Amy Lee on Her Track to Make Irrelevant Albums

Amy Lee's "Aftermath" starts out with a song straight out of a sex scene. "Push the Button" is chock full of sensual and sexy vocalizations contributed by Lee herself. A huge step away from her typical Evanescence sound, one could even say this song is tinged with an 80's feel. This is definitely a song you would hear at a hole in the wall dance club in the racy part of town.

Amy then takes us through "White Out" which is a short instrumental interlude that sets a mood of anxiousness. The feeling is brought on by gorgeous and eerie cello work by Mr. Eggar. The only discernible motif is the foreshadowing ostinato pattern in the cello which becomes a recurring theme throughout the rest of the album.

Up next is "Remember to Breathe" which is another minute and a half long interlude with nothing but cello and emptiness. It is simple yet intricately beautiful. The cello creates a feeling of nothingness and seamlessly leads into "Dark Water".

"Dark Water" is heavily influenced by world (specifically Eastern) music. This could very well be a song fit for a belly dancer's repertoire. The song features world singer, Malika Zarra, while Lee steps into the background to support Malika with atmospheric vocals.

"Between Worlds" is the highlight of the instrumental pieces. The recurring theme from "White Out" returns. This time, Lee and Eggar expand and develop the theme using the cello and synthesizer work. The piece creates a feeling of a harsh reality and enlightenment. The piece has a very sinister feel towards the very end which comes suddenly and ends the piece with mourning.

"Drifter" brings a very melancholic piano to the forefront assisted by an equally solemn cello filling in the emptiness. The mood for "Drifter" is just as the title suggests. The listener is slowly drifting away to a place of sadness.

The song transitions suddenly into "Can't Stop What's Coming".

"Can't Stop What's Coming" is the most atmospheric of the non instrumental pieces. Lee plays with surround sound in this piece (listen with headphones). The song features a chorus of Lee's vocal lines weaving and intertwining with each other like a spiderweb. This song is reminiscent of some moments in Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon"....

Lyrically simple, one can hear hints of Lee's musical influences like Björk, Trent Reznor, and Deftones in this piece.

"Voice In My Head" is another piece featuring Dave Eggar. The cello makes more use of it's rich lower range while the piano works its way through an ostinato for most of the song. Familiar themes come into play in the piano.

The next song is an instant favorite.

"Lockdown" begins with a low synth followed by Amy's trademark haunting vocals. Lyrically, this is the strongest song in the album. Actually, this may be the centerpiece of the work that is "Aftermath".

The best thing about this song is that it changes drastically right in the middle as if the song were really two fused together. Vocally, this is also the most demanding song in the album. Lee really emotes the feeling of despair through her vocals which is the cherry on top of an already great song. The song has moments reminiscent of "Field of Innocence" from Evanescence's "Origin".

Next, we hear what sounds like a construction site used as an intro for "After", another solemn piece featuring Mr. Dave Eggar on cello. If you were expecting a happy ending, you won't find it here. The cello soars beautifully through dissonances while evoking a feeling of hopelessness and sadness. The listener is left without a sense of closure and an unfulfilled need for resolution much like "War Story"..

Troy McLawhorn

A rhythm guitar dude who called a few 'Texting' affairs between Amy & Shaun:

Poor Josh is gonna be so crushed to hear about it! although I don't think he's gonna reflect to that anyway.🦥

Is My Immortal Music Video a Christina Aguilera Rip Off?

Have you ever wondered how the band came up with the idea of making the music video for My Immortal?

The vibe for the music video My Immortal looks a lot like The Voice Within (by Christina Aguilera), which the band eventually had settled on and suggested that it was gonna be for the best to make it look just like "The Voice within". (Little more outdoorsy though).

You can vividly realize the same black-white classical vibe, Amy's outfit, hairstyle, the same stretching out on the ground poses,...

"The Voice Within" was released in 2002 :

While "My Immortal" was released in 2004 : (2 years later)

I'd say a copy right violation, stealing thunder. What would you say?

Who Are the Inspirations of Evanescence Songs?

This time around it's all about the inspirations of Evanescence songs that I assume interesting to dig out. So let's cut to the chase and explore some of the inspirations:

1. Bring me to life: It's about her suicidal thoughts from way back and a constant nightmare she used to visit about jumping off. (Not concerning Josh).

2. Everybody's fool: It's about her dad's commercial works as a voice talent on Radio/TV (Not regarding her teenage sisters who were inspired by celebrities).

3. My immortal: Obviously about her lost sister. (The only time Amy was honest to Media over a song's motif)

4. Wasted On You (also known as WOU): It's
about Shaun Morgan!

6. Going under: about Amy Lee's former boyfriend. (Not Ben, Not Shaun. Just a random guy who got laid by Amy Lee later afterwards)

7. Tourniquet, Imaginary, Haunted, Whisper: Only a tale. A make believe scheme of her own.

Do the Singers/Bands Bathe in Riches?

Today, I'm gonna get a few things down on the record about the money made from the music nowadays and discuss the terms of making money off the album sales, concerts,...

In this post, I'll bring you around to this terrifying world of music industry and will pass you some figures and insights as to what's going on there. 

In order to kick the discussion off, I'd like to tell you that music isn't the shortest path ever to get rich. It's pretty much like a gamble. You put a lot of efforts into making a smashing record, then spend a big chunk of change to record your album in high end studios and forfeit a big sum of money on promotions,.....and finally you'll just take a little money back from what you had put in. (Unless you come up with a lucky idea) 

And by the way you won't own the full royalties of your album sales. Usually, you'll just get paid a tiny percentage of the overall album sales. (Something like 5 cent per album sold while the rest goes to your label's pocket).

Ok. How about the concerts? 

The situation is even worse with concert deals. If there is a festival in which you're going to play, (along with the several other bands playing their gigs on the same stage), your band will be paid a terrible amount of money which is hard to imagine and far below the minimum wage in the long run. Sometimes the bands don't even get paid at all except for big names and sometimes the proceeds are paid after a long time.

It's also interesting to know that a band (any band) won't be paid the total amount of the tickets sales because they are not in charge of distributing their concert tickets or conducting a gig. They will only be paid a small percentage of the total tickets subtracted by other expenses such as venue's share (which is almost up to 95% of the revenue), illuminations, soundings, trucks, security, hotels,.... 

Not to mention that the bands might actually LOSE money on tours in cases of bad weather, natural disasters, disease outbreaks, cancellations,....

Why Did Amy Lee and Shaun Morgan Break Up?

Mutual infidelity! Shaun was cheating on Amy and Amy was cheating on Shaun likewise. It's as simple as that. If you'd priorly thought of something else or read somewhere that either the drinking problem or the drug abuse affected their relationship, you would have to think again!

Shaun Morgan dated many girls (for the sex screw loose he was) and that was something that Amy couldn't live with. Even though she tried to fix Morgan, he couldn't help but hit on new girls under the influence of drugs and booze.....

By the way, this relationship was going fairly well that a disaster left the couple with one choice: separation.
To go in details with the separation, let me quote from John LeCompt on Facebook messenger:
"There was a time when they fought a lot over the infidelities they had on each other"
"Amy was having a sexual affair with her whoremaster manager 'Denis Rider' who had found Amy Lee a submissive sex slave he could've fucked on his own."
"Amy lee, didn't get pissed at Shaun Morgan over downright booze, cause she (Amy) was heavily into it either"

Anyways, by now it was just their relationships, here's to Amy Lee's abortion that will shock you to the core (quoting from John LeCompt):
"The band (Evanescence) went through a devastating crisis when Amy decided to renege on the concert dates and we were just wondering why she'd decided to cancel our shows one after another."
"Rocky (drummer member of the Evanescence) and I decided to intrude and finally figured out it was an abortion!"

Amy Lee had taken a pill and let go of Shaun's baby....

My Novel

I've already put down a 487 pages of my novel entitled Screaming at the Bottom of the Ocean, started out back in the early winter of 2007 and finished as of August 20th 2008. The basic theme of this book is a simplified narration of the evolution of Lee family and the places they have been but most of the chapters are related to Amy Lee herself.

Even though I had a late start on writing for this over lack of time and mindset, now I feel like I am more determined and indulged than ever to publish it. It's a pdf file actually that can be published through here as well.

An overview of the episodes:

1. The childhood of Amy Lee up to her sophomore age when she had been having a way early personal touch on adulthood stuffs by citing the details of each adventures thoroughly.
2. Seventeen pages are about her dad 'John Lee' who met his wife 'Sara' in Texas.
3. Inspecting every reasons of their nomad lives in different States within US and the most exciting pan in the Little Rock, AR.
4. Thrilling part of Amy's single life in LA and her encounter with a ghost who left a dog dead.
5. Inspirations of Evanescence songs and her psychologyical process.
6. The outlaw activities committed by Amy Lee and the lawsuits.
7. Shaun Morgan and the abortion,....

I'd be breaking down the subjects into different posts here to helps boost my viewers and reach out to more people rather than placing a one time pdf to go through.

What Was the REAL Reason for Bonnie Lee's Death?

This is one of those sacred secrets the Lee family has been hiding from the public eye.

They have kind of garbled the REAL reason for Bonnie Lee's death, and turned it into something like "an unknown illness" she'd come to contract with in her childhood. But it's FALSE, totally false.

The real cause for Bonnie Lee's death is : "GETTING DROWNED IN THE BATHTUB".

She's not dead because of an unknown illness, she died for actually getting drowned in a bathtub and it's out of the question as far as I had learned from relatives of Amy Lee who just told me what the truth of matter was.

Over the past several years I have commented on the different websites, under the different names (as a fan) to tell the world what was the real reason for her sudden passing, but I seemed to have been losing it to crooked Wikipedia ever since. Bonnie Lee died in the bathtub because of her mother's carelessness, who was off cooking in the kitchen. It would definitely make this family look bad (specially her mom) if it was rumored that the girl had passed away out of her mom's irresponsibility....

Why Did Amy Lee and Ben Moody Break Up?

Many of Evanescence fans most certainly know about this old tacky story of the relationship with Amy Lee and the fellow cofounder Ben Moody back in the 1995 and youth camp and all. What you already know is a public knowledge on the internet and those of recorded interviews, but I think it's about time to declassify some of those stories they have been denying to admit (specially on Amy Lee's part).

For the meantime I am going to anonymously publish them, though I have been keeping it a secret for a long time since I was confided not to share. Anyway, let's read the transcript of my conversation with Ben Moody that dates back to 2004 through an Email, exactly one year after he was dismissed from Evanescence. (I posed as a magazine interviewer to extract some information from Ben Moody):

It all goes back to the moment I struck conversation in the summer camp and the friendship that was then fueled by our collaboration to write songs in the genre we both put our hearts into. We spent like 5 years (1995-2000) writing songs for our unofficial debut album called Evanescence EP and later on decided to add extra songs to our record and entitled it 'sound asleep' then shortly after, edited some materials that ended up in 'the origin' album once more.

Majority of Ev fans assume that 'The Origin' was a demo containing 3 songs, but that's not true. It never did contain the 3 songs you know of (Whisper, Imaginary, My immortal), it has actually had consisted more songs than you'd probably imagined. For instance the song 'You' which was too personal to be released or at least was kind of considered to be an alienating type of song akin to our music label, had to be removed for our debut album over personal issues this song might have raised. Regardless of how badly our label wanted it not to go public and as bad as I wanted to, I published it on the internet shortly after I got laid off from Evanescence since I related to that!

Anyways...

During this time (1995-2000) we were playing local gigs, playing at local bars, restaurants for ridiculous pay we'd earn but were quite happy we got to play the music we both put our faiths into, as it wasn't our sole ambitions to just play the gigs for money, it was more about 'promotion' we were like every musician in the dire need of.

Amy's dad (John Lee), who used to work in the radio station called 'Cool95' and 'K-love' also really, truly helped us through the promotion process back in the day airing our songs in a couple of radio stations. He would be doing anything in his power to promote us locally to a capacity that literally let us the station's sound gears to record our early demos.

Speaking of the direction of Evanescence songs, they were something we'd really had honed our talents to and loved; classical rock, electronic and little less heavy that took a slight turn when Linkin park's debut (Hybrid Theory) was put out in 2000, that somehow changed our directions to add a more heavy theme to our music.

During 2000-2002 we were just basically sending too many requests to labels to get signed. In short, we had all the talents it took for a breakthrough but had no money at all. So there was a time we desperately sought for investors to put our records into the music scene. In order to do that, we had to take our amateurish recorded songs to another level and also had to make it to Memphis & Nashville, Tennessee to get this thing done professionally...

So we drove up to Memphis, where in 8 months we pulled off the process of recording for the album called The Fallen which was supposed to be more edited to professional levels from "the origin" and "sound asleep". An album that was meant to live up to our expectations while keeping the basic principles of an electronic, heavy album of early 2000's vibes that could've potentially challenged the other releases of back then.

I remember the time when we had taken with ourselves so much as a $500 to cover our bills for 8 months! While indeed with first two weeks of living there, we ran out of money and filled for Food Stamps to freeload on.

We were pushing it so hard to release a smashing record by any means, be it altering Amy's real voice into an unbelievable female
vocal range that was meant to move everyone or even butchering old classical songs and turning them into an undetectable brand new pieces of Rock music....

(By Butchering he means altering the riffs, choruses, rhythms, key,...)

Apart from budget issues, which was disheartening, my relationship with Amy seemed to have stepped up and headed for engagement as we'd shut out the money obstacle by our album sales. But soon enough it turned out that I was kind of being manipulated while she was sticking to a vicious plan of her own, maybe coordinated with her sneaky new boyfriend she called a colleague, Shaun Morgan.

It was not until The Fallen album came out and took up the music charts that she started to show her true color. She'd literally outgrown anything and anyone since she was bigger than she should've been. Her standards were suddenly different and the boys she would meet were also different. That's when she announced her relationship with Shaun Morgan.

Back in the Fall of 2003, while maintaining a long time relationship with me, I decided to leave.

Stay Tuned for Further Posts

Stay tuned for the time being, I'll be posting more facts in the days ahead and cry my heart out. I have enough knowledge into her life to run this blog for decades.

How Did Amy Lee and Josh Hartzler Meet?

Josh had never been in Arkansas and the reason why Amy Lee had to call a bluff about it, was just a simple story I would be breaking down to you just now.
As far as I can help memory and quote from Evanescence band member at the time, John LeCompt, he said:
Amy was seeking a therapist to fix her mental issues/traumatic stresses from her ill-fated relationship with Shaun Morgan. She finds a therapy clinic in New York on Google and just drops in and meets her future hubby for the first time ever..... I mean ever...

Josh was assigned to her case as a therapist and once he knew she had just put an end to her relationship with the other guy (Shaun Morgan), he didn't hesitate to propose to her.

It would make Amy look bad if she said: "I met my husband in a mental therapy clinic". So instead, she made a bogus story like: "We were friends back home in Arkansas, and went high school together".