EVANESCENCE Singer Prepares For A New Beginning

In a recent interview with the Associated Press, EVANSCENCE frontwoman Amy Lee said that not having band co-founder Ben Moody around for the songwriting process for the group's sophomore major-label effort gives her liberty.

"Ben has a certain kind of pop structure that he follows that I wouldn't," the 22-year-old singer said. "He would always be corralling my ideas. It's going to be cool this time to have more freedom, just in that there's more people writing like a real band. Everybody's involved and we have a good successful album under our belt, so there's less pressure.

"When Ben left the band we were all relieved," she continued. "It was a really uncomfortable situation for everybody. It was completely unstable and unhappy. It was a scary time before he left the band because I knew something was going to happen and I didn't know what and I was afraid everything we worked for had the potential of going down the toilet."

Lee calls Los Angeles home now, where she says she paints and designs her own clothes.

"I've always been like an artist, like a painter, I-sew-my-own-skirt-because-I-couldn't-find-what-I-was-looking-for kind of person," she said. "I don't consider myself like a fashion designer. I do have a little dream that someday maybe I could open a store in Seattle. But I'd only make one of each thing. I just don't like repeating myself."

Despite rumors and an obvious talent for acting in her videos, she says she has no interest in becoming a professional actress.

"I really don't like the whole Hollywood scene at all," she said. "It might be cool to do some fun indie thing, maybe some joke appearance. But as me being a new center-stage diva now-on-screen girl, no never. I'd like to play a girl who gets shot at the beginning of a horror movie. I'd like to be in it for five minutes and get mauled." Read more.