I would like to write about an event that has deeply connected and affected me since the discovery of it. The event is something that plays an important part of who I am, as well as who I want to become. It is something that has contributed to my creative and artistic talents, as well as futuristic goals. This is something that I now love and cannot put aside, avoid, or ignore. It is a subject that gets reflection on a weekly basis. The subject important to me is about a time when I discovered the amazing and talented singer Amy Lee. I would like to spend time in this essay explaining the history of Amy Lee as well as why she connects to me more than any other musician. I don’t remember what inspired me to search more into Amy Lee when I discovered her, but I am very grateful that I didn’t treat the matter lightly or spend time with other groups. I did in fact become so interested in this that I have spent over five years studying and analyzing in depth the life and music of Amy Lee. Do note that this paper does cover a specific point in time that is meaningful, but is saturated in the facts that will help the reader understand the compliments and infatuations.
The encounter was simply by accident. I remember my sister was in a school lip-sync and was looking into using a song from the Daredevil soundtrack with a few friends. The song they chose was the “Daredevil Theme.” The song was by Graeme Revell, and I don’t know why I became interested in what they were considering other than this was probably around the time frame of when I started liking louder songs with screamo. I bought my own copy of the CD and would listen to it in my room. I loved rocking in a chair with a set of headphones while soaking in the moment, enjoying my loneliness. I love CDs, and just have to open it and look at all the details inside whenever I buy one. While looking down the list on the back, I noticed two songs I enjoyed were by a group called Evanescence.
Amy Lee, the front band lead singer from Little Rock, Arkansas, grew up with a musical family. The family was greatly influenced by piano and classical music. (Amy lee & Ben Moody interviewhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uDuQ_ivxpk) Amy took piano lessons for many years of her life and was involved in High School choir. She was not the popular person in high school, or the center of attention. She categorizes herself asan art nerd that enjoyed being creative and alone. This completely relates tome because I, like her, grew up with nine years of piano study, along with classical music, high school choir, art, and being alone with not much friends or attention. I was completely fine with that. I enjoyed being the loner. Amy Lee enjoys classical influences such as Mozart and Beethoven, wrote her first song when she was eleven, and wanted to be a classical music composer. Her goal was to be a score composer and she wrote this very dramatic funeral music and wanted to become Mozart. (Amy Lee on MTV Guik 16/03/12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLAEDXzKQHg)She wrote a chorale for fun titled “Listen to the Rain,” and presented it to the high school choir teacher for the class to sing. Amy Lee was not expecting to step up and lead the project; the teacher insisted that she direct her piece and that they perform it for graduation. The audience gave her a standingovation and everyone in her school admired her talent. (Amy Lee ''When I Was 17''. (Full Version) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4e5X1fITDvA). This also connects with me because I had a similar experience in my high school choir. In our class I was singing along and listening to the class rehearse “The Banks of Doon.” I could hear a cello part in my head and really wanted to write an accompaniment to go along with it. After class I told my choir director my idea and asked if it could be done. I was granted my wish and wrote the piece for our foundation concert with a guest clinician conductor. I was grateful to be able to perform that number, and am happy that I followed my idea. Amy Lee connects with me because I have had a strong passion for music my whole life, and I’ve wanted to become a movie soundtrack composer like Alan Menken, Hans Zimmer, or Danny Elfman. Her example has inspired me to write my own music. I have arranged and composed pieces such as:“The Coventry Carol Variations,” “Raquella,” “Breathtaking Scenery,” “Silent Night,”“Farewell,” “Reminiscing with Grandma,” “I’ll Never See Him Again,” “Meg’s Garden,” “Out There,” and “Be Still My Soul.” I am studying music and still working to achieve my goals. I feel that this would make me happiest, and that money,fame, or getting my name on the high charts should never be the reason to become a composer. Creating something and making it beautiful so others can be permanently touched is my motivation.
Amy Lee was thirteen when she met Ben Moody at a youth camp in Little rock, and was playing a song by Meatloaf on the piano singing: “I Would Do Anything for Love,” when he convinced her to form a band. (Amy Lee Interview https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndiD6t0r814) The band wrote the first song: “Solitude” and kept on going. Many of the beginning songs didn’t make it to the albums and is in a collection titled Origin. They looked in the dictionary and found interest in the name Evanescent, but later changed it to Evanescence (which means to dissipate or vaporize). The name sounded as mysterious as the music. (Interview Evanescence at Pepsi Smash https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8GEZypKC-k) It isn’t up on radio play and in your face like Rihanna, Lady Gaga, or Katy Perry,but the music is something you have to work for and find on your own. It is truly unique. Best music isn’t what’s being played on the radio. Searching for music can lead to the very best. Something Amy Lee really likes about the band is that the people can’t find a specific label to categorize them. She has described the beginning process as difficult because she was noticed earlier as a chick on the piano. It was also different seeing a woman fronting a band for the first time. “Bring me to life” was the first hit single on the wind-up record Fallen. Sometime after my experience with the Daredevil album,I was driving to my cello lesson and heard a new song on the radio titled“Lithium.” I thought it was so beautiful and put the song on my iPod. I would go outside at night and swing on the swing set in my backyard and capture all the great sounds. I bought the second album The Open Door on eBay and fell in love with it. I came in one night and just wanted to see what the band was like in person. I went to YouTube and typed in an interview with Evanescence and found them to be different than I expected. I imagined Amy Lee to be from some foreign country with a heavy accent because of the way she sings deeper notes. I mistook her to be uninteresting, but was very surprised to see that she was a very charismatic, outgoing person, with lots of jokes, laughter, and optimism. An individual can’t not love her when they watch her personality bloom with excitement in an interview. She is filled with enthusiasm, and overflows with happiness when she talks about the fans, the connection, the writing process, and her feelings. She is such a breath of fresh air and such a great role model for musicians today. I admire Amy for her humility and her desire to learn new things. For example, the band took a break between the second and third album after the tour, and Amy started taking private harp lessons and dedicated herself to the instrument. The third album self-titled Evanescence includes songs with harp. I can relate to this also because I was involved with the piano for most of my life and decided it was time to try a new instrument. Music accompanies my life in ways that other things can’t.
I want to share the depth of her music, my connection with it, and what it can provide to the audience. Amy Lee keeps her morals and standards high while being in the lime light. She stated in an interview: “I have definitely seen it go to people’s heads, and it changes them completely. Like you see them on tour, and they’re awesome, and down to earth, and new. Then a couple years later you see them, and they’ve just changed completely because it’s like they have forgotten who they really are, and have become something new, and something horrible. It’s weird. I think it’s really important to just be friends, keep your friends around you, stay grounded, and remember this is all really silly, and there’s no reason for me to be like on some huge high stage on top of everyone else, like I’m better or something. It’s just my job, I love my music, I work really hard, and that’s it. A lot of its watching behind the music and seeing the glory of fallen rock stars who go through their drug and alcohol abuse and they almost threw their lives away, and they O.D.’d, and then made a new life, and all this drama that I just don’t really want in my life. I think a lot of people see their idols either party way too hard or just live this entire life that’s impossible to live without really hurting yourself and hurting the people around you and then they lose it all and they’re like why did I lose it all? It’s like well cause you can’t do that. Well you can, but you could also die. I’d rather play music and I don’t know, see the fans again!” (EvanescenceInterview @ Much Part Three https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sycJmCFVjyk) She feels that the celebrity life drags you down, and is artificial. She feels the sex icon is not for her, and that she clearly wants to make sure people understand that she is a musician first before anything else. She stated that she “highly encouragespeople to write music because it feels good, and not because of money or fame,but for the artistic value.” (MTV Firstladies Amy Lee Interviewwww.youtube.com/watch?v=9qA0k8hAHkk) Her albums include clean language, and talks about subconscious feelings in her life that just come out. She has had some relationship errors, but mostly talks about the darkness that has clouded her life. She lost a sister at a young age, and her other brother has epilepsy.She has tried to push out the negative by writing music and getting it all out.She calls it her therapy. The music is what connects her to the fans. She often talks about being the blame for negative results, speaks boldly to the person that has hurt her, and feels trapped or stuck wanting to get out. I think many people share these similar feelings around the world today. They can relate when they hear lyrics like: “And I’m a liar by your side. I’m about to lose my mind.” (The Change) Or “Someday you’ll know the pain. Someday the light will break through. And nothing you tell yourself will save us from the truth.Screaming out sick of it all sick of it all…” (Sick) One more example include:“Darling I forgive you after all. Anything is better than to be alone. And in the end I guess I had to fall. Always find my place among the ashes. I can’t hold on to me, wonder what’s wrong with me…” (Lithium) I feel that she has a talent for writing musical melodies as well as the lyrics that go along with it. If I could describe the music it would be strong, powerful, dark, emotional,and beautiful. Music often follows a pattern. It starts with an intro or a first verse, and then goes to the melody. Next it goes to the second verse and repeats the melody again afterward. A middle part bridges the second and third repeat of the melody together and then goes back to the melody. I think that Amy Lee does the best job making those bridges in her songs so passionate,interesting, and haunting. It is filled up well. Before I heard her sing, I remember trying to find the most beautiful parts of my voice in first grade as I sang “We will rock you” by Queen. I have a hard time describing sounds on paper, but I will attempt. Some people can slide and shift their voice so delicately between notes that you want to rewind and listen to it again and again because it gives you an awesome chill. Amy Lee does that so well. An example is in the song “Bring me to life” with lyrics: “How can you see into my eyes like open doors?” The way she sings it is admirable. Most people would sing it with a regular beautiful tone and would do a fine job, but she adds the slur that makes your body feel good. That is the best way I know how to describe that. My point is that my style of sound was Evanescence before I found Evanescence. I was singing passionately and enjoyed dark visuals and sounds as a child.
After investigating this band, I cannot find a more suitable, uplifting, and respectable group of musicians that satisfies all the yearnings of my heart. I admire Amy Lee for her talent, hard work,humility, morals, and perspective. This band can provide an outlet for negative feelings and can help cope with bottled up emotions. Discovering and analyzing Evanescence has brought great happiness into my life as well as a greater motivation,inspiration, and dedication to music. I connect to Amy Lee and her music because I feel we share a strong similar interest in dark tones, vocal style,rock, and classical instruments. We both want to put music as our priority and work hard to achieve the goals that will make us happy.
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