Evanescence Singer Amy Lee: Album is About the Band, Not Me

2011-09-20

Story by Anne Erickson

Evanescence drop their latest, goth-filled album next month

Goth-pop darlings Evanescence recently divulged the simple cover art for their forthcoming, self-titled release, out Oct. 11, and Evanescence buffs have likely already noticed it’s the first album that doesn’t feature front-woman Amy Lee splashed on the front. Ask Lee, and she’ll frankly tell you, that was the point. After all, Evanescence are finally at a spot in their career where they feel more like a collective band than a solo singer backed by no-named players.

“Well, both of our other records are me on the cover, and I think it’s cool to have that photo, you know, that people can look at and go, ‘Okay, that’s who that is.’ But I feel like, by now, they know who we are, and I wanted something really different,” Lee told MTV News. “I didn’t feel like we had to put a photo on the cover, I wanted it to be more mysterious and more about Evanescence itself, not just me.”

That idea applies to more than Evanescence’s cover art. As Lee described, on the upcoming album, she and the guys analyzed every aspect of the band, including the longtime moniker, Evanescence. “The idea to not have any photos on the outside I thought was really cool,” Lee said. “And all the images and the artwork is a play on the meaning of the word ‘Evanescence.’ It means ‘to dissipate like vapor,’ so I decided to go with light and vapor. It’s really about Evanescence, not just me.”

Evanescence just released the long-teased music video for the first song off the album, “What You Want,” and the video eschews the group’s usual fantasy approach for something more real: live concert footage from a sweaty Brooklyn performance space. “The song is really different for us, so I knew that I didn’t want to go the classic, sort of fantastic, epic [thing],” Lee said. “I mean it’s still epic, but we didn’t want to go the classic route — I wanted to do something different.” Watch the full video and check out Audio Ink Radio’s review of it on the reviews page.

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Anne Erickson

Meet the expert - Author, writer and editor Anne Erickson is a Detroit-based reporter and radio host. She has written for the USA Today Network, Consequence.net, Blabbermouth.net, and many more. Anne holds a master's degree from Michigan State University. Contact Anne at anne@audioinkradio.com.

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