genuine. The one thing I always want to be is real, and so if I make something that I love, I know there are people like me who will love it too.

Did you realize that early in you life or later?
It's funny, because I was kind of thrown into all of this. When Fallen happened, it was so fast and I was 21 years old, so I got super-nauseous being the center of attention; it's so boring and empty. My life's not that interesting, I don't have super powers. I love music, I love painting, there's some other cool things about me [laughs]. But after an hour of talking I don't have anything else to say and I want to talk about something else!

How about this: What's the secret to getting a seat on the subway when you're pregnant?
Oh, you learn. When you're really pregnant, you need to sit down. You don't want to ask "Can you please get out of your seat?" So I never ask. The protocol is you get on, stick it out as long as you can, rub your belly a little bit, start looking desperate and someone will give you their seat. Generally speaking, New Yorkers aren't assholes.

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/fe...-road-20140814

Eaten By Lions

What she really needs is to make a new album with an hip, dark ,electronica vibe. Something futuristic with hints of Evanescence but a little more subdued.

J-esper

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Originally posted by Eaten By Lions

What she really needs is to make a new album with an hip, dark ,electronica vibe. Something futuristic with hints of Evanescence but a little more subdued.

That could actually be something that could happen down the line tbh

rihannabiggestfan

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Originally posted by Eaten By Lions

What she really needs is to make a new album with an hip, dark ,electronica vibe. Something futuristic with hints of Evanescence but a little more subdued.

That sounds awesome

I want something different and her going solo would help that I think

Kavish

Goodbye Evanescence, but I'm glad she'll still be making music and I'm here for that.

Can't wait for Aftermath.

bobbleheadroger

I'm more excited for a solo album than a new Evanescence album. I think the band has had it's time.
This is coming from a true die-hard fan since they blew up.

I'm all here for the Aftermath-y Amy Lee.

Gavin.

RIP Evanescence

J-esper

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Originally posted by bobbleheadroger

I'm more excited for a solo album than a new Evanescence album. I think the band has had it's time.
This is coming from a true die-hard fan since they blew up.

I'm all here for the Aftermath-y Amy Lee.

I agree
Though I still would love her to release a watered down more classical/orchestral TOD-esque album

though.

I♥Toronto

I'm so glad I got to see them perform when I did. I'm so so so depressed right now

The Unforgiving

She looks so beautiful

J-esper

Added Part II of the interview

GustavoBardusco

I'd call three of them like song songs, most of them are scores.