"The Open Door" Purifies Evanescence's Amy Lee
By: Music Staff |
Sunday October 15, 2006 |
| I definitely feel like the challenges we've been through as a band have made us stronger. Instead of letting the things that happen to us hurt us and let us get separated, we became a lot closer. |
| Evanescence's The Open Door debuted as the #1 album in The United
States, marking the band's first appearance at the top of Billboard's Top
200 sales chart. Combined over-the-counter and digital album sales of
The Open Door totaled 447,342 units in the U.S. Fallen, the
first release from Evanescence peaked at number three following a debut at
number seven. To date, Fallen has scanned 6,571,940 copies
according to Nielsen SoundScan.
The lead track from The Open Door “Call Me When You're Sober,” is a multi-format smash at alternative, pop and rock radio, as well as through all major online and music television outlets. The public has responded enthusiastically, with the band's first leg of the tour selling out almost instantaneously. Following the U.S. run, Evanescence will head to Europe for dates across the continent. “This achievement is a testament to the incredible album that Amy Lee and Evanescence produced; the music connected with fans from the very first notes of ‘Call Me When You're Sober' and delivered a tremendous listening experience all the way through,” said Wind-up Entertainment President Ed Vetri. The following is a transcription of an interview done with Evanescence's Amy Lee, where she speaks about following up a worldwide smash hit album, the stress of touring, the hardships that brought her and her bandmates together to form a stronger bond and more. Pardon me if I ask a real obvious question and that is, did you feel pressure to build on the success of the last album in making this one? It's funny. That's one of the most frequent questions I get and I really felt like it was sort of the opposite effect for me. Fallen did really, really well, better than we expected and a lot has changed for our band in the line-up and everything else. More than anything, it gave us a lot of freedom this time around. I felt like since we'd already established our sound and established ourselves with Fallen and how well it did, we could do whatever we wanted this time around and actually expand the box and do something even more. Just a follow up on that, did you need time to get the clutter out before you could really write? Get the clutter out of my head? We toured for a year and a half and we were all really exhausted because it was just crazy. We didn't know what we were doing and I didn't know how to say no back then, so the train just wouldn't stop. When we finally got off tour, I think we all slept for two months straight. After maybe two months, the writing really began. We were pretty fried. We're finally to the point where a tour sounds fun. I want to talk about about your songwriting. You've had no qualms about writing deeply personal songs, but has there been a time during the recording of this album when you've written stuff that you get nervous about telling too much about yourself? It's actually really funny that you asked that. This morning, I was reading a couple of - I don't often go back and read interviews that I've given. If it's a big one, like Blender did something on us that was six pages long and I went and looked at a couple today. It's funny, I don't feel like it's too personal to write. Making art out of it is the best feeling in the world for me. I feel like the more I express and the more I share and the more personal it is, the better I feel. It's a bigger weight I've lifted off of myself. But then again, when I go and read back interviews and all the press and everything, that's when I start to feel like — when you're writing the songs, you don't think about how you're going have to talk about it and explain yourself afterwards. I guess the times that I think I have no secrets is when I'm either reading interviews or write-ups about us because it is really personal and my life in a way really is an open book to the world and sometimes that can be a little scary. But I definitely never pull back from the music because I think I should probably just shut my big mouth sometimes. "Call Me When You're Sober," that's definitely a very personal song like you were saying. Do you think that that song had any effect on Shaun going into rehab? I don't know. I honestly couldn't answer that question. I really hope that he's doing great. Sorry, I can't give you a good answer on that one. What was his reaction to that song? Did you talk to him after it came out? No, we haven't been in contact. Now that it's close, and with everything that has gone on in the year and a half leading up to this album. Now that you're here, how excited are you to have the album and the tour here and be able to just concentrate on that? It's pretty cool. The past few months have really just been promo and a lot of work, actually. It's running around all over the world and giving interviews and talking and doing photo shoots and all the stuff that really stresses you out. So the fact that we're on the brink of actually going on tour and getting to make music the center of attention again and the center of our lives is a really exciting thing. We're all really happy to be going on tour. I don't know, it's been a long time, so I'm a little bit nervous. We're actually on our way to practice right now, we're in the car. We're practicing out in the country at a venue for the venue we're going to be playing in. So we get to have our lighting guy and everybody is coming out today and so we can feel like we're playing shows for the next four days before tour, which is exciting. It is really fun. I do love that part of my job. But the music is more challenging and it is a lot of practice. There's a lot of practice that I need to get in before we start, but I can handle it. We can handle it. We'll be fine. One of the things about you guys that I think really stands out is how personal your music can be to your fans. It seems like people really react to you guys in a very personal way. I'm wondering what was the moment where you realized that, where you had a contact with a fan where you really realized you were hitting people that you didn't necessarily know yourself? I'm trying to think of a good, specific example. That can be hard because we get so many kids. I say kids because it seems like a lot of times, it's teenagers who feel like they really have someone that they can relate to or talk to. I don't know. I'm trying to think of a good specific experience and not waste your time. Without giving a specific one, I'll say that it is a huge inspiration to feel like people connected with the music that we've written and the words that I've written. It's an incredible compliment. |