‘Please cry, laugh and scream at the top of your lungs’
AMY LEE TELLS JEN THOMAS WHY PERFORMING LIVE WITH EVANESCENCE BRINGS A CATHARTIC END TO A TOUGH YEAR
EVANESCENCE singer Amy Lee will no doubt be speaking for many when she talks about the struggles she has faced during the pandemic. ‘This year has been really tough for mental health, not just for me, but just people in my life. We’ve all had to learn to adjust. It’s become something that has really felt endless at times, you know, with no clear ending in sight.’
Amy likens the past few months to some of the strenuous tours the band have been on since they released their debut album, Fallent, in 2003. ‘I love touring, but it really helps to know when the end date is, when you’re going home. When you go through a difficult part of it, you’re tired, you’re ready for it to be over, you can look ahead and go, “OK, we’ve got three weeks left…” That’s the thing that was missing from this year’.
To break the monotony, the band have recorded a live session at Nashville’s Rock Falcon Studio, which will be streamed tomorrow.
They had a huge tour planned for 2020 – co-headlining Worlds Collide with Within Temptation – until the pandemic upended everything. But with unexpected time on her hands, Amy decided to focus on song-writing instead. ‘We have hunkered down and made our album and we’re actually just finishing it to turn in this week! It’s been all year that we’ve been working on this beautiful monster – I have just been using creativity as an outlet for all my feelings of pain, grief, frustration, longing and love and good things, too. There’s just been so much feeling,’ she says.
‘Creativity is good for me, it’s my way out – it’s my place to embrace it and face it, but also to escape it.’
Californian-born Amy moved to Nashville, Texas last year, after spending 12 years in Brooklyn, New York. Recording the stream for this weekend live was an experience Amy admits finding cathartic. ‘How wonderfully satisfying it was to be able to play some of our new songs that we’ve made this year. Because that is the piece that’s missing,’ she says.
‘Typically, right now, as we’re releasing our album, we would be on tour. This meant we found a way and created a situation where we were having a live performance together. I felt so good.’
You’d be forgiven for thinking that world-famous artists would be immune from those feelings of doubt us mere mortals experience, but Amy says she’s far from exempt. ‘It just feels so good to be in tandem with other humans, especially in the realm of something that we’re good at,’ she explains. ‘There’s been so much of this year when I’ve just felt that I’m bad at everything. I’m sucking at cleaning my house. People talk about how they organise and fix shelves, I have not done that! I feel like everything takes more effort. When I finally get time to myself, I just want to collapse. I am looking at a pile right now of the beautiful costumes for my wardrobe that I’ve yet to fold and hang up. It’s just like… a pile,’ she laughs.
The advent of apps such as TikTok has seen a whole new generation of fans discovering Evanescence’s music, with many of them recording videos to the band’s smash hit Bring Me To Life. It’s surreal but flattering for Amy. ‘It’s amazing and mind-blowing and wonderful,’ she says, in awe. ‘The fact it hasn’t all been butterflies and rainbows just really does make you appreciate it more. I am beyond grateful that we’re still doing this today.’ It’s clear to see how much the band means to Amy. ‘I think music can do anything, I really do. It saved my life many times. So if I’m going to stay in my lane, it’s going to be to make music. This is what music is for – to inspire and empower people. So the fact that we could take any part of that makes me extremely proud.
‘Our music is for everyone, all shapes and sizes. That’s something that it’s always been about for me, you don’t have to fit into any category to be one of us. So yes, welcome. This could be a place to cry and laugh and scream at the top of your lungs.’
Evanescence: A Live Session From Rock Falcon Studio is at 9pm tomorrow, and will be available on catch-up until December 8, evanescencelive.com