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Post by Admin on Mar 27, 2021 21:08:44 GMT
Chart-topping rock bands The Pretty Reckless and Evanescence are both back with new albums, Death by Rock and Roll and The Bitter Truth, respectively. In celebration of the two releases, frontwomen Taylor Momsen and Amy Lee came together via Zoom to discuss their new LPs and much more for the new Consequence artist-on-artist interview series “Peer 2 Peer”. The Pretty Reckless unleashed Death by Rock and Roll on February 12th, featuring the No. 1 hit title track, the current Top 5 single “And So It Went” (featuring Tom Morello), and the deeply personal “25”. Among the other standouts on the LP is “Only Love Can Save Me Now”, a song featuring Soundgarden members Matt Cameron and Kim Thayil. Meanwhile, Evanescence’s The Bitter Truth has just arrived, marking the band’s first LP of new material in nearly 10 years. Prior to its release, a steady stream of singles were unleashed over the past year — including the hard-rocking “Wasted on You” and the empowering anthem “Use My Voice”, which features guest vocals from Momsen, Lzzy Hale, and others. Upon logging on for the Zoom chat, the two singers caught up on their personal lives, with Momsen checking in from Maine, and Lee at her new home in Nashville. The two bands had toured together roughly 10 years ago, around the same time Evanescence released their last proper studio album. As both rockers were long-time New Yorkers, it turns out that Taylor shipped Amy some New York pizza, for which the Evanescence singer was supremely grateful. The pair also talked about overcoming loss over the past few years. Taylor was deeply affected by the deaths of The Pretty Reckless producer Kato Khandwala in 2018 and Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell in 2017. The Pretty Reckless were opening for Soundgarden on tour at the time of Cornell’s tragic passing.
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Post by Admin on Mar 28, 2021 4:52:28 GMT
Interview with Amy Lee & Troy McLawhorn (Evanescence)
Amy Lee and Troy McLawhorn of Evanescence take time (on album release day!) to chat with Jordan about the brand new album, 'The Bitter Truth'. The album is the band's first full-length album of new material since 2011. 'The Bitter Truth' is available now!
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Post by Admin on Mar 28, 2021 19:36:36 GMT
On how the pandemic influenced the album It pushed a lot of feelings to the surface. The band has experienced a lot of grief in our time way, especially in the past few years. I lost my brother. Our bass player, Tim [McCord], their family lost a child. And then when the pandemic hit, it was like the whole world — all were experiencing loss. We were all feeling that end of the world kind of feeling. And suddenly I felt like the music was more important than ever, not just for me, but for our fans. And it really drove us and built a lot of fire in us.
On the band's first political anthem, "Use My Voice" When I first started writing that song, it was after reading Chanel Miller's incredible impact statement, her testimony at the end of her trial. She's a sexual assault survivor, [formerly known as Emily Doe, the victim of Brock Turner's assault outside a Stanford University frat party in 2015]. And, when she stood up and just read the words of her experience and what it felt like and what it meant to her as a human being, it just occurred to me that words have so much power that over anything else that could have possibly thrown at her, her words were stronger. I've been through quite a few legal battles and more behind the scenes with this band just having to fight for my right to use my own voice and not try to represent something that's going to benefit somebody else. My journey and my experience with this has been so layered and had so many chapters at this point. One thing that's really been consistent is having to fight constantly... [Y]es, I'm a girl standing up front with all these guys behind me. Typically, that doesn't mean they're the ones with the brains and I'm just the ones singing. I made it, like I fought the fight and I won the fight. But the fight was exhausting. It's, if I'm being honest, part of the reason that we haven't released an album every couple of years. But the feeling that it is now to have that burden lifted is incredible because I really have so much more energy to focus on the music itself.
On the inspiration for the sound and look of Fallen in music videos I remember my grandmother ... sat me down and showed me the film Amadeus. And I was so obsessed. I wanted to be Mozart, I wanted to be a composer, and then I got really hit and struck by the alternative music scene in the 90s. From like Soundgarden, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Garbage, just all this incredible rock music heavy .... and honestly, the more heavy that it was, the more I saw similarities between that and the classical music that I loved. So it became sort of this experiment to start mashing those things up. When it came to the look, the clothes I would wear and everything, it was about showing that as a visual, so distressed Victorian element mixed with something rock, you know, something edgy, you know, with the chains and the oh, back then was the trip pants from Hot Topic and stuff. That was all about sort of trying to describe what the music sounded like to me.
On how her and her band have grown together It's hard to sum that up. Fallen came out when I was 21 years old, and it was all really new. I was still learning how to write a song and each album has a slightly different lineup and I always have wanted that to show. I want each person's personality to be able to shine on the album and to come through. And I really think it does. When I listen back, I have memories of the people that I was making it with. Fast forward to now, 10 years later, and we have an energy and we trust each other and we respect each other. I think that really comes through in the music because you have to let yourself be able to suck. You have to let yourself explore knowing you don't you know, you don't know what it's going to sound like when you try and you're just honest and open with each other. And we push each other. We all push each other to be better because we all love this band. And I feel like at this point I get what it is on a really broad past, present, future kind of level. So I don't know. I'm very proud of the new record.
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Post by Admin on Mar 30, 2021 3:17:13 GMT
The Oral History of Evanescence, as told by Amy Lee
Lee said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "I was really, really against having any male vocal in our music. That was really hard. And it was an idea that came from the label. And it suddenly all became about 'Bring Me To Life'; they decided that was the song. I actually didn't think that should be the first [single]; I wanted it to be 'Going Under'. They came up with this idea about having something in there that would be familiar to listeners in order to get us on the radio. I didn't really understand what that meant.
"I was really inspired by artists that were unique," she continued. "Like, what's great about all the artists [like] NIRVANA and SOUNDGARDEN and Björk was that there was nothing else really like them. And that, to me, was the key ingredient and something that I believed — and still believe — that we have. And, in my head, the more you try and make it familiar, the more you're taking away from our true power.
"The original fight was that the label wanted us to hold auditions and bring somebody into the band full-time to sing on most of the songs and make it a thing — try to be the 'female LINKIN PARK.' And I was, like, 'I'll think about it,' for, like, an hour, and then we called them back, and I was, like, 'We can't do that. It's not gonna happen. I'd rather start over. It's just not who we are. And I don't want that.' And then they took away our funding and I moved back in with my parents. And it was hard after all the buildup — we got signed, I quit school, moved to L.A., and it's, like, 'No, actually, we're coming home.' We didn't get actually to do it. It was hard, but in my heart, it was broken, but I knew that it was better than the alternative. It wasn't totally selling my soul. And then, a few weeks later, we got a call, and they'd kind of come around to a compromise, and decided, 'Hey, we have a cool movie placement thing with this 'Daredevil' deal, and we pitched it to 'em as this male-female thing, 'cause there's a fight scene, and that's kind of what scored it.' So now there's a reason. And it's only gotta be one song; it doesn't have to be your whole identity changing. That made it okay for me. I tried one last time. I was, like, 'Can we just make the first single 'Going Under' first, and then do that?'
"I just really was concerned that people would hear that sound — like, this is the band — and expect it to always be that," Amy added. "And it was not who we were. I hate that — I hate it when you hear a first single from a band and you think they're one thing, and then you hear the rest of the album, and it's, like, 'Oh, that's not what I thought this was. You just did that to get me in, and you tricked me.' But I loved the song, and Paul was really sweet. And it took some sacrifice for him to be a guest vocalist on that song, he didn't realize, because it skyrocketed in a way that sort of overshadowed what he was trying to do. So I feel for him. And I don't always wanna talk about it like I don't like [his contributions]. I love him. We were just kids in a crazy moment in time."
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Post by Admin on Mar 31, 2021 0:42:13 GMT
Taylor and Lily talk about their dual experiences with loss and how music pulled Taylor out of a dark place emotionally after she suffered two major losses of friends. The first was Chris Cornell, whom THE PRETTY RECKLESS was on tour with at the time of Chris's passing.
She and Lily share a special connection over that loss, as Taylor says: "It's a little bizarre to speak to you, because it started with your father, losing him. We were opening for SOUNDGARDEN, which, to me, was the highest of highs. Respect is not the right word; I love your father, I love their music, I love SOUNDGARDEN so much, to my core that I still don't know how to put it into words. To be on that tour opening for them was just the most incredible honor and experience of my life. Obviously, it ended tragically."
Chris was and remains a huge inspiration for Taylor and her band and it hit them hard. The other loss which was a tipping point for Taylor was the death of her best friend and producer Kato Khandwala, who passed in April 2018.
Taylor remembers: "I was starting to write music and had a couple of songs that I was really proud of. I was calling our producer Kato, who is much more than just our producer; he was my best friend in the entire world, essentially the fifth member of the band... There would be no THE PRETTY RECKLESS if I had never met Kato... As soon as we started to put plans in motion, I got the call that Kato had died in a motorcycle accident. That was the nail in the coffin for me, where I just spiraled downward so quickly into depression and this dark hole with no light that I didn't see a way out of."
Taylor says that there was a point where she could no longer listen to music as it made her feel sorrow and grief and how over the course of months, she worked through it. She slowly started listening to her favorite music from her childhood and was able to feel joy instead of sorrow.
They also dive into how these experiences influenced Taylor in writing her band's new album, "Death By Rock And Roll".
Throughout the conversation, Taylor tells Lily the road she took to come back from heartbreak and loss by creating music.
Taylor says: "If you're standing on a frozen lake, and you're on one side and have to get to the other side, it's going to seem like an impossible task. If you just look down and just put one foot in front of the other foot, pretty soon you're going to turn around and be closer to the other side than the side you started from, and that's living."
Taylor explored the idea of starting over by just listening to every artist she ever loved from the beginning, starting with THE BEATLES and moving through decades of music to bring back the joy she always felt from music and she eventually was able to crawl back.
She added: "Talking to people about mental health is the first step on the road to healing. It was a pleasure discussing these things with Lilly Cornell Silver, who is bravely working to shed light on the stigma of mental health."
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