Evanescence have offered up the first official sample of their upcoming album, Sanctuary, and Amy Lee stopped by our Los Angeles studios to unpack their latest effort during an Audacy Check In with Kevin Ryder.
LISTEN NOW: Audacy Check In with Evanescence
Set to arrive on June 5, Sanctuary finds the band in a “huge creative burst,” thanks in part to collaboration with producers Nick Raskulinecz, Zakk Cervini, and Jordan Fish. “We've worked with some incredible people this time around, Three producers actually,” Amy explains. “So as a team, being in there with them and creating these songs, and we just had a huge creative burst. It has been, just a, I don't know, like a new energy. It's hard to really explain, but it feels really special.”
It starts now with the new single, “Who Will You Follow,” which Amy reveals is about breaking through the lies to what’s real. “I feel like we're just inundated with so much information now, with people that have a stake in what we believe,” Lee says. “It feels like truth is for sale. So this for me is about breaking through that into the real world and, the album, you know, it's called ‘Sanctuary,’ it's like that. It's a sanctuary, not an escape from this chaotic, surreal, violent time, but escape from the lies, saying that we're not living in that crazy time.”
“It is a sanctuary of truth and community,” she adds. “Moving from the song to album, I just feel like this music is a sanctuary for me. It has been. It is every time, you know, last time we made an album, it was the pandemic hitting all around us at the same time and kind of wondering what's next and how do we go on tour and will things ever be normal again. I think when we're in these big, in my life, powerful and painful and difficult moments, and also in the outside world going through these wild moments where we feel like we don't have control and things are slipping through our fingers, the music is a place for me to be able to say anything. No censorship, no holding back. Nobody's telling me I can't, anything. It's our world, and it just feels so beautiful also to give somebody else something that gives them joy.”
For much more from Amy Lee of Evanescence, check out the full conversation above.
‘Sanctuary’ arrives everywhere on June 5
‘Sanctuary’ arrives everywhere on June 5
