Evanescence’s Amy Lee, Queen of Goth Woman Model, Is Back again With New Music

A particular encounter that influenced Lee to make The Bitter Reality happened a few yrs ago, when she misplaced her tiny brother, Robby. Working with that grief, and attempting to locate hope by it, prompted her to start off creating all over again. “That built me zoom out on daily life and appear at it all over again,” suggests Lee. “I experienced to rediscover who I am, simply because becoming his huge sister was a big component of my identity.” (Substantially of the album’s recording also took place during the pandemic, which only fueled its survival topic.) When The Bitter Truth of the matter discounts with heavy feelings, its sound is shockingly uplifting. In spot of a total orchestra, which the band typically takes advantage of, it is loaded with upbeat synthesizers as read on “Yeah Correct,” an practically pop-like monitor. Lee desired a lighter seem, to show that just one can continue to celebrate even although likely by way of hell. “Embracing the pain is vital in buy to certainly appreciate lifestyle, we have to get it with the dark,” she states.

Even with the synthesizers, the angsty spirit of Evanescence is even now very current, as is Lee’s goth girl fashion. Her dim, intimate seems to be have constantly properly matched the heavier themes of her tunes. “I want to present similarities amongst what I’m declaring in the music, and what it appears like,” says Lee. “That doesn’t mean, ‘I’m goth, so I use corsets.’ It’s further than that.” She’s under no circumstances claimed to be a demanding goth, but her design has turn into synonymous with the aesthetic, which revolves about black apparel and DIY’d items that are intentionally distressed. Total with laced-up corsets and large, total, Victorian-fashion skirts, her fashion options have often nodded to her love of classical songs and Mozart, and this is however pretty much the scenario. (In her new protest-inspired video “Use My Voice,” Lee usually takes to the streets wearing an outsized black tee—more minimum fare than her remarkable feathered robe in “Heading Below,” but continue to in her favorite shade.)

Like any excellent goth, Lee has made quite a few of her individual outfits for the two past and current videos and performances it’s a goth signature to just take a piece and subvert or demolish it, after all. For her “My Immortal” video clip in 2003, she wore cheesecloth bandages to mimic the lyrics of experience damaged. She was motivated to generate the seem soon after obtaining witnessed a runway glance in Vogue. “There was a product strolling on the runway with a black satin ribbon wrapped beneath her arm,” claims Lee. “That wrapping on the arm appears to be like like a cast, but it also helps make a link to the brokenness in my heart.” For her “Heading Below” video clip, Lee hand-sewed the shredded dress she wears in the underwater sequence. “I desired zombie ballerina,” she says. “I just acquired a plain white less than dress and mountains of cheesecloth, and tea-stained it in my resort room.” On the pink carpet, meanwhile, a private highlight was at the 2004 Grammys, when Evanescence gained Most effective New Artist: Lee built and wore a bondage-fashion, grungy-glam dress in collaboration with Japanese designer H. Naoto.

The magnificence of Lee’s goth design now, no matter whether DIY’d or personalized-manufactured, is that it has not improved considerably. It is, as the expressing goes, not a stage, mother! Getting into motherhood has not impacted her view on style either—in simple fact, her son loves seeing Lee costume up. “He thinks it’s definitely awesome,” claims Lee. “He’ll come across a brilliant, fruity tutu that I only wear less than factors, and he’ll be like, ‘Mom, I picked out what you should put on.’” These times, even so, she is drawn to additional large-trend labels, this kind of as Sacai, Alexander McQueen, and Vivienne Westwood—as perfectly as more compact brands like Bulgaria’s Demobaza, or just about anything vintage.

Her enduring manner flavor has impressively caught on with the subsequent technology as well. When questioned about what she thinks about Gen Z on TikTok discovering Evanescence’s tunes, and quite a few creators, like Xowie Jones, clearly channeling Lee’s glance in their have e-girl way, Lee states it helps make her experimenting with her sounds and fashions all worthwhile. “That’s the aspiration, that you can endure beyond a time period,” says Lee. With this new record, then, Evanescence is obviously surviving in extra approaches than just one.