Tag Archives: amy

Amy Lee Chats With Paste About Synthesis, Perform a Solo “Good Enough”

Evanescence are back—again. Six years since their last album, 2011’s Evanescence, and 14 since their Grammy-winning breakthrough Fallen, the Southern gothic stalwarts are set to return with their most unusual project to date: Synthesis, an album featuring orchestral arrangements of some of their best-known and most-loved songs, with Amy Lee’s unmistakable voice out front as always.

Evanescence—now comprising Lee, drummer Will Hunt, guitarist/background vocalist Jen Majura, bassist Tim McCord and lead guitarist Troy McLawhorn—have always thrived on a deliciously dissonant sound, a potion of gothic imagery, metal guitars and pop craftsmanship that produced early hits like “My Immortal” (from 2000 demo Origin) and “Bring Me to Life,” the Fallen smash that would solidify the group’s signature recipe. The relationship between organic and electronic has always been at the core of Evanescence’s music, and on the sprawling Synthesis, Lee has brought it to its most dramatic form.

“That is the basic idea of the title of everything: Synthesis,” said Lee, who joined Paste at Steinway Hall in Manhattan recently for an exclusive listen to Synthesis, out Nov. 10. “Those two seemingly opposite things married together in a very beautiful way, where it’s not about contrast, but about them actually working together.”

The record will also include two new songs, “Hi-Lo” and “Imperfection.” Lee explained that the converging of old and new also echoes the project’s vision, noting, “That’s the other point of that word ‘synthesis’—past and present. Revisiting songs like ‘My Immortal,’ but in a place of now. Also, tying the new music into it and creating this thing that all flows together into one moment, but it’s actually going back and into the future.”

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Amy Lee on growing up, being cool, and sexuality in music

Interview: For their next chapter, nu metal survivors Evanescence are orchestrating an ambitious reworking of their classics

In a world of generic warblers, the operatic swoop of Amy Lee’s vocal was the trump card behind Evanescence’s squillion-selling 2003 debut, Fallen. If this was a primal scream that spoke to the young, angsty and alienated, that’s probably because the Arkansas-born Lee was also a sensitive outsider who felt much of her audience’s pain. Fourteen years later we find Lee older, wiser, in a happier place and comfortable enough with her past to reinterpret the Evanescence catalogue with a full orchestra on their new album, Synthesis.

Synthesis revisits the old songs. Do you remember how it felt to be twenty years old and working on Fallen?

Unfortunately yes [laughs]. How would I describe myself back then? Wide-eyed, full of huge dreams, fairly insecure. But I think that’s pretty common. When we’re young we feel like we’re the only ones that kinda hate ourselves. I remember struggling with feeling like I didn’t deserve to be where I was. So definitely an emotional, hormonal moment. I still have a lot of big feelings, but it seems like the whole world is falling down around you sometimes when you’re a kid.

Didn’t being hugely successful make the problems go away?

No! Having lots of people all over the world touched by our music was a dream come true. But to have thousands, even millions, of people feel like they know you in an intimate way, it was difficult. I’m at a place in my life now where I think I’m pretty good at dealing with it. That whole thing, it’s not so scary any more. But it was scary in the beginning, for sure. [Source]

Amy Lee in Music Week Interview

Amy Lee spoke with Music Week about the music industry and Synthesis. Read what she said:

In the new issue of Music Week, we speak to Amy Lee about the return of multi-million selling rock phenomenon Evanescence and their highly-anticipated new album, Synthesis. Only their fourth studio release in 14 years, the record sees Evanescence – completed by bassist Tim McCord, drummer Will Hunt and guitarists Troy McLawhorn and Jen Majura – present new material alongside re-recordings of some of their most defining songs, all with orchestral accompaniment.

Lee told Music Week that while Synthesis explores the group’s latent orchestral potential with long-term collaborator David Campbell, it was also a chance to show how far their musical skills have developed.

“There’s a lot of musical skill that I personally didn’t have,” said Lee. “When we were writing Bring Me To Life I was 19! So just the musical ability that I had when I was 19 as a writer, as a singer, as an everything, I can do all that stuff better now because we’ve had all this time and experience. In addition, living inside those songs live for all these years, it just forever gives you ideas.”

Lee also opened up about the prospect of following the blockbusting success of her past, with Evanescence’s 2003 debut selling 1,324,026 copies to date in the UK according to Official Charts Company data.

Fallen happened in the way that it happened,” Lee told Music Week. “You can’t even talk about record sales any more, it doesn’t mean anything but we kind of got set in a way that I was okay. We made some money and I always have poured that money into the next project. I have this ability to use that resource and the fanbase that we got from all those people who heard our music in the first place and cared about it enough to stick around.  I can use that, I don’t have to start [a project] by going, ‘Help! I need to do a Kickstarter! I need to find a label!”

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Evanescence will be playing at the Foxwoods Resort Casino tonight!

Evanescence will be playing at the Foxwoods Resort Casino tonight! Get your tickets! http://bit.ly/2ynzhGE! They will be live streaming the opening of the show TONIGHT right  on their Facebook beginning at 8:45 PM EST!

Evanescence gets the full force of an orchestra at Heinz Hall

It only took a few songs to see just how humble Evanescence’s frontwoman Amy Lee truly is. After belting out a completely re-imagined version of “Bring Me to Life,” the 2003 Billboard nu metal hit from the band’s debut album “Fallen,” Ms. Lee took a deep breath and exhaled.

“Regaining composure,” she said, while sitting at the piano on stage at Heinz Hall on Monday night. As organic globular shapes floated in the background, she crooned some of the gentlest lines of the song. “Breathe into me and make me real,” she sung, before moving into a chaotic storm of a chorus, dramatized by a full orchestra rather than just electric guitars. The strings and brass complemented syncopated drumming before Ms. Lee finished the song.

The lights faded to black over her long, dark hair and billowing, floor-length black gown. Despite nearly a decade and a half of touring, the vocalist still deeply emoted while on stage, as if she were singing to herself in her own bedroom. As part of Evanescence’s Synthesis tour, previewing the band’s fourth album after a brief hiatus, the band played mostly past hits from their three existing albums, re-envisioning them for an orchestra.

What may have been as subjectively depressing as Green Day’s 2009 foray into opera was actually a delight — while Ms. Lee and her bandmates shared the stage with a 28-piece ensemble, her voice emerged as the most noteworthy instrument. It was enough to make you wonder whether she was a rock star or an opera star.

“It’s honestly one of my oldest dreams to play in the orchestra,” Ms. Lee said. “So thank you for giving me that opportunity.” In songs like “End of the Dream” and “Your Star,” the classical instruments were met with electronic beats and audibly alluring sound effects, including crackles, noises like chains dragging against the floor and some eerie effects that sounded nearly ghoulish. [Source]

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Interview featuring Amy Lee on Sonic Seducer

Watch the brand new interview of Amy Lee discussing the upcoming ‘Synthesis’ Album that is due for release on November 10th!

Amy Lee Awarded Attorney Fees In Dispute With Management Company

According to TMZ, Evanescence singer Amy Lee was awarded more than a million dollars in legal fees in connection with a lawsuit brought against her by her former management company.

110 Management Inc. sued Amy last year for unpaid commissions and fees. 110 originally sought $1.5 million from the singer, and eventually lowered the demand to $335,000. An arbitrator finally ruled the management company was owed only $4,863.66.

Amy asked the court to award her attorney fees from 110 for the lengthy legal battle, and the judge finally decided that she was entitled to $1,036,773.68. But, according to TMZ, that’s all going to her legal expenses — $885,000 in attorney fees, $72,000 for expert witnesses and other administrative costs.

Lee is currently on the road with EVANESCENCE in support of the band’s next album, “Synthesis“, which is due on November 10. The disc features two new EVANESCENCE songs in addition to fan favorites re-recorded with a live orchestra and electronica.

[Source]

Amy Lee Talks About Lindsey Stirling’s Appearance On ‘Synthesis’

The fourth in a series of webisodes featuring footage from the making of Evanescence’s next album, “Synthesis”, can be seen below. In the latest episode of “Inside Synthesis”, we explore the making of “Hi-Lo”, one of the two new tracks on the album, featuring a guest performance by famed violinist Lindsey Stirling. “Synthesis” is due on November 10. The effort features full orchestration in a completely synthetic world of beats and sounds, with help from arranger and composer David Campbell.

“Synthesis” contains two new Evanescence songs in addition to fan favorites re-recorded with a live orchestra and electronica. The “Synthesis Live” tour launched on October 14 on the West Coast. Like the album, “Synthesis Live” features a reimagining of some of Evanescence’s best-loved songs with the spotlight on full orchestra, electronics combined with the band and frontwoman Amy Lee’s virtuoso piano and voice.

“This is a total passion project for me. There are so many layers in our music, underneath the huge drums and guitars,” explained Lee. “I’ve always wanted to shine a light on some of the gorgeous David Campbell arrangements and programming elements in our songs, and that idea snowballed into completely re-doing them with full orchestra, not just strings, elaborate programming and experimentation.

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Amy Is Glad To Release Rap-Free Version Of Bring Me To Life

EVANESCENCE’s Amy Lee spoke to Australia’s News.com.au about her decision to re-record the band’s old material with a full orchestra and heavy electronics for the “Synthesis” album. The disc, which is due on November 10, includes a re-imagining of the group’s breakthrough 2003 hit “Bring Me To Life” without the guest rap by vocalist Paul McCoy.

“God bless the rap, it’s part of what got us on the radio, I guess,” Lee said. “At least according to all the rules of radio that I don’t agree with or understand. The rap wasn’t part of our original idea or sound, it was a compromise in many ways. So to be able to go back to the original vision for the song was great.”

According to Amy, “The recording of a song that ends being the one you hear the most through history is usually when the song was just freshly written. You’re still learning it yourself and getting used to what the notes are and how the parts go,” she said. “That’s true for ‘Bring Me To Life‘, for sure. After doing it live for so long, there’s different vocal choices I’ve made and different things we got to use in this version.”

Fourteen years after “Bring Me To Life” was released, Lee says she “forgets” the rap’s there in the original version of the song. “At the time it was a big issue, it was our first single,” she said. “I wanted people to understand who we were. That’s a struggle you always fight as an artist. If we only had the one hit, if no one ever heard from us again, then nobody would understand who we were. We’ve made it past that point, so the rap doesn’t make me angry anymore. I’m so glad to put a new version out there without the rap, though.”

Synthesis” features full orchestration in a completely synthetic world of beats and sounds, with help from arranger and composer David Campbell. The disc contains two new EVANESCENCE songs in addition to fan favorites re-recorded with a live orchestra and electronica.

“Synthesis” includes a guest performance by famed violinist Lindsey Stirling on “Hi-Lo”, one of the new tracks on the album.

[Source]

Inside Synthesis Part 4 – Featuring Lindsey Stirling

Watch a BRAND NEW episode of Inside Synthesis featuring !