AMY LEE on EVANESCENCE's current lineup: “we feel complete at this point”
20-06-2025
In a new interview with Ned of Iowa’s Rock 108 radio station, EVANESCENCE singer Amy Lee spoke about the band’s current lineup, which features Emma Anzai of SICK PUPPIES on bass and EVANESCENCE‘s longtime bassist Tim McCord on guitar. Regarding how Emma came to join EVANESCENCE, Amy said: “I have been her fan for a million years. We really got to know each other in 2007. We’ve known each other forever. We toured together back then on the same tour. (SICK PUPPIES) were opening for us, and we really hung out and really made friends on a deeper level, especially back then. But still, women in heavy music are a pretty tight-knit group, ’cause there aren’t that many of us still. There’s more and more and more, which is amazing, but especially back then, it was just this rare bird to see in the wild and be, like, ‘Hey, come here. You’re one of me. Can we talk for a second?’ So me and Emma became friends right away.”
Amy continued: “She’s extremely talented, extremely professional. She is in it for playing the bass. She’s an incredible stage performer. Everything about her — I just love Emma. And we talked over the years about, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a side band?’ just with all the chicks, the whole thing. And that never worked out, but I just always wanted to work together. And we were finally in a position where it was, like, we needed somebody. And I called her first. I was, like, ‘Hey.’ Well, first of all, I was, like, ‘Would you play guitar?’ And she’s, like, ‘No. I’m a bass player.’ And I spoke to Tim, and he was, like, ‘Oh my God. This is what I want. I’ve been wanting to switch it up. Guitar is my original instrument. This is perfect. I need a change. And nobody’s better than Emma. And I would be very critical of any bass player after playing bass in this band for that many years.’ So it was just a very came-together-perfectly moment. And we’ve all just felt blessed by her presence. I have a real, a true sister in the band. It’s been great. We’re a good team. And Emma kicks ass. So that has been a huge bonus for us. We feel complete at this point.”
Back in 2023, Emma told Bass Magazine about how she landed the gig with EVANESCENCE: “It was quite the surprise when it happened. When they needed a bass player after Tim switched from bass to guitar, I got the call and agreed to join them. SICK PUPPIES had toured with them long ago for one of our first tours, and I remember Amy being super cool. She’s still the same now with support bands, the crews, and everyone she comes in contact with. I always remember that, because it was 13 or 14 years ago, and the women-in-music thing was different back then; we used to have conversations about it all the time. It’s funny because it’s evolved a little now, but we still currently have conversations about it. Being a woman — especially with me touring with all guys and having no other women around back then — it was great sharing our experiences and having her to hang around with. I was a lot younger, and I like to think I’ve learned a lot since then and grown a bit. At the time I was a little naïve, but she was helpful in solidifying what I had already felt. It’s nice to come full circle and share these new experiences together. She’s been such an anchor for me for so many years.”
Guitarist Jen Majura‘s departure from EVANESCENCE was announced in May 2022 via social media. At the time, the band said in a statement: “It has been a very special chapter in the band with our dear friend Jen Majura, but we have decided it’s time to go our separate ways.”
A month later, Jen spoke about her split with EVANESCENCE during an appearance on THE HAUNTED guitarist Ola Englund‘s YouTube show “Coffee With Ola”. At the time, she said that she was still “hurt” by the move and compared the situation to a divorce.
“I believe, honestly, it’s three weeks now since I got the news, and I’m still in this blurry, oblivious momentum,” she said. “I guess I’m still in shock, kind of, because after being married six years, all of a sudden you’re divorced. You know me, I always try to find the positive in a situation, so every day, step by step — I’m not doing great yet — but every day I find little tiny things that I’m, like, ‘Oh, actually, this is good.'”
Asked how she found out that her services were no longer needed in EVANESCENCE, Jen said: “Honestly, I was cleaning my apartment, and I got the phone call. And first of all, I was, like, ‘Is this a bad joke?’ And I remember, after I got the news, I hung up, and I have this hallway in between my studio and my living room, and I just lay there on the floor, staring at the ceiling, wondering what that was, and literally looking over to my suitcase that I had already started packing, because I was two weeks from going out on the road until pretty much the end of the year.”
EVANESCENCE‘s Amy Lee and Grammy-nominated singer Halsey have recently released the official Hannah Lux Davis-directed music video for their collaborative song “Hand That Feeds”. The track is taken from the new John Wick spin-off movie “Ballerina”
Watch “Hand That Feeds” below.
Last month EVANESCENCE launched a performance video for the track “Afterlife”. The clip was directed by Jason Lester and produced by Dreambear. “Afterlife” is featured in Netflix‘s adult animated urban fantasy action television series “Devil May Cry”, which debuted at No. 4 week of release.
Watch “Afterlife” below.
The video for “Afterlife” was shot in a historic (and supposedly haunted) house in Tennessee, and features some easter eggs that fans of “Devil May Cry” are sure to enjoy.
“Afterlife” is featured in multiple episodes of the animated adaptation of the popular Capcom game Devil May Cry, from the vision of Adi Shankar. Sinister forces are at play to open the portal between the human and demon realms. In the middle of it all is Dante, an orphaned demon-hunter-for-hire, unaware that the fate of both worlds hangs around his neck.
Watch the previously released lyric video for “Afterlife” below.
In the animated adaptation of the popular Capcom game and from the vision of Adi Shankar, sinister forces are at play to open the portal between the human and demon realms. In the middle of it all is Dante, an orphaned demon-hunter-for-hire, unaware that the fate of both worlds hangs around his neck.
To date, EVANESCENCE has released a total of five studio albums, including the multi-platinum “The Open Door” (2004) and “Evanescence” (2011), both of which topped the Billboard 200. In 2021, the band thrilled fans with their first album of new material in a decade, “The Bitter Truth”. Now 20 years on, EVANESCENCE continues to scale new heights. Featuring a lineup of Amy Lee (vocals, keyboards), Tim McCord (guitar/bass), Will Hunt (drums), Troy McLawhorn (guitars) and Emma Anzai (bass, backing vocals), the band continues to travel the globe, staging some of the most successful shows of their career, having wrapped a run of sold-out shows in Latin America, including Allianz Parque, a soccer stadium in Sāo Paulo, Brazil, which was the biggest headline show of EVANESCENCE‘s career to date, drawing 40,000 fans.
Shortly following its release in March 2021, “The Bitter Truth” rose to the top of the iTunes Album charts in 22 countries and also landed the top spot on Billboard‘s Top Hard Rock Albums chart.
EVANESCENCE first topped the Hard Rock Albums chart in October 2011 with its self-titled effort. The album stayed atop the list for three weeks.
“The Bitter Truth” was recorded during the pandemic and confronted the dark realities of the world head-on. Yet its resounding message was one of light: pushing through is better than giving up.
