Rockers Evanescence fear humanity is descending into a real life version of The Matrix movie, but singer Amy Lee is ready to battle any fakery.
Back with new album, Sanctuary – dubbed a “sanctuary of truth and community” – the music blends their signature gothic roots with modern electronic production. Recent single, Who Will You Follow sums up themes of anxiety and hope which pervade the record according to Amy: “I feel like Who Will You Follow is more than anything like the plot of The Matrix.
“It’s waking up, it’s the disillusionment of this and wanting that.
“I want us to look at each other in the eyes as human beings and go, ‘Is this real life? You’re a real human being. Great let’s have a glass of wine and get through this sh*t together’.
“Because running away from it and pretending like it isn’t happening, and just going along with the lies while they step on your neck isn’t working. Love is strong, people are powerful remember we have each other.”
Keanu Reeves would be proud of Amy who believes we’re bombarded with too much information, and soon nobody will know what is real or fake.
“Like who will you follow if you don’t even know what is real?” she said. “How can you base any action if you don’t even know what’s true, if you don’t even know what’s AI, you don’t know what is being fed to you on your feed.”
Lee appreciates the sense of community social media can offer but also fears the stranglehold it has on people. “It’s so hard I’m just as guilty I have to stop myself,” she said pointing at her own phone. “Holy sh*t an hour just went by and I don’t even know what I just looked at, but I’m mad and scared.
“I feel like all of this input is such a drain, at the same time we do have to face reality…we are exhausted, we need change. First of all let’s face it together.”
Like the title says, the new music offers a Sanctuary and features collaborations with Jordan Fish (formerly of Bring Me The Horizon) who helped Evanescence to pivot into a more electronic-driven direction. So too did celebrated producer Zack Cervini whose illustrious credits include Simple Plan and Blink 182.
”It was such a beautiful new energy,” recalled Amy. “It came out of an experiment. I’m in a moment where I’m saying ‘yes’ to things that sound like they could be cool.
“Jordan and Zack – the first session we had was very much, ‘nice to meet you all let’s see what happens’. It was really fast, – the first day we had almost all of the Tell Me When You’ve Had Enough, it was killer fast paced energy.
“When you’ve got that energy I know I’m gonna chase this until we got enough.”
The duo also helped Evanescence reconnect with their roots too: “The fact that they get us as producers but also as fans. To be able to see yourself through somebody else’s eyes who loves and respects it was really good for me. I feel like this album has a very future feeling but at the same time more roots than there has been since the first one.”
Evanescence will play four UK arena shows in September.
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