EVANESCENCE Singer Says She Won't Care What People Think Of New Songs

EVANESCENCE frontwoman Amy Lee has admitted to The Sun Herald that although founding member/guitarist Ben Moody's departure from the group was a "relief," it has added another layer of expectation for the band's next album.

It was Moody and Lee who envisioned a goth-metal sound that incorporated the classical themes that she had absorbed in years of childhood piano lessons. The relationship between Mozart and metal still resonates for Lee.

"They only sound different because of the instruments used," she said. "Obviously, there's the screaming of metal, but they are both very passionate and riff-driven. There's a tangent, then you hit a seam, then another seam, then you come back to the theme at the end."

On the new album, which doesn't yet have a release date, Lee wants to re-assert her role in the band without Moody.

"There was this idea that I was the frontman while behind the scenes Ben was doing all the work," Lee said. "That's the only pressure I feel. There's no amount of words that I can say that will make people believe I was as much a part of it as he was, so they will just have to wait and hear the next album."

According to Lee, she isn't letting high expectations cloud her vision for the band's next album, but it's not easy.

"I have had to put it out of my mind," she said. "I don't want to care, really. I don't feel pressured, like 'Oh, what will I do if people don't like me.'

"The next record I put out, I'm going to love just like I loved 'Fallen'. If everybody slams it and says, 'It's not like 'Fallen', that's a real shame,' I'm just going to tune it out. I'm not in this to please other people. I like our music; I love our band; I love to write; I can't help but write.

"If people don't like it, tough beans," she says, laughing. "How's that for the immortal words of an evil princess of the undead? 'Tough beans.' "