Amy on Power 97, Interviewed by Casey Norman (August 9th)

– Amy: Hey!

– Casey: Hello, Amy. How are you today?

– Amy: I’m great, how are you?

– Casey: I’m pretty good.

– Amy: Thanks for having me on.

– Casey: Not a problem. How is your day going? Many interviews?

– Amy: Nope, just you! You’re special today.

– Casey: Have you got in back to the swing of things with all these interviews and being on MTV this week.

– Amy: Yeah. No, it’s been good. We just did the big MTV premiere thing last night and it went great. I was definetely a little bit nervous about it ’cause, you know, premiering the song, you know, in a live kind of version is always a little bit scary but I think we did great. We had a really good time, I think it was awesome with a few fans.

– Casey: And you just announced the North American tour and some European dates. And here in Winnepeg, we are glad to have you for MTS Rock on the Range, it’s two saturdays from now. Is this gonna be the first official Evanescence show since your break?

– Amy: Yeah, it is actually! Actually, there is one show right before ’cause we need a little warm-up fan show before that to, you know, kind of get comfortable in front of thousands of Canadians. So, we’re gonna play a quick Nashville show first because it was the place we rehearsed. So, yeah, we’re gonna have one show right before you guys and that will be the first big one.

– Casey: So, you’re in Nashville right now?

– Amy: Yes.

– Casey: And that’s were you guys did the record too, right?

– Amy: Yeah. All our stuff was here and especially the pre-production at this rehearsal space where we are. It’s cool because with all our stuff here and… It’s cool, this has been definetely a very Nashville experience, this whole thing. It’s been great.

– Casey: And you enjoyed working with Nick? He’s a pretty big producer name.

– Amy: Yeah, he is awesome. He’s really fun. I mean, he is definetely a guy with a ton of passion, energy and he is a music fan for sure, so. I kept it on the whole time but yeah, I think he is an incredible producer. We all really, really loved working with him.

– Casey: You have said that this is kind of an album for the fans. How was this new one which, I guess, is out in October. How is this Evanescence album for the fans?

– Amy: Well, it’s kind of hard to explain. It’s really difficult to sum up the record, you know, in a moment, you know, in a word but the fans… We’ve watched them, you know, just, kind of, come out of nowhere, I mean,  as far as we know in the last couple of years or so, like, gearing up for this thing, letting them know we’re coming back which so many of them that have been waiting for us, still caring about us after all this time and it truly  meant a lot to me. It’s really cool to interact with them again. So, anyway, I guess a lot of the lyric writing happened especially towards the end of things. More and more, I realised that I was actually writing about the relationship, you know, between the fans at times and about wanting to come back and I don’t know, loving them. I think you can hear a little bit of that in “What You Want”. It’s about coming back and, you know, being afraid to come back, you know, it’s cool, we really feel like we have a great support team with our fans. So, yeah, they are definetely a big part of this.

– Casey: Have you kept active with the website over these past few years in e-mails? Have you had a bit of contact with the fanbase?

– Amy: Yeah, especially now in Twitter, [… Youtube? Or is she making a bird sound? WTH]. Yeah, it’s cool that nowadays there are so many different ways to keep in touch. It’s neat. It’s sort of like, all on the way now I can, you know, take a quick picture or quickly tweet about something or whatever and kind of let the fans see where we are and what’s going on and sort of see the making-of all along the way. It’s very cool.

– Casey. There was word that you were working on material that was scrapped, something that was a little bit more electronica I guess. So, have a lot of these songs that are on the new album? Have they been with you? Have they been taken somewhat from what you’ve been working on previously?

– Amy: Yeah. I wouldn’t even say scrapped. There is a lot of really cool music. Some of it made it, yeah, all the way and some of it will just have to be for the next time. We just ended up with a whole lot of stuff because, well, it’s all about finding the right inspiration and searching for our new thing, our new time, our new sound. We’ve finally found it and it was like, I think it’s a cool combination of a few things including Evanescence, you know, what we’ve always been but at the same time, yeah, there is some new influences. A little bit of different electronic influence. We’ve always had an electronic influence but yeah. And some songs from that time that are on the record and some, I guess, will be on the next record, on a different record. Maybe […] or something like that. I’m not really sure yet but we do have tons of songs. Used and unused so far.

– Casey: You’ve been away from the limelight for a few years. How was life as a normal person?

– Amy: It’s good, it’s great. It’s mainly great to be back right now but I definetely took a minute, step away from the all thing and go “Alright, who am I?” and I think that was really good for me. I think I’d be crazy if I didn’t do that. I’ve definetely been all about Evanescence or has been I think by the end of 2007 since I was very young, in high school and everything. So, yeah, a normal life is good. I live in New York, I’m married now, I’ve got two cats and I’ve learnt how to play the harp and that’s cool, and I actually contributed to the record a little bit.

– Casey: What are your cats’ names?

– Amy: Shermy and Stella!

– Casey: Do they get the fancy cat food or is it just the regular Whiskas?

– Amy: If depends on if they are good or not! Yeah, fancy food on good nights.

– Casey: So, you enjoyed, as a quote from the Rolling Stone magazine, “buying your own groceries for a while”?

– Amy: Yeah, it’s funny the things you end up missing when you’re on the road. For sure, I think, for me, just being domestic in general. I love to cook, I relly love cooking for people. Yeah but just in general, being at your house, like, making my curtains, just stuff that you do when you’re home. It was cool to do all those things but I’m itching for the road again, like, in a while. It’s been too long.

– Casey: Well, we are waiting. We’re very excited because we’ve known you’ve been coming for several, several months now and it’s only a couple of Saturdays away. Amy Lee, thank you so much for calling in the show.

– Amy: Thank you, man. I’ll see you soon.

– Casey: Evanescence, part of MTS Rock on the Range on the 20th at MTS Center.  Alice in Chains will be headlining Evanescence just before that.

– Amy: Bye!