After more than three years shaping the band’s forthcoming album Sanctuary, the release of lead single “Who Will You Follow?” has already sparked an emotional reaction among Evanescence fans, and that’s exactly what frontwoman Amy Lee hoped.
Speaking with Rolling Stone AU/NZ, Lee describes the track as a response to the chaos, grief, disinformation, and exhaustion defining modern life – themes that pulse throughout the band’s record.
Due out June 5th, Sanctuary has been an outlet for Lee – for everything that feels wrong, or out of control. Described as a “place to ignite hope”, the album carries a particular emotional weight not seen or heard before.
Ahead of the album’s release, Rolling Stone AU/NZ caught up with Lee to talk about the catharsis behind “Who Will You Follow?”, collaborating with Jordan Fish and Zakk Cervini for the first time, the chaos inspiring Sanctuary, and why heavy music feels more necessary than ever right now.
Rolling Stone AU/NZ: Congrats on the release of “Who Will You Follow?”! What’s it been like for you over the past month or so since that song came out?
Amy Lee: It’s just been non-stop! I mean, it’s been good, busy, but we’ve had no time to rest. The single’s out, next we’re going on a tour, production, next thing over here…
It’s certainly going to be a huge year for you guys.
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Yeah. We’ve put a lot into the creation of the songs. And when the songs are still being worked on, that is kind of all I can focus on. So it’s been cool to have my mind finally freed up to be like, ‘Okay, how are we going to present the show?’
We’ve finalised the music video, a really amazing music video, getting all the promo stuff done, talking to you! So yes, I finally have a teeny bit of brain space left now that the music’s done, because that’s the most important thing, right?
I’ve spent some time online looking at fan reactions to the song, I saw someone say the rush and emotion they felt listening to “Who Will You Follow?” for the first time reminded them of listening to “Bring Me to Life” for the first time. What’s the fan reception been like from your perspective?
I’ve really enjoyed watching the reactions. I’m the one who put together all those clips of people’s reactions online! I don’t spend a lot of time on social media these days. But there are so many amazing reactions to this and it’s been so fun to watch people have that excitement, watch them freak out at the same parts that we do. So yeah, I’m the one who trimmed all those little clips. I was like, ‘I love this clip, I love you, you’re cute, you’re funny’.
But I mean, making music, I do it because it’s what’s on my heart and what needs to come out. We make music because it’s the sounds we want to hear. And combining our forces starts to be its own power. And you start to hear what the collab is like with producers and everything.
But so much of it, I’m thinking, ‘I just can’t wait for the fans to hear this’. I can’t wait for them to hear this part. I can’t wait for them to hear when the tempo changes. I can’t wait for them to hear when it does the thing, and it’s kind of a throwback, and it’s sort of an Easter egg. So the moment finally happening where we got to watch a little bit of that, it’s been really, really fun.
Why did you choose this song to release as a single? How does it set up the rest of the record?
It’s hard to choose a first single, kind of. But this time, we all just knew. We didn’t even really have a conversation. It was like, ‘Yeah, that’s the first single’. We’ve been working on this music for a little over three years and I really like to create from a place that’s totally organic – not plotting out the theme beforehand or anything like that. Just sort of like, ‘What sounds do we like? What’s happening? What’s a good song?’.
Over time, as you start collecting those things, and as more and more is happening and influencing the lyrics and the world, and the album really becomes something, then you know what it is. That’s usually when you write that first single, because you have a full picture of what you’re doing and how to represent it and all the energy and fire that’s happened from all the other music underneath it that’s supporting it.
[Sanctuary] has a little bit of everything for everybody, for the most part. It’s impossible to sum it up in one song, but [“Who Will You Follow”] has a good taste of what the album sounds like. Thematically, it feels really on the nose of what so many of us are feeling right now, which is just completely overwhelmed by a flood of lies and like a false world existing on the surface.
And the song is about breaking through the lies, you know, to find each other, to find the humanity that absolutely exists within us and underneath it all. But we’ve got to face that darkness before we can defeat it.
And you’ve previously said that Sanctuary is like an outlet to express everything that’s been on your mind. This idea of a false world, the flood of lies, is that what’s been on your mind the most?
It’s hard to pick one tiny piece of all the pieces added together that make this time so dystopian and chaotic and surreal. There are so many things going on at once – and I don’t want to name none of them and be meaningless – but like, people are being killed in our name. We are becoming so desensitised to a violent truth. And it’s not like these are new things. It just feels like the bad guys are in charge, at least over here. And it’s so frustrating to be represented that way. That is one piece, that is one out of so many pieces.
Our rights are being stripped away, it’s hard to just sit here. And I feel like, you know, in my own life, of course, the album goes through grief and love and relationships and so many other things. And I think that’s part of the challenge for all of us in this time – is to remember that that isn’t the whole world.
We still exist and are holding on to who we are completely, not just as a reaction to the things that we can’t control that are being forced upon us, that are happening to our world that we have to pay attention to, but to not let it consume you all the way. And it’s hard to hold all of that.
For me, the music is a release of the truth about all that stuff. Also, me and my life and what’s going on, like the music is my journal. It’s always been that. If I always pour it out from whatever’s on my heart – and there’s so much right now – that there are going to be other people in the world that can relate to that and use that in their own way.
That’s always been true. Whether it’s my own music or listening to other people’s music, music is really necessary right now. I need the release and I need to feel connected to the human spirit and not some robot trying to sell me something in return. So I hope that this album will be that for some people, be a place to connect and feel grounded and understood and also scream at the top of their lungs and that be okay.
Listening to Sanctuary over the past couple of days, I can feel that catharsis through the music and the lyrics! Now I’m just imagining how fans are going to love experiencing that…
It’s awesome, right?
And it’s been five years since your last album The Bitter Truth, is there anything that was different this time that you felt pushed you creatively? Like working with producers Jordan Fish and Zakk Cervini for the right time?
That was big. I feel like that’s been the biggest clear new thing that’s different, that sets this album apart. We were making music and creating in the way that we kind of normally do, just like whenever, sharing files and come up with cool ideas as a band. And we went in with Nick [Raskulinecz, producer], and we made some amazing stuff that’s on the album and got started and churning. Then, just out of me, I don’t know, saying yes to a lot – like just yes to collaboration, yes to new ideas, yes to working with cool people that I’ve always wanted to work with, whatever – that came together, and it ended up being us in a room, Zakk and Jordan and me and Troy [McLawhorn, Evanescence’s guitarist], just to see what happened with nothing in our hands.
I am so used to being a person that comes to the table with a backpack of ideas already, because I don’t want to ever be in that moment where there’s no idea, and it’s like, ‘Oh, God, they need to know that I know what I’m doing’, but for once, we’ve just been too busy and inspired and whatever, like, I’m not scared anymore.
They’re both so talented. We came in, and we came up with stuff on the spot together so fast. We really get each other, we’re meant to make music together. Jordan Fish is a really, really good writer, like a really great songwriter. And having somebody else to just ping pong with songwriting-wise like that… I’ve had more and more experience with that over the past couple of years actually. It’s something I didn’t used to be open to – I just had to do everything myself before, because I had something to prove.
But now I’m not scared to just check out what somebody else is doing. It’s so beautiful to hear somebody else’s interpretation of your ideas to a degree, and come up with their own and then you take that. I don’t know, it’s just a beautiful thing.
Plus, Zakk is just an amazing producer as well. He’s fast – I can’t describe the speed of it. The first day that we went in there, just the four of us, and we didn’t know how it was going to go… By the end of day one, we had “Tell Me When You’ve Had Enough”, including the hook with lyrics. The whole thing was there. And it was just this whirlwind speed sesh, and it sounded so cool right away, because we’ve got producers in the room making the beat sound cool, better than me. It’s usually me at the helm, you know, and it sounds cool, but it takes me longer. So I’m analog synth girl trying to do it for real.
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That’s crazy, just one day!
I mean, I didn’t have all the lyrics or anything, but like the core of it was there. And then the next day it was “Sanctuary” – the core of that was there. It was just one of those things where it was fate, you know? This was meant to be that we were all in that room with this session that was this nucleus that became the new core of the album we were working on.
And it just all went from there, then bringing the rest of the band in. “Who Will You Follow?” was cool because we’d worked in different formations of each other and different groups with different producers, and then it was everybody like Zakk and Jordan and the whole band in one room when we wrote it. We all knew the project. We all understood the assignment. And that’s what came out. It felt really good. We’d done all the work, we did some little band vacation writing session things, and then it all paid off in a moment where it was like, ‘Okay, here’s how it goes’.
I also wanted to touch on quickly your tour with Metallica here last year, I caught the show in Sydney and it was amazing. What was that like from your perspective?
It was so great. That was our first stadium tour – we’ve played in stadiums, but we’ve never been on a stadium tour. And it is a different thing because you’re planning your set around this big moment every night. And I gotta say, Metallica were so cool. Like there are people that are at the top, the kind of snobs, and there are other people at the top that show how it’s meant to be done. They’re them, you know, that’s how it’s meant to be done. They treated us awesome. They gave us the ability to really bring in great production, put my piano out as you saw, out on the snake pit walk thing. It really felt like our show.
During our set, I was a little intimidated at first, just because going in front of somebody else, I know how it is, I’ve been here for a while. And in the old days, you’re gonna get some shit thrown at you just for being a girl opening for a band like that. But this just was not that experience. Partially, I guess, because we moved to the future, but also, they were really cool to us.
I felt like a lot of our fans were there and I guess back in the day we weren’t at that level too. So that was like humbling and rad. We had a really, really great experience and it was so good to see our Australian fans. We hadn’t been there in a minute, you know, it’d been a couple of years… It’s not going to be that many years before the next time!
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I did want to touch on that! Obviously you’ve got your world tour coming up, but I saw something online from a merch site offering early access to tickets for an Australian and New Zealand tour if they pre-ordered your merch…
Oh really? If there’s a show…
Exactly, if there’s a show… Is there anything you can tell me about what’s coming up?
I can’t tell you, but we are working on something…
Now, here in Australia, heavy music is having its moment – it’s actually one of the fastest growing genres in the country. Is there anything that’s sort of exciting you the most about where this genre of music is going?
It’s interesting to hear you say that! I always think of Australia as like a heavy music place.
We do have a great heavy scene!
It’s great to see, you guys have a lot of rebel energy. When I think of Australia, it’s like, that’s a rock. So yeah, not surprised, but glad to hear it, that’s for sure!
Evanescence’s Sanctuary is out June 5th. Pre-order the album here.
