The Struggle for Women in Rock
- 20 years ago there were much fewer female artists in heavy bands. Even compared to now, there were only a handful like Flyleaf and Paramore. Can you tell us more about your experience as a female vocalist at that time? Amy: Well, it just made me into a fighter. I didn’t go into this thinking I was one or feeling like one. Part of who we are is in our DNA and then another part of who we are is reacting to the circumstances that we're randomly given. So everybody has a different set of circumstances, things that happen to them and your character is how you react to those different things. So I am myself but I've been made into the person that I needed to be because of the set of circumstances that have been handed to me in my life. Part of that is this incredible gift and also just a flaming hot torch to try to carry for these years and keep alive and keep pure and fight for the artistic integrity of the band through so many things. Fight through toxicity within the band, fight through everything and push forward from the heart. And also in my personal life, just overcoming losses over and over that mean so much to me, and choosing not to lay down and stop and cry about it forever. But to channel that into music and beauty and reaching other people and connection has been just so fulfilling. I highly recommend getting back up. I really, truly do. It's worth it on the other side.
- Evanescence opened the door for a lot of female and queer artists like Willow, Ashnikko, Nova Twins, and Rina Sawayama who are incorporating elements of nu metal into their music.Amy: Are you mentioning all the people I'm a fan of on purpose? I love all those people, I love Rina Sawayama. It's an interesting thing because I found her through searching through random things on Spotify, or whatever, and nobody else I know knows of her. It was just this thing that I have and now I share with all my friends. I think it's cool because I know for a fact, being one of them, that women loving heavy music and wanting to be a part of it, and press into it and make that their thing has always been there. It's just a matter of the more of us that are already there, the more possible it is to believe that you can survive and succeed as a woman in heavy music. And I can't take credit for that but I'm proud to be a part of the journey forward through the past 20 years because I've absolutely seen so many more, and so much more diversity in every angle and I think that's something to be proud of.
Photo by Frank Veronsky- The first time Evanescence came to Japan was in the summer of 2003 for Fuji Rock Festival and you did a large-scale tour of Japan the following year. What can you tell us about that time? Amy: I recently went through all of these cassette tapes and video footage. When I went on my very first tour as a 21-year-old, we bought this big video camera to just film stuff. And of course, I was really the only one super motivated to carry it so I'm not in much of the footage. But going to Japan extensively was one of the things that's all over the footage. So it's literally me, jet-lagged, in my hotel room, filming people out the window. And just like watching them walk through the snow and be like, “Check out these people, I'm in Japan. I can’t sleep so I'm just gonna sit here and spy on people. I think I saw an owl. Oh my god, where am I?” (Laughs) I've said this before, I'm an 80s kid so growing up all my favorite cartoons and characters were Japanese. And I'm a huge Miyazaki fan so leading and teaching my younger siblings I was like, “We're watching Totoro, we’re watching Spirited Away,” and that became part of our family history and memories. So when I finally got to go to Japan, it was like, “Oh my god, I get to go to Japan.” So I still do the same thing every time I come, I have to go to Kiddy Land and buy a million things for all my friends and siblings, so I always bring an extra suitcase.
- Finally, can you tell us about the current direction for Evanescence?Amy: With every album, I allow myself first of all to just have an open mind and be experimental and creative with music and enjoy it and make things that sound good to me. Because that basic simplicity is what started the music in the first place, that's what made Fallen. It wasn't me trying to recreate something I've done before and I'm not really interested in doing that. It was coming at music from a curious, excited, experimental, innocent, place. I've been through a lot more now and I've made a lot more music but every time I just want to go at it with a totally open mind. Through that process, eventually, you start hearing the same heart come through in different ways, in different tones and keys and voices and instruments, but the heart does need to be preserved for it to be Evanescence. So I think we're at a point now that we actually weren't super securely at with the first album. We didn't really know exactly who we were, we were scratching the surface. It's a fuller picture now through our body of work. My hope for new music is always to keep filling in all the little tiny details of the picture. We've been through a lot of changes, the band is just the best it's ever been. I've been with Will, Troy and Tim for like 17 years and then Emma is now with us and we've been friends for over a decade. She's an incredible musician and she's finally with us. She's the newbie but it feels like she's always been here. So we have something going on where we know each other on an unspoken level and we can really create music in a synergetic, beautiful way. So we're at a point right now where we've just finished touring, it was a lot of touring and we loved it but we're really looking forward to the creative phase. I have a lot of little, tiny, baby ideas just waiting to be focused on so we’re ready to be creative now.
『Fallen (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) 』https://found.ee/594We 
