- 4 days ago
Fresh off the release of “Who Will You Follow,” Evanescence have revealed plans for their upcoming album, 'Sanctuary,' due out everywhere on June 5. Amy Lee joined Abe Kanan for an Audacy Check In to talk touring, the inspiration for the album, and what it means to balance motherhood and music!
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00:00Well, the Sick New World show is going to be fantastic, but that's not the new tour.
00:06That's not going to be all the music.
00:07I don't like to play songs live that we haven't gotten to show you the full studio experience of yet.
00:13So we'll be playing Who Will You Follow? We'll be playing Afterlife.
00:19Dave Cannon, I'm with Amy Lee. It's an Aussie check-in.
00:22Who Will You Follow? New Evanescence song. I've heard it. It's awesome.
00:26You just had a huge number one hit with you, Poppy, and Courtney LaPlante. That was amazing.
00:31This one will be number one. I'm predicting it.
00:34Thank you. All right, let's do that. I love your prediction.
00:37It's a great way to start the album. This is amazing. What a song.
00:40When you wrote this album, how long have you been writing this album?
00:47I'd say three years solid. It's been like a three-year. We've been touring a lot, as you know.
00:53But I had a lot of little trips in between, like while we're somewhere, like go rent a place for
01:00the days in between the shows.
01:01And people come, you know, to me and we work together.
01:04Or like we had some amazing creation sessions with Zach Servini and Jordan Fish here in L.A.
01:12Recorded stuff in Nick's house in Nashville. It's just been kind of all over the place the last three years.
01:16Yeah. And you worked with the guys from Bring Me to the Horizon. How has that changed your writing style,
01:22working with them?
01:22Jordan? Yeah. I don't know that it's changed my writing. Well, it's just been such a – okay, how do
01:28I explain this?
01:29I really felt this amazing connection with them when we started – just got on their list.
01:36Let's see what happens. Me and Troy and Zach and Jordan got together for this one session that was extremely
01:41productive.
01:43And it was like day one, whole song. Freaking amazing. I was like, is this normal for you guys?
01:50Normally like this? And they're like, I mean, kind of no.
01:55And it was just – it's just been a really – I don't know.
01:57I felt very fueled by the state of the world creatively.
02:01I feel like I have a ton to get off my chest. This music is a sanctuary for me.
02:07And that's the name of the album.
02:08Yeah. There you go. Plugged my own thing right in the description.
02:12But I've needed this. We all have.
02:16Like, just to be able to pour into something.
02:19And I know I sound like a broken record because I was saying similar stuff about The Bitter Truth.
02:22But music is so, so needed.
02:27Oh, yes. Oh, yes.
02:29We've just been writing like crazy.
02:30I have been kind of underground for the beginning of this year.
02:32I just sort of had to disappear and finish all the lyrics, which seemed more important than ever.
02:39And finally pulled my head up and we just finished the album.
02:43So excited. It's so good.
02:44And it feels so good to finally be releasing the music that we've been obsessing over.
02:49And the new album is called Sanctuary.
02:51So along with the new album, massive tour, U.S. and Europe.
02:54And then it's like a bookend of Sick New World dates.
02:58So you have the two Sick New World dates and then you have like about a month and a half.
03:02And then you go on this huge tour.
03:04Like, do you want to just add on a bunch more shows just so you can get?
03:06Because it's like you have that one big show and then, oh, my God, now I have to wait like
03:10a month and a half.
03:11Well, the Sick New World show is going to be fantastic.
03:14But that's not the new tour.
03:17That's not going to be all the music.
03:18I don't like to play songs live that we haven't gotten to show you the full studio experience of yet.
03:25So we'll be playing Who Will You Follow?
03:26We'll be playing Afterlife, you know.
03:28But other than that, you know, we got our festival set list with, you know, just cool songs from our
03:33catalog.
03:33The real thing, you know, the real new album era tour is going to start when we start touring.
03:38You know, I love that you just said that because sometimes and no offense to the bands that at festivals,
03:44some bands will just play a bunch of like songs no one knows.
03:47At a festival, it's like, you know, at least half the audience isn't your audience.
03:52So it's like, that's great that you actually said you just said that.
03:55Oh, we have a festival set list.
03:56That's awesome.
03:57Oh, yeah.
03:58You want to make people stoked.
04:00It's a party.
04:01Yeah, for sure.
04:03Because a festival is different than your show.
04:05Like an Evanescent show, it's like I'm going to see Evanescent's a festival.
04:08There's 90 bands or something.
04:10Yeah, but you got to do both.
04:11Like it's a great opportunity to show your music that everybody hasn't heard to the masses.
04:16But also, like, give them what they want.
04:19That's what we're here for.
04:20Yeah.
04:21Have you noticed at these festivals that it's like the crowds are big?
04:24They're bigger than ever at all these festivals.
04:25It's crazy.
04:26I know.
04:27And then like Bring Me the Horizon, Bad Omens, Pierce the Veil.
04:31These bands are all coming up.
04:32Like, this is a great time for rock music.
04:34I so agree.
04:35I couldn't agree more.
04:36And you guys are one of the headliners.
04:38Now, like, did you think back then you said when you made your first album that you guys would be
04:40headlining these massive festivals?
04:4250,000, 60,000 people.
04:44I don't know.
04:46No.
04:47How do you imagine that?
04:49Yeah.
04:49Dream of stuff.
04:50But it's funny.
04:51Like, I always heard the potential in our music.
04:58I always felt like we're making the greatest thing ever.
05:01Like, you have to feel that way in order to put all that into it.
05:04But at the same time, I always made music enough for myself that I would feel still so satisfied if
05:13it didn't go that big, if that makes sense.
05:15Yeah.
05:15So I was like, I hope so.
05:17I believe it could.
05:18But like, I don't really think.
05:19No.
05:20No.
05:20If you showed me where we're at now when I was 21, I would have been floored.
05:28Yeah.
05:28You'd be happy.
05:29That's pretty awesome.
05:30Be very happy.
05:31Yeah.
05:32Sometimes I think about, like, if I was, like, 21 and I looked in the mirror and I saw a
05:36picture of myself, and I'd be like, oh, God.
05:39Like, you're not people.
05:40Like, you see your career and you're like, oh, this is awesome.
05:42Yeah.
05:44So my favorite part, your new song, Who Will You Follow, my favorite part is that buildup, that instrumental, and
05:50then you do that, like, you're the greatest in the world at those lead-ups back into the chorus.
05:56And that's my favorite part of the song.
05:58It's like, how do you explain that part of the song?
05:59That's a very important.
06:00You do that a lot, and it's a very important part of a song where it's, like, leading to the
06:04climax of the song.
06:06Yeah.
06:06That's such a great part of Who Will You Follow.
06:10And I love that part, too, talking about where it all goes mad and changes the time signature and then
06:15brings it back around again.
06:16Yeah.
06:17Yeah.
06:18I have to give that to collaboration.
06:21We were all – this song, like I told you, the writing process has been all over the place with
06:24different groups of us and just the whole thing.
06:27But that song was the second-to-last song that we wrote, and Zach and Jordan and the whole band
06:34were all in there for that one.
06:36And it really just was this coming to fruition, everybody coming together, having cool ideas thing.
06:43And that part, Will is always – our drummer is always like, we've got to do a tempo change thing,
06:51like – I mean, not tempo change, a time signature change.
06:55Yeah.
06:55And it never works.
06:57And for once, he was like, what do we do a time – you know, we do the change.
07:01And Zach Servini, like, right away understood it and, like, started translating that.
07:06And then we all pile onto that.
07:07I'm like, now pull the band out.
07:09Now make it electro.
07:10Now Jordan do your thing.
07:11It just all came together, like, just really fast.
07:15And then, you know, I think bringing it back around again to the core, I've just always been all about
07:22contrast and drama, like, in a way that's not melodrama, I hope, you know.
07:28But as big as that can be right next door to as intimate as it can be is – that's
07:34my jam.
07:36Before we started talking, you said, I'm back in it.
07:38So it's like you live two lives, right?
07:40Like, you have your normal life.
07:41And then out of nowhere, it's like, okay, now you're just on the road for a year.
07:45Like, how do you do that transition where it really is two completely different lives?
07:49It hasn't been normal.
07:50I don't know if I – I can't call it normal.
07:53It's normal in the sense that I'm a mom and I'm in the pickup line.
07:58Yeah.
07:59But at the same time, like, when we're working on an album, this has pulled so much of me.
08:06Like, this is making the album, finishing, writing the best words, like, recording the vocals.
08:13I did a lot of the vocal tracking at my house by myself, like, just doing my own vocal, getting
08:19in there whenever I can in the middle of the night, just, like, layering background vocals, going crazy, getting the
08:24perfect take.
08:24Like, it's just all that I do besides being, you know, mom.
08:31And I prioritize, obviously, being a mom.
08:34But it's a lot.
08:37Like, I'm an obsessor.
08:40I'm a little bit of an obsessor.
08:41So, every single bit of my free time has been working on this.
08:46But when I say I'm back, it definitely felt for me, especially, like, when January hit, like, New Year's.
08:53It was like, I pulled the power, bailed on social media, every possible distraction, and just went all the way
09:02in.
09:02Like, underground, in my own world, constant, just making everything, just making everything the best that it could possibly be.
09:12Just the feeling of finally being able to share that.
09:16That's the flip.
09:16From me being completely, like, in my own head to opening that up and sharing it with the world and
09:25with our fans and be able to go, okay, check out what I am.
09:29Check out what we've been doing.
09:30Check out what this is.
09:32And get to kind of experience it together is so satisfying.
09:36I've been really hungry for it.
09:38You just talked about the pickup line.
09:39Do you ever think about what must it be like to have a rock star mom like you?
09:44I mean, when you were a kid, your dad was in radio, right?
09:47He was a radio host?
09:48Yes.
09:49Like, that's a little, I mean, it's not, I mean, I'm in radio.
09:51So, it's not like, it's like a kid would be like, so, like, it's different to have a mom who's
09:56a massive rock star playing stadiums, playing these, like, did you ever think about that?
10:02Like, this predicament that your kid is in?
10:04I mean, it's a great situation, but I'm just saying.
10:06He loves it.
10:07Well, he's 11, and do you remember being 11?
10:12Yeah, I do.
10:12I remember, it's like this moment, and it was exactly that age for me, where you fall in love with
10:17music in a new way, like, where you're just starting to, and he came along for our Metallica stadium tour
10:26in Australia.
10:27Oh, wow.
10:27And he's seen me play, since he was a baby, he used to see me play big shows and the
10:33whole thing.
10:33Yeah, that's all he knows.
10:34Yeah, but seeing us in stadiums in front of, like, 80,000 people with Metallica changed him.
10:45Like, beyond just thinking, mom's so cool, which he totally did.
10:49But then, learning Metallica, like, he's obsessed with Metallica now.
10:54That's awesome.
10:55I can't tell you the joy that it brings me.
10:57It's just like, I didn't, you can't make your kid fall for a thing.
11:03Like, it's got to be their thing.
11:04But I watched him, because I was like, we're going to go watch the whole thing tonight.
11:08Like, pretty much the whole thing.
11:10We ate some food first, but like, let's go out there.
11:12I know when the salus gets really, really good.
11:13So, we get out there, we stand in front of the house, like, he's standing up on the barricade so
11:18we can see everything perfectly.
11:20And I just saw him with the pyro and the music and the whole thing, like, get inspired.
11:26Nothing else matters comes in, and it starts gently raining.
11:31Like, and the lights are going through the rain, and he's just, I was just watching all of us, the
11:36whole band are watching him going like, I remember.
11:40So beautiful.
11:40So, but he definitely has a new, he's entered a new era of, oh, and like, kind of wants to
11:46be in a band, maybe.
11:47Like, he's just, he's getting there and getting it at a new level, which just makes me glow with pride.
11:52I'm so happy.
11:53You have to take him to the Metallica Sphere show in Vegas.
11:57Oh my God, he would love that.
11:59Love it.
12:00When I think back to like, like, him just discovering And Justice For All in 2026 or whatever, how amazing
12:07that must be for him just to hear that for the first time.
12:09And that's what people do at festivals.
12:11Like, they see Evanescence for the first time.
12:14And like, think about it as your son.
12:16There's a lot of other people.
12:17Like, think about it.
12:18Your son just discovered Metallica.
12:20There's another 11-year-old just discovering Evanescence.
12:23And it's so cool to expose these albums that are 20 years old, whatever, to a kid that's hearing it
12:29for the first time.
12:30Yeah.
12:30It's magic.
12:31It's eternal.
12:32It's immortal.
12:32Yeah.
12:33And then the new music, too.
12:34Who will you follow?
12:35New album, sanctuary, massive tour, like I said.
12:39It's such an exciting time for Evanescence.
12:42When you go to all these cities, like, do you do anything or do you just kind of hang out
12:46in your hotel room?
12:47I do like to do anything.
12:49I do like to leave the hotel room if I can.
12:52It depends on kind of where we're staying and what the vibe is, like, whether I can kind of get
12:56out and be wild.
12:56But I feel the most home in the world in a big city, and I like to wander by myself.
13:03I shouldn't probably advertise that.
13:06Usually just, you know, put on a hat or a ponytail or something and, like, just go feel like you're
13:12somewhere else for the day, you know?
13:14And, like, hey, what if I'm from here?
13:16What's that feel like?
13:18I like to feel my independence on tour.
13:20I think also that's part of it is when you get locked into schedules and constantly being around everybody, living
13:27in close quarters, all that.
13:28It feels really good to just have the freedom to wander off.
13:31So I do.
13:32And I like to do that with the band, too.
13:34We like to enjoy where we're at, go have a meal someplace, like, get into the vibe of whatever the
13:39local culture.
13:40Yeah, I bring that up because I always thought it would be cool if someone like you made a travel
13:44book or some kind of a trip.
13:45I've talked about that before.
13:47You've seen everything.
13:48You've been everywhere.
13:49Yeah, it'd be cool to do, like, I don't have that.
13:52Every time I get into this, my ideas get too overblown and it's like, that's going to take up all
13:57my time.
13:59We should do a show.
14:00We should do, like, a food travel show.
14:02Yeah.
14:02Like, we're on tour and, like, eating stuff in other countries.
14:06I don't know.
14:06It'd be interesting.
14:07It'd be fun.
14:08You started this tour.
14:11Yeah.
14:12Then I got a guy around me all the time with a camera in my face.
14:14Just when you're eating, like, be like, hey.
14:16Yeah, that sounds horrible.
14:18Yeah, that sounds bad.
14:21Well, it's June 5th.
14:22That's when the album comes out.
14:23It's called Sanctuary.
14:24Who will you follow?
14:25Go, well, it's not out yet, but when you hear it, you will love this song.
14:28I loved it immediately.
14:30So, Amy Lee, it's always an honor to talk to you.
14:32Anything you want to say directly to your wonderful, awesome Evanescence fans as we wrap this up?
14:37I love you.
14:38Here we are.
14:39I'm so ready for this era.
14:40Let's do this.
14:42That's it.
14:42I'm ready.
14:43Let's do it.
14:43Let's rock.
14:44I did have one more question.
14:45So, for this new tour, you know, it is different.
14:47Like you said, the Sick New World thing and then your tour.
14:50So, I just saw Nine Inch Nails last week.
14:52Yes.
14:53And this production on the new Nine Inch Nails tour, I've probably seen them, I don't know, six, seven times
14:58in my life.
14:59This was the greatest Nine Inch Nails show I've ever seen in my life.
15:02The production was crazy.
15:04The lights.
15:04Like, what do you have prepared for this Evanescence tour?
15:07Jeez, no pressure.
15:09You sound like my husband.
15:10He's been nonstop talking about Nine Inch Nails since he saw the show.
15:12Oh, really?
15:14And that's always an inspiration, that particular band.
15:18Like, because it's coming from just such genius minds.
15:22I mean, like, always an inspiration on the visual with Nine Inch Nails.
15:27Um, that's kind of where I'm at right now is planning that stuff.
15:31So, I, this is that.
15:33Um, everything for the past, for a while, has been about creating the world of Sanctuary, finishing the music especially.
15:41But now that we're finally at that place, we're like, okay, we got the music.
15:44The music's done.
15:45Now it's like, let's create this world for tour.
15:48How do we make this into a visual, um, music video?
15:50All that stuff happening.
15:52Um, some of it happened.
15:54But, yeah.
15:55We're in that now.
15:56I don't have an answer for what that's going to be.
15:57But it is a really fun next chapter of getting into creating a world for a new era.
16:05It's always really fun.
16:06Who will you follow?
16:07Awesome new song.
16:08Sanctuary, June 5th.
16:09Amy Lee, thank you so much.
16:11Good to see you again.
16:12You too.
16:13All right.
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