EVANESCENCE Singer Says The Band Is Less Of A Dictatorship Without BEN MOODY

EVANESCENCE singer Amy Lee has told The Oklahoman that the departure of founding guitarist Ben Moody in October 2003 altered the band's dynamic. Now, guitarist John LeCompt, bassist William Boyd, drummer Rocky Gray, and Moody's replacement, former COLD guitarist Terry Balsamo, are part of the creative process.

"Without Ben, we're all free," she said. "We're all part of a band — it's not so much of a monarchy. We're all becoming ... I don't know how to describe it other than just more of a band.

"I wish I hadn't said 'monarchy,'" Lee said, backtracking for a moment. "It's hard for me to describe. I would have said 'dictatorship,' but that wouldn't work, because I was involved, too. It was more along the lines of, Ben and I did everything and told everyone else what to do. As much as, at times, I would have liked to change that, it really wasn't something Ben wanted to do."

Although Lee and her bandmates have written new songs, she said audiences will have to wait to hear those new songs until the album is finished next year.

"It's a lot of work to get up all the instruments and programming of a new song, just because the way our band works is not two guitars, a bass and a singer," she said. "You kind of have to put a lot of production into our set, since most of our songs have a choir and strings and everything else."

Lee added that any new EVANESCENCE songs they could have played would not be fully formed. Many ideas have yet to be fleshed out, and for Lee, inspiration only comes with time.

"You can't make yourself," she said. "I can't say, 'Well, you spin around twice, crack an egg on your head ...' When you're distracted all the time with work and your relationships with people, you're too distracted to ever be artistically inspired."