Evanescence

Evanescence is an American rock band founded in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1995 by singer/pianist Amy Lee and guitarist Ben Moody. After recording independent albums, the band released their first full-length album, Fallen, on Wind-up Records in 2003. Fallen sold more than 17 million copies worldwide and helped the band win two Grammy Awards out of seven nominations, as well as scoring No. 6 in CBS's "Top Bestselling Albums of the Last 10 Years" (2008). A year later, Evanescence released their first live album, Anywhere but Home, which sold more than one million copies worldwide. In 2006, the band released their second studio album, The Open Door, which sold more than five million copies.

Evanescence was founded by singer, pianist and songwriter Amy Lee and former lead guitarist and songwriter Ben Moody. The two met in 1994 at a youth camp in Little Rock, where Moody heard Lee playing "I'd Do Anything for Love (But I Won't Do That)" by Meat Loaf on the piano.

Two of Lee and Moody's songs were played on local radio stations, raising local awareness of the group and demand for a concert. The band eventually appeared live, and became one of the most popular acts in the area. After experimenting with band names, such as Childish Intentions and Stricken, they decided on Evanescence, which means "disappearance" or "fading away".

Having first encountered the band at Ardent Studios in Memphis and been suitably impressed, producer Pete Matthews played their demos to his friend at Wind-up Records, Diana Meltzer. It was when Meltzer heard "My Immortal" that she became interested in signing the band, saying she "knew it was a hit". The Wind-up A&R told HitQuarters that, although they already exhibited huge talent, they were still young and needed to be developed, and "given the time and opportunity they could deliver a breakthrough sound." Once signed the band were relocated to Los Angeles, given an apartment and rehearsal space and enrolled in a gym. Lee was given acting, vocal and movement classes. After almost two years producer Dave Fortman was brought in to produce their first album Fallen. However, record label executives initially refused to release the album unless the band would agree to add a full-time male co-vocalist. When the band would not agree to this demand, the label relented and only insisted on having a male vocalist in the album's lead single, "Bring Me to Life". Lee was still not happy about this, but agreed to it.

In early 2003, the lineup was completed by Amy Lee and Ben Moody's friends, John LeCompt, Rocky Gray and Will Boyd, all of whom worked on Evanescence's earlier songs. While they were looking to promote Fallen, Evanescence accepted an offer from the video game company Nintendo to perform on the Nintendo Fusion Tour, which they headlined in 2003.

On October 22, 2003, Moody left the band during the European tour for Fallen, reportedly because of creative differences. In an interview several months later, Amy Lee said: "...we'd gotten to a point that if something didn't change, we wouldn't have been able to make a second record." This became a point of confusion, as Moody and Lee stated on the Fallen album liner notes that they were best friends. Lee said it was almost a relief that Moody left because of tensions created within the band. During an interview, Lee has said, "I don't know, I just think it's exactly what I would've expected. He's more about kind of the pop influence sort of thing and also, you know, about being commercial and I mean selling albums: That's the part of him we often disagreed on. I wanted to do the more artistic weird thing and he'd wanna do the thing that people would want to hear..." She adds "So that's a lot of the reason [why] it's been so fun writing now, is [that] we're not thinking about that. It's like 'what do we like?', 'what's fun?', like 'what do we want to do that's different?'" Moody was replaced by Terry Balsamo from Cold.

A spokesperson for the band's label confirmed on July 14, 2006, that bassist Will Boyd had left the band for "not wanting to do another big tour" and wanting "to be close to his family." Amy Lee originally broke the news to the fans in a post on an unofficial Evanescence site, EvBoard.com.In an interview with MTV, posted on their website on August 10, 2006, Lee announced that Tim McCord, former Revolution Smile guitarist, would switch instruments and play bass for the band.

The album progressed slowly for several reasons, including Amy Lee's desire to maximize the creative process and not rush production, other band members' side projects, guitarist Terry Balsamo's stroke, and the loss of their former manager.

On May 4, 2007, John LeCompt announced that he had been fired from Evanescence, and also stated that drummer Rocky Gray had decided to quit. Wind-up issued a press release on May 17, 2007, stating that two Dark New Day members, drummer Will Hunt and guitarist Troy McLawhorn, would be joining the band to replace LeCompt and Gray.

Will Hunt returned as drummer while a second drummer and programmer, Will "Science" Hunt, was brought in to assist in writing but ultimately did not join the band.

On June 12, 2011, Amy Lee announced through her Twitter account that Troy McLawhorn was officially back with Evanescence and that the release date for the new album would be October 4, 2011.

In October 2013, Wind-up Records sold part of their catalog of artists, including Evanescence and their master recordings, to Bicycle Music Company. The combined company Concord Bicycle Music will market the catalog. On January 3, 2014, it was announced that Amy Lee had filed a lawsuit against former record label Wind-up Records, seeking $1.5 million in unpaid royalties owed to the band. In March 2014, via her Twitter account, Lee announced that she and Evanescence had been released from their record label and were independent artists.

On August 7, 2015, Lee announced that long-time guitarist Terry Balsamo had departed the band. His position was filled by German singer and guitarist Jen Majura, bassist for folk metal band Equilibrium.

Current members
Amy Lee – lead vocals, keyboards, piano, harp (1995–present)
Tim McCord – bass guitar (2006–present)
Will Hunt – drums (2010–present)
Troy McLawhorn – lead guitar (2015-present), backing vocals (2011–present), rhythm guitar (2011-2015)
Jen Majura – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2015–present)
Former members
Ben Moody – lead guitar, bass guitar, drums (1995–2003)
David Hodges – keyboards, piano, drums, backing vocals (1999–2002)
Will Boyd – bass guitar (2003–2006)
Rocky Gray – drums, percussion (2003–2007; live member 2002–2003)
John LeCompt – rhythm guitar, backing vocals (2003–2007; live member 2002–2003)
Terry Balsamo – lead guitar (2003–2015)


Discography

Fallen (2003)
The Open Door (2006)
Evanescence (2011)