AMY LEE Says 2019 Is 'An Open Year For Getting Inspired And Being Creative' With EVANESCENCE

EVANESCENCE singer Amy Lee has confirmed to the 93.3 WMMR Rocks! radio station that the band will soon begin work on the follow-up to 2011's self-titled effort. "We all really wanna do it," she said (hear audio below). "And it's not one of those things where it's, like, 'Someday, maybe we'll do something again.' Everybody's onboard, and we're getting together to do a few shows next year in [the rock] style — partially because I think it'll be good for us to get back to that root, just get back to playing EVANESCENCE-style rock and roll and just jive together again."

She continued: "I really love my band; I really hanging out with them; and I really like making music with them. When we get together, a lot of times, it's just that we're just starting out some big tour, so it's a lot of rehearsing and remembering and repeating. But we're filled, as we hang out and play together, with ideas and inspiration that we don't really have time on a show day to get together and jam and flesh out any ideas. So I think it's gonna be cool that instead of getting on a long tour, next year is sort of an open year for getting inspired and being creative and getting together to play a few shows also. So we have the time to get together and feel each other, be a band, but also there's room all around us for us to go, 'Okay. That was fun. I've got an idea. How about next week? Is everybody free? Let's get together. Let's jam. Let's see how it goes.' Because we can. So I'm looking forward to that. The timeline is just that. We're gonna really spend next year trying to focus on figuring out exactly what we want it to sound like, trying to write some songs and see what happens. So, I don't know… We're just gonna be working on it next year. Hopefully by the end… I'm sure by the end of the year, we'll kind of know what's going on. [Laughs]"

Lee went on to say that she is open to the idea of releasing singles and EPs instead of full-length albums, especially as streaming services like Spotify continue to alter the way people consume music.

"I like the fact that things have changed," she said. "I'm an old-school person when it comes to music in a lot of ways. I like albums, I like stories, I like it when something can be cool by itself but also be a part of something bigger and make sense in a different context. But it doesn't always have to be like that, because I myself, I don't always listen to music that way anymore. It's not like I'm always sitting and listening to a whole album. You can love a song by somebody and there's only, like, one or two songs that you like by that artist, and that's okay. I'm open-minded about it. I feel like it's always been sort of our method to think of things in terms of an album, but I'm not stuck to that completely this time. What if you had an idea…? It's cool that you have the ability to think like this. What if you had an idea about part of the songs that you're making — like, four of them or something — to be one style, and then you had an idea for four songs over here to be this totally other style? And then take some time to do some covers. I just think it's cool to be able to have this freedom to commit to less and do more. I'm totally open to doing a few songs instead of an album here and there, and see what happens."

EVANESCENCE has spent much of the last two years recording and touring in support of "Synthesis", which contained some of the band's best-loved songs — as well as a couple of new ones — reinvented with full orchestra over a deep electronic landscape.

"Synthesis" sold 34,000 equivalent album units in its first week of release to land at position No. 8 on the Billboard 200 chart. Of that sum, 30,000 were in traditional album sales. EVANESCENCE's 2011 self-titled release debuted at No. 1. "Synthesis" was the group's fourth top 10 effort, following "Evanescence", "The Open Door" (No. 1 in 2006) and "Fallen" (No. 3, 2003).