Category: Amy Lee

Amy Lee’s song “Speak To Me” won a Hollywood Music in Media Award

Last night the Hollywood Music in Media Awards were held at the nightclub Avalon Hollywood in Los Angeles where Amy Lee‘s song “Speak To Me”, the end title theme from Voice From The Stone movie, won in the category best original song in an independent film.
The song competed with the following nominees:

ORIGINAL SONG – INDEPENDENT FILM
• “Calling to Me” (One Percent More Humid) Written by Nathan Halpern. Performed by Emily Forsythe
• “My tiredness Hasn’t limit” (The Enchanted) Written by Ivan Ruiz Serrano, Ricardo Davila and Angela Boj, performed by Angela Boj
• “PBNJ” (Patti Cake$) Written By Geremy Jasper & Jason Binnick. Performed by Danielle Macdonald, Siddharth Dhananjay & Cathy Moriarty
• “Speak To Me” (Voice from the Stone) Written by Amy Lee & Michael Wandmacher. Performed by Amy Lee

“Speak to Me” is a song by American singer Amy Lee recorded for the ending credits of the independent movie Voice from the Stone (2017). It was published online and made available for digital download on March 17, 2017. For the song, Lee collaborated with the movie’s score producer Michael Wandmacher and director Eric Dennis Howell with whom she got acquainted to Voice from the Stone and its plot. Inspired by the movie’s story line which she could relate to her personal life as a recent mother, Lee decided to contribute to the soundtrack with an original song. Musically, “Speak to Me” is a piano ballad instrumentally complete with strings, booming drums and cellos and features lyrics in which the protagonist pleads for love.

Upon its release, the song received critical acclaim from music critics most of whom praised its haunting and cinematic sound accompanied by the singer’s trademark vocals. A music video for the song for which Lee collaborated with Howell was filmed at the same location as the movie, in Siena. It serves as a backstory to the movie and it features Lee singing the song and playing the piano in a gothic castle setting; shots of her walking at a garden with a boy are present throughout. As the song itself, the visual received positive feedback from critics who felt that it was a fitting accompaniment to the song’s overall musical style and the movie’s tone. [Source]

Amy Lee: ‘I Think This Is Just A Really Cool Moment In Time’

It’s the day after Halloween and Evanescence frontwoman Amy Lee is in between shows during possibly the band’s most ambitious tour to date. Out in support of their new Synthesis album, a collection that finds the group reworking signature songs like “Bring Me To Life” and “My Immortal” into orchestral versions, the band is playing on a nightly basis during the limited tour with orchestras.

Lee has also her three-year-old son Jack and husband Josh Hartzler on tour with her. It’s a lot to balance, as she says, “I feel like I’m the busiest I’ve ever been.” But it’s also clear talking to her it’s one of the most gratifying times in her life.

The ease and calmness in her voice as she talks about perspective and the joy she found at being on stage but still having Josh being able to take Jack trick or treating in the arena is very clear. It’s a prosperous and creative time for Lee and Evanescence.

Even she is not sure where this orchestral period will lead for the band. But as she also tells me, “I’m absolutely positive I’m gonna remember these performances and this very special experience for the rest of my life.” [Source]

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Amy Lee: I had to step away from being a rockstar

When Evanescence unleashed Fallen in 2003, they inspired a generation. But for Amy Lee, it was the start of a decade-long struggle to control her own destiny

Amy Lee is in a playful mood. Despite talking to press all day, the Evanescence singer and gothic rock superstar is warm and chatty, anticipating our next question with a, “C’mon, what you got, whatcha got?” and giggling. “You’re my last in a looong block of interviews,” she tells us in her throaty, sing-song voice before we begin – but to her credit, it’s clear that when it comes to talking about Evanescence, she’s so fiercely proud of her band that she relishes the chance to set a few things straight.

Over 22 years, Evanescence have continued to defy expectation. From their humble, teenage beginnings in the 90s to the overwhelming breakthrough of Bring Me To Life, the song that became ubiquitous on every music channel for its iconic depiction of Amy Lee as a kind of gothic Rapunzel, to their new record Synthesis, an orchestral retrospective of their career, there’s a lot of ground to cover. Yes, with just three studio albums in 20 years, they’ve appeared to have some long breaks, but Amy is adamant that it’s all part of a process that’s allowed the band to continue.

“People are like, ‘Oh, so you’ve been hanging out and doing nothing for five years, how come?’” she says sardonically, referencing the last hiatus following their third, self-titled album, released in 2011. “It’s never like that! We toured for a year and a half, and then, you know, I had a baby, blah, blah, blah…” she trails off, laughing.

It quickly becomes apparent that she has a tendency to inject humour and gloss over some of the more personal aspects of her life, serving as another reminder that we’re talking to someone who at one time was a bona fide megastar, thrust into the limelight at 21. When she gets serious is when talking about her music, explaining the need for her latest break: “To make something you really mean, for me, means I have to go live my life for a while, figure out who I am again and have some experiences I need to get off my chest. I need to step away and not feel like a–” she hesitates before saying the next word – “a ‘rockstar’ any more. I need to go be Amy.”

“And it’s beautiful, because as much as I’ve been ready and willing to abandon it completely, it always leads me back to Evanescence,” she says with certainty. “I’m very proud, still – more than ever, even – of our oldest music. It’s not anything I’m ashamed of.” [Source]

Amy Lee Chats With Paste About Synthesis, Perform a Solo “Good Enough”

Evanescence are back—again. Six years since their last album, 2011’s Evanescence, and 14 since their Grammy-winning breakthrough Fallen, the Southern gothic stalwarts are set to return with their most unusual project to date: Synthesis, an album featuring orchestral arrangements of some of their best-known and most-loved songs, with Amy Lee’s unmistakable voice out front as always.

Evanescence—now comprising Lee, drummer Will Hunt, guitarist/background vocalist Jen Majura, bassist Tim McCord and lead guitarist Troy McLawhorn—have always thrived on a deliciously dissonant sound, a potion of gothic imagery, metal guitars and pop craftsmanship that produced early hits like “My Immortal” (from 2000 demo Origin) and “Bring Me to Life,” the Fallen smash that would solidify the group’s signature recipe. The relationship between organic and electronic has always been at the core of Evanescence’s music, and on the sprawling Synthesis, Lee has brought it to its most dramatic form.

“That is the basic idea of the title of everything: Synthesis,” said Lee, who joined Paste at Steinway Hall in Manhattan recently for an exclusive listen to Synthesis, out Nov. 10. “Those two seemingly opposite things married together in a very beautiful way, where it’s not about contrast, but about them actually working together.”

The record will also include two new songs, “Hi-Lo” and “Imperfection.” Lee explained that the converging of old and new also echoes the project’s vision, noting, “That’s the other point of that word ‘synthesis’—past and present. Revisiting songs like ‘My Immortal,’ but in a place of now. Also, tying the new music into it and creating this thing that all flows together into one moment, but it’s actually going back and into the future.”

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Amy Lee on growing up, being cool, and sexuality in music

Interview: For their next chapter, nu metal survivors Evanescence are orchestrating an ambitious reworking of their classics

In a world of generic warblers, the operatic swoop of Amy Lee’s vocal was the trump card behind Evanescence’s squillion-selling 2003 debut, Fallen. If this was a primal scream that spoke to the young, angsty and alienated, that’s probably because the Arkansas-born Lee was also a sensitive outsider who felt much of her audience’s pain. Fourteen years later we find Lee older, wiser, in a happier place and comfortable enough with her past to reinterpret the Evanescence catalogue with a full orchestra on their new album, Synthesis.

Synthesis revisits the old songs. Do you remember how it felt to be twenty years old and working on Fallen?

Unfortunately yes [laughs]. How would I describe myself back then? Wide-eyed, full of huge dreams, fairly insecure. But I think that’s pretty common. When we’re young we feel like we’re the only ones that kinda hate ourselves. I remember struggling with feeling like I didn’t deserve to be where I was. So definitely an emotional, hormonal moment. I still have a lot of big feelings, but it seems like the whole world is falling down around you sometimes when you’re a kid.

Didn’t being hugely successful make the problems go away?

No! Having lots of people all over the world touched by our music was a dream come true. But to have thousands, even millions, of people feel like they know you in an intimate way, it was difficult. I’m at a place in my life now where I think I’m pretty good at dealing with it. That whole thing, it’s not so scary any more. But it was scary in the beginning, for sure. [Source]

Amy Lee in Music Week Interview

Amy Lee spoke with Music Week about the music industry and Synthesis. Read what she said:

In the new issue of Music Week, we speak to Amy Lee about the return of multi-million selling rock phenomenon Evanescence and their highly-anticipated new album, Synthesis. Only their fourth studio release in 14 years, the record sees Evanescence – completed by bassist Tim McCord, drummer Will Hunt and guitarists Troy McLawhorn and Jen Majura – present new material alongside re-recordings of some of their most defining songs, all with orchestral accompaniment.

Lee told Music Week that while Synthesis explores the group’s latent orchestral potential with long-term collaborator David Campbell, it was also a chance to show how far their musical skills have developed.

“There’s a lot of musical skill that I personally didn’t have,” said Lee. “When we were writing Bring Me To Life I was 19! So just the musical ability that I had when I was 19 as a writer, as a singer, as an everything, I can do all that stuff better now because we’ve had all this time and experience. In addition, living inside those songs live for all these years, it just forever gives you ideas.”

Lee also opened up about the prospect of following the blockbusting success of her past, with Evanescence’s 2003 debut selling 1,324,026 copies to date in the UK according to Official Charts Company data.

Fallen happened in the way that it happened,” Lee told Music Week. “You can’t even talk about record sales any more, it doesn’t mean anything but we kind of got set in a way that I was okay. We made some money and I always have poured that money into the next project. I have this ability to use that resource and the fanbase that we got from all those people who heard our music in the first place and cared about it enough to stick around.  I can use that, I don’t have to start [a project] by going, ‘Help! I need to do a Kickstarter! I need to find a label!”

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Interview featuring Amy Lee on Sonic Seducer

Watch the brand new interview of Amy Lee discussing the upcoming ‘Synthesis’ Album that is due for release on November 10th!

Amy Lee Awarded Attorney Fees In Dispute With Management Company

According to TMZ, Evanescence singer Amy Lee was awarded more than a million dollars in legal fees in connection with a lawsuit brought against her by her former management company.

110 Management Inc. sued Amy last year for unpaid commissions and fees. 110 originally sought $1.5 million from the singer, and eventually lowered the demand to $335,000. An arbitrator finally ruled the management company was owed only $4,863.66.

Amy asked the court to award her attorney fees from 110 for the lengthy legal battle, and the judge finally decided that she was entitled to $1,036,773.68. But, according to TMZ, that’s all going to her legal expenses — $885,000 in attorney fees, $72,000 for expert witnesses and other administrative costs.

Lee is currently on the road with EVANESCENCE in support of the band’s next album, “Synthesis“, which is due on November 10. The disc features two new EVANESCENCE songs in addition to fan favorites re-recorded with a live orchestra and electronica.

[Source]

Amy Lee Talks About Lindsey Stirling’s Appearance On ‘Synthesis’

The fourth in a series of webisodes featuring footage from the making of Evanescence’s next album, “Synthesis”, can be seen below. In the latest episode of “Inside Synthesis”, we explore the making of “Hi-Lo”, one of the two new tracks on the album, featuring a guest performance by famed violinist Lindsey Stirling. “Synthesis” is due on November 10. The effort features full orchestration in a completely synthetic world of beats and sounds, with help from arranger and composer David Campbell.

“Synthesis” contains two new Evanescence songs in addition to fan favorites re-recorded with a live orchestra and electronica. The “Synthesis Live” tour launched on October 14 on the West Coast. Like the album, “Synthesis Live” features a reimagining of some of Evanescence’s best-loved songs with the spotlight on full orchestra, electronics combined with the band and frontwoman Amy Lee’s virtuoso piano and voice.

“This is a total passion project for me. There are so many layers in our music, underneath the huge drums and guitars,” explained Lee. “I’ve always wanted to shine a light on some of the gorgeous David Campbell arrangements and programming elements in our songs, and that idea snowballed into completely re-doing them with full orchestra, not just strings, elaborate programming and experimentation.

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Message from Amy Lee about VIP Tickets

Amy lee has posted on her facebook an explanation of the VIP tickets, how they work and what is included in them. You can visit her FB page here!

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