Bill DeYoung.com

Evanescence: 'We've never been a Christian band'

By Bill DeYoung

© 2004 Scripps Howard News Service

Even though her band has become one of the biggest rock 'n' roll success stories of the millennium, Evanescence lead singer Amy Lee is still dogged by controversy.

Winner of two Grammy Awards last spring, including Best New Artist, Evanescence blends eerie, minor–key melodies with lyrics – written by Lee and guitarist Ben Moody – that deeply plead for fulfillment.

The band's debut album, "Fallen," sold 12 million copies worldwide, and sent three singles onto the pop charts ("Bring Me to Life" reached No. 1).

Christian music fans took "Fallen" to heart, but Lee was quick to tell the world that the songs were not "about" religion. Evanescence's label pulled the album from Christian retail outlets – and the debate continues to this day: Is Evanescence a Christian band?

"We never were," Lee, 22, says frankly in a telephone interview from a tour stop. "It was always something I was going through as a minor battle with Ben. In that there were a lot of things in his personal life that he put into his music and let get into interviews that really had nothing to do with me."

Moody, who'd started the band with Lee in Arkansas, left Evanescence, without explanation, earlier this year.

"I think he had a hard time getting specific and saying, 'This is about me, my goals, my life,' and it wasn't representing the band," Lee explains.

"We've never been a Christian band. That's not to say I'm ashamed of any beliefs that we have, but in many ways I'm still a kid and I'm still figuring it all out," she says. "And I'm in no way in any sort of position to be preaching on any religion's behalf."

Still, it's hard not to read spiritual yearning into Lee's dramatically sung lyrics for songs called "Tourniquet," "My Immortal," "Going Under" and "My Last Breath."

"A lot of things I'm talking about, a lot of the emotions I'm expressing, are about myself," she explains. "A lot of times, when I'm calling out for help, I don't know who I was calling for. I guess I'm young enough, free–spirited and open–minded enough that I'm still searching for all the answers.

"I think a lot of the songs on our album, I look back and I think, 'What was wrong with me?'" Lee says. "I didn't realize that the person I needed to save me was me. I was in a bad situation, and it was really about negative things that had happened to me. And a lot of it was kind of in the voice of a child asking for help."

Born in California, Lee arrived in Little Rock at age 13, where she met Moody at band camp. A loner, she was drawn to such alienation–saturated groups as Soundgarden and Nine Inch Nails.

"I didn't know anyone and I didn't fit in, and in some ways I didn't want to," she says.

She also loved the spooky soundtrack music of composer Danny Elfman.

Lee's father, John, is a disc jockey, and the family moved wherever his work took him. They lived in South Florida and in Illinois before settling in Arkansas

Her lyrics, Lee says, are "all part of the journey for me, and the journey will continue till the day I die. We're all searching for the answers."

Which leads to misunderstanding No. 2. With her bleak, pleading poetry poured over storm–tossed electric music, Lee's group has been embraced by the "goth" crowd, which prefers darkness and death over cheery, sun–lit love songs.

Is Evanescence a goth band?

"I don't think so, but you can see where they get it," Lee says. "They hear minor tones and they see a dark image.

"The lyrics are definitely a lot deeper and more dramatic than your everyday band. I guess that's how they associate it," she says. "We definitely are a dark band, for sure."

With Moody out of the picture, Lee is now the driving force behind Evanescence. She's dating Shaun Morgan, whose band, Seether, is opening the summer concerts.

After the tour winds down, Evanescence will begin recording the follow–up to "Fallen."

"I want the whole band to be part of it this time," Lee explains. "What I realized is that I have a band full of great musicians and writers. Everybody's kind of writing independently at this point, and we're going to throw it all in a big pot pretty soon and start writing together."

Her songs, she says, always begin life with just a lyric sheet and a piano.

"Ben's gone, but we never wrote together," she says. "It was always separately, just like what I'm doing right now.

"I'm not worried about it, I think it's actually a great big piece of freedom," she adds.

Despite her astonishing success, Lee swears she's not turning into a stereotypical rock star.

"I'm not the kind of person to let all that go to my head, because I think it's all silly," she says. "Besides maybe Bjork, I've never idolized a person – like, 'If I ever met this person, I would totally freak out.' I don't really get that. We're all just people, right?"