More than two decades on from releasing their million-selling debut album Fallen, Evanescence<\/a> are enjoying a surge of interest from a new generation of fans. The multi-platinum US rock giants are back with a brand new album, Sanctuary, which arrives off the back of star collaborations with Halsey, Bring Me The Horizon and more. To celebrate their return, and dig deeper into the business behind one of the planet\u2019s biggest heavy bands, Music Week meets Evanescence\u2019s inimitable leader Amy Lee<\/a>, alongside Jordan Berliant of Revelation Management and Julie Weir<\/a> of Music For Nations. What follows is a rip-roaring tale of reinvention, revolution and rewriting rock history\u2026<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n WORDS: JAMES HICKIE Ask Amy Lee<\/a> about her work with younger artists bolstering Evanescence’s considerable fanbase, and she pivots the conversation to discuss community first, then commerce.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s really cool but that feels like a side product to the heart of it all,\u201d Lee says of the additions to her band\u2019s now 26 million monthly Spotify listeners. It’s a figure helped by the continued popularity of 2003\u2019s Bring Me To Life, which has 2 billion streams on the platform, not to mention 2,583,856 UK sales, according to the Official Charts Company. My Immortal, also from 2003, has 1,060,398 sales, while debut album Fallen has 1,353,676.<\/p>\n Over the past two decades, Bring Me To Life has become a gateway streamer for young listeners in the same way as songs such as Nirvana\u2019s Smells Like Teen Spirit and Green Day\u2019s American Idiot. Evanescence<\/a> are looking to boost their presence on DSPs further still with the release of their sixth album, Sanctuary, out now via Music For Nations<\/a>\/Sony.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cFor me, the reason for all the collaboration is that it has been so life-giving,\u201d continues Lee, having taken a moment\u2019s break to get her son\u2019s dinner out of the oven. \u201cThe need to collaborate is something that started churning during pandemic times, when we were all separated and seeking connection. I found so much joy and release and inspiration through connecting with other artists. It\u2019s great to be able to reach out to an artist I\u2019m a fan of, or for them to reach out to me, and combine our spiritual forces.\u201d<\/p>\n These exercises in combining spiritual forces, as Lee puts it, have been numerous. In May\/June of last year, the soundtrack to the film Ballerina \u2013 a spin-off from the John Wick<\/a> franchise starring Ana de Armas \u2013 featured Lee\u2019s collaboration with Halsey on Hand That Feeds [11.3 million streams] and Evanescence\u2019s Fight Like A Girl [6.75m], featuring singer-rapper K.Flay. And just a few months later, in September, Lee joined forces with Poppy and Spiritbox<\/a>\u2019s Courtney LaPlante on End Of You [33.5m].\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we earn new fans at this stage, hearing new music we make and getting into us that way, that really feels like the goal,\u201d suggests Lee.<\/p>\n According to Jordan Berliant, Evanescence\u2019s manager, Sanctuary will also give the band cause to fulfil other, more altruistic goals.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf you listen to the lyrics on this new album, they reflect something that is very authentic and very specific to what\u2019s going on in the world right now \u2013 and not only what we as Americans have to live with every day, but how it affects people across the globe,\u201d Berliant says. \u201cFrom that standpoint, this album is called Sanctuary for a very specific reason.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n He adds that one of the ways the band is actively trying to do good, is raising money for people who can\u2019t afford healthcare.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOn this tour, $1 from every ticket is going to support entities and organisations that provide healthcare for people that don\u2019t have insurance or whose subsidies were cruelly taken away from them,\u201d he explains.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n One of the things I\u2019ve been a proponent of for a long time is for a band to own their own rights<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n John Berliant, Revelation Management<\/p>\n
\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Berliant became Evanescence<\/a>\u2019s manager in 2015 after co-founding Revelation Management Group, and speaks to Music Week<\/em> from an office adorned with pictures of the executive in the company of various presidents and popes. When he and Amy Lee first crossed paths, she was seeking new representation, having stepped away from music to start a family, although she wasn\u2019t sure whether she wanted to restart the Evanescence machine or do something else.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lee started out with an EP of covers under her own name, called Recover Vol. 1, which featured her take on Led Zeppelin\u2019s Going To California. The cover was a suggestion by Berliant \u2013 also a musician \u2013 who had recorded his own version and ended up playing guitar on the track. This was followed by Lee\u2019s album for children, 2016\u2019s Dream Too Much, featuring a handful of covers but predominantly comprising songs written with members of her immediate family.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of Amy\u2019s great skills as a writer is her ability to write for situations,\u201d suggests Berliant. \u201cShe has explored that a lot in the recent past, doing collaborations with artists outside of her core genre, including [violinist and songwriter] Lindsey Stirling [on the 2019 track Love Goes On And On], whose music is clearly not rock. And then there are the artists who are closer to her core genre, like Bring Me The Horizon<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n Lee appeared on One Day The Only Butterflies Left Will Be In Your Chest As You March Towards Death [42.6 million], the final track from BMTH’s 2020 release, Post Human: Survival Horror<\/a>. The collaboration led to her joining the Sheffield band on stage during their headline slot at Download Festival 2023, where Jordan Fish, then a member of the band, first met her.<\/p>\n \u201cWe spent some time backstage chatting and got on really well,\u201d recalls Fish, who exited the band later in 2023. \u201cI remember Amy saying back then that she felt we\u2019d work together one day and that it would be something special; it just took a few years for the timing to line up.\u201d<\/p>\n That moment arrived with the co-writing and production of Hand That Feeds and, later, End Of You, before teaming up with Zakk Cervini [Bad Omens, Machine Gun Kelly, Yungblud] to work on Sanctuary. Production duties on the latter were also handled by Nick Raskulinecz, who helmed two of Evanescence\u2019s previous albums, 2011\u2019s Evanescence and 2021\u2019s The Bitter Truth, as well as records by Foo Fighters<\/a>, Ghost<\/a>, Deftones, Korn<\/a> and Halestorm.<\/p>\n \u201cAmy is an incredible writer and producer in her own right; she records all of her own vocals at her studio herself,\u201d says Fish. \u201cI think she appreciated my perspective, taste and ideas, but when we\u2019re all in the room together it feels very equal. For me, Evanescence have never felt like a trend-chasing band. Amy\u2019s voice and passion are such a defining part of their identity. I think that\u2019s why new generations continue to connect with it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n That connection is being facilitated by the label put in place for the release of Sanctuary.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the things I\u2019ve been a proponent of for a long time is for a band to own their own rights rather than signing a global deal with a label where the label owns it and releases it globally,\u201d explains Berliant. \u201cI\u2019ve wanted to try to make our clients domestic artists in as many places as possible, because the economics of the industry are such that if you sign a global deal with one company, there isn\u2019t one territory outside of the home territory to which you sign that isn\u2019t more financially incentivised to work its own roster and repertoire than its cousins.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The result is multiple different record deals, including a licensing deal with BMG in North and South America, a licensing deal with Sony in Germany, and working with Music For Nations (which is part of Sony) in the UK.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve always worked with Sony Germany on the more rock and alternative artists, so it\u2019s a logical fit for us,\u201d says Julie Weir, director of Music For Nations. \u201cAnd it works. It does mean that there\u2019s probably three times as many people as would normally be involved in these equations, and we\u2019re working with Global on merch as well, which is another huge entity.\u201d<\/p>\n Berliant agrees on the workload.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s five times the amount of work because we have to work directly with all of these companies,\u201d he admits. \u201cBut I believe you get five times the benefit for the artist.\u201d<\/p>\n Those logistics are further complicated by Sanctuary having two releases \u2013 on digital and CD release today (June 5) to coincide with the band\u2019s US tour, then on vinyl on September 4 to align with their UK tour \u2013 including vinyl variants for Amazon, HMV, indies, and a deluxe version including a poster and a booklet.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cLuckily, the US will create a wave of press as the record will be out and the band will be touring,\u201d explains Weir of the reciprocal effect these two bites of the cherry will have. \u201cAnd then we\u2019ll feed back to the US in September.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/strong><\/em>PHOTOS: TRAVIS SHINN<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
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