Evanescence's Lee Laughs At 'Idol,' Promises Less Fluff In 'Sweet' Clip
Singer also promises fewer wolves in new video; band touring U.S. through early April.
By Corey Moss, with additional reporting by Yasmine Richard
With their latest video, Evanescence have finally done what most artists do with their first.
"It's mostly live performance," singer Amy Lee said recently on the set of their "Sweet Sacrifice" video. "It's not so much fluff and flying and tricks and wolves and stuff. It's more really just about the song, and that is unique for us. We usually do crazy stuff."
The video does have a "cool twist," which Lee refused to reveal, but it will mainly feature the band performing on a set inspired by 2000's psychotherapist thriller "The Cell." "Like we're in the walls of our minds, sort of," Lee said.
Paul Brown, who has directed videos for Audioslave and Matisyahu, helmed the project, which will feature scenes of the live footage projected onto a wall.
"It's gonna be sort of like a video within the video," Lee said. "Since the song is our heaviest single, we really wanted to focus on mostly performance but still have something about it that's really unique. And I think [Paul] really hit the nail on the head."
The only connection to the other videos for 2006's The Open Door — for "Call Me When You're Sober" (see "Evanescence's Amy Lee Isn't Afraid Of Big Bad Wolf In 'Sober' Clip") and "Lithium" (see "After Facing Big Bad Wolf, Amy Lee Faces Herself In Evanescence Clip ") — is that Lee's wearing a big dress in them, she joked. "But is that really an Evanescence thing?" she pondered.
"Sweet Sacrifice," the first track on the album, has been a favorite of Lee's since she first demoed it, although it never stood out as an obvious single.
"I think it's very strong and empowering and sort of saying goodbye to all the times in my life that I've been a victim," Lee said. "I just think it's heavy."
Evanescence just hit the road for a short U.S. jaunt that will last until April 5 in Glens Falls, New York (see "Evanescence Announce Dates For Spring North American Tour"). That trek will be followed by tours of South America, South Africa, Europe and then the States again.
Along with The Open Door singles, Lee says she's enjoyed performing the album track "Your Star" in concert. "It has crazy, difficult, classical piano, so it's fun for me 'cause it's challenging in a different way," she said.
In between shows, Lee did manage to see a recent episode of "American Idol" in which Gina Glocksen earned rave reviews for performing "Sober."
"I never watch TV, but a friend of mine TiVo'd it and then had me watch it just for fun one night," Lee said. "It's such a surreal thing watching other people perform your songs in the first place, but people that you don't even know on TV doing 'American Idol' and Paula Abdul commenting on it is just a whole other thing. It was pretty hilarious, just 'cause it's our song, but I don't think she did a bad job."
HOLLYWOOD — Amy Lee is returning to the forest, only this time there's no Big Bad Wolf.
"There's the me in all white and it's really wintry," the Evanescence singer said on the set of the "Lithium" video on Wednesday, pointing to an elaborate array of snow-covered trees. "And then there's the all-in-black Amy under the surface of the water of this lake in the forest. So it's the happiness and the sorrow and we're almost singing to each other, trying to figure out how both of us can work."
Unlike the Little Red Riding Hood concept for the "Call Me When You're Sober" video, which was an abstract take on somewhat literal lyrics, the follow-up is a literal take on somewhat abstract lyrics.
"So it's not so in-your-face to make the video more literal," Lee justified of the video, which Paul Fedor (Sarah McLachlan, Seether) directed based on her concept. "Really, though, I think it's all about touching somebody and I hope it does that."
"Lithium," the second single from the recently released The Open Door, is about making the choice between the comfort of sorrow and the idea of happiness.
"You get in these cycles where you're stuck in bad situations or relationships or whatever and it's hard to make yourself get out even though it's negative and hard," Lee explained. "So that's sort of what it's about, breaking free."
She chose the title "Lithium," which is also the name of a classic Nirvana song, because it's "a metaphor for happiness from a negative point of view." "It's looking at it like, 'I don't want to numb myself and not feel anymore,' " added Lee, adorned in an elegant white dress, pale white makeup and bright red lipstick.
Evanescence decided to release "Lithium" only recently, as Lee struggled with the single-selection process.
"It was a really, really hard call because there were like four different songs I thought would be awesome for the second single," she explained. "But I think we got a couple [more] singles to go."
"Call Me When You're Sober," which Evanescence also shot in Hollywood, has been a "TRL" hit, and The Open Door followed accordingly, debuting atop the Billboard albums chart (see "Evanescence Butcher The Killers In Battle For Billboard #1").
"It's been a big wonderful surprise," Lee said of the success. "I definitely wrote the record thinking about myself and what I wanted and pushing myself to do better than what I've done. And I almost expected a lot of people to hate it because I love it so much and I wasn't trying to do it for anyone else. And you have to imagine if you're not making any compromises, there's going to be haters, because it's definitely different from the first record. But everything I've heard has been very positive and it's a great feeling to have other people appreciate it too."
Evanescence left Thursday (November 2) for a European tour that kicks off Sunday in Germany.
As you may know, Evanescence's new album The Open Door, was just released today, Tuesday, October 3rd, 2006. So go out and support Evanescence by purchasing the new album. It's on sale this week, and by the time of next week prices will have gone up, so hurry!
Some of you may not be aware that all the songs on The Open Door were leaked on Monday, September 4, 2006 (Labor Day). I uploaded the songs for anyone who missed the excitement, but decided to delete the links.
