In a new interview with Ned of Iowa’s Rock 108 radio station, EVANESCENCE singer Amy Lee spoke about the band’s current lineup, which features Emma Anzai of SICK PUPPIES on bass and EVANESCENCE’s longtime bassist Tim McCord on guitar. Regarding how Emma came to join EVANESCENCE, Amy said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I have been her fan for a million years. We really got to know each other in 2007. We’ve known each other forever. We toured together back then on the same tour. [SICK PUPPIES] were opening for us, and we really hung out and really made friends on a deeper level, especially back then. But still, women in heavy music are a pretty tight-knit group, ’cause there aren’t that many of us still. There’s more and more and more, which is amazing, but especially back then, it was just this rare bird to see in the wild and be, like, ‘Hey, come here. You’re one of me. Can we talk for a second?’ So me and Emma became friends right away.”Amy continued: “She’s extremely talented, extremely professional. She is in it for playing the bass. [She’s an] incredible stage performer. Everything about her — I just love Emma. And we talked over the years about, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool to have a side band?’ just with all the chicks, the whole thing. And that never worked out, but I just always wanted to work together. And we were finally in a position where it was, like, we needed somebody. And I called her first. I was, like, ‘Hey.’ Well, first of all, I was, like, ‘Would you play guitar?’ And she’s, like, ‘No. I’m a bass player.’ And I spoke to Tim, and he was, like, ‘Oh my God. This is what I want. I’ve been wanting to switch it up. Guitar is my original instrument. This is perfect. I need a change. And nobody’s better than Emma. And I would be very critical of any bass player after playing bass in this band for that many years.’ So it was just a very came-together-perfectly moment. And we’ve all just felt blessed by her presence. I have a real, a true sister in the band. It’s been great. We’re a good team. And Emma kicks ass. So that has been a huge bonus for us. We feel complete at this point.”Back in 2023, Emma told Bass Magazine about how she landed the gig with EVANESCENCE: “It was quite the surprise when it happened. When they needed a bass player after Tim switched from bass to guitar, I got the call and agreed to join them. SICK PUPPIES had toured with them long ago for one of our first tours, and I remember Amy being super cool. She’s still the same now with support bands, the crews, and everyone she comes in contact with. I always remember that, because it was 13 or 14 years ago, and the women-in-music thing was different back then; we used to have conversations about it all the time. It’s funny because it’s evolved a little now, but we still currently have conversations about it. Being a woman — especially with me touring with all guys and having no other women around back then — it was great sharing our experiences and having her to hang around with. I was a lot younger, and I like to think I’ve learned a lot since then and grown a bit. At the time I was a little naïve, but she was helpful in solidifying what I had already felt. It’s nice to come full circle and share these new experiences together. She’s been such an anchor for me for so many years.”Guitarist Jen Majura’s departure from EVANESCENCE was announced in May 2022 via social media. At the time, the band said in a statement: “It has been a very special chapter in the band with our dear friend Jen Majura, but we have decided it’s time to go our separate ways.”A month later, Jen spoke about her split with EVANESCENCE during an appearance on THE HAUNTED guitarist Ola Englund’s YouTube show “Coffee With Ola”. At the time, she said that she was still “hurt” by the move and compared the situation to a divorce.”I believe, honestly, it’s three weeks now since I got the news, and I’m still in this blurry, oblivious momentum,” she said. “I guess I’m still in shock, kind of, because after being married six years, all of a sudden you’re divorced. You know me, I always try to find the positive in a situation, so every day, step by step — I’m not doing great yet — but every day I find little tiny things that I’m, like, ‘Oh, actually, this is good.'”Asked how she found out that her services were no longer needed in EVANESCENCE, Jen said: “Honestly, I was cleaning my apartment, and I got the phone call. And first of all, I was, like, ‘Is this a bad joke?’ And I remember, after I got the news, I hung up, and I have this hallway in between my studio and my living room, and I just lay there on the floor, staring at the ceiling, wondering what that was, and literally looking over to my suitcase that I had already started packing, because I was two weeks from going out on the road until pretty much the end of the year.”Earlier this month, EVANESCENCE and alt-rock visionary K.Flay teamed up for their first-ever collaboration on the new song “Fight Like A Girl” (BMG). The track is featured as the first end title song in “Ballerina”, the film set in the world of John Wick. Both the song and the film were released on June 6.Co-written by EVANESCENCE lead singer Amy Lee, K.Flay, Dylan Eiland and “Ballerina” film composer Tyler Bates, who also produced the track, “Fight Like A Girl” follows the release of Halsey and Lee’s track “Hand That Feeds”, the first original song recently revealed from the film in early May.EVANESCENCE will kick off a run of live shows later this fall, making stops on “My Chemical Romance: The Black Parade” tour and Louder Than Life festival before joining METALLICA on their “M72” world tour.In 2003, when the rock charts were dominated by predominantly male nü-metal and post-grunge acts, a young female-fronted band from Arkansas stood out from the crowd, offering something entirely new. They were EVANESCENCE — and with their debut album, “Fallen”, they transformed the rock landscape. Led by Lee, EVANESCENCE’s cinematic blend of metal and symphonic, piano-driven melodies captured a generation, while “Fallen” set the band on a path to global superstardom, earning them multiple Grammys, and becoming one of the highest-selling albums of all time.Released in the spring of 2003, “Fallen” resonated deeply with fans, selling more than 141,000 copies in its first week and peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 albums chart, where it spent an astonishing 43 weeks in the Top 10. Within a month, “Fallen” was certified platinum by the RIAA, while it was a Top 10 hit in more than ten countries, reaching No. 1 in the U.K., Canada, Australia, and across Europe. Much of the album’s initial success can be attributed to its stratospheric singles, including “Bring Me to Life”, which broke the Top 10 in more than 15 countries and topped Billboard’s Mainstream Top 40 and Alternative Airplay charts. “My Immortal” was a Top 10 hit in over ten countries, including the U.S., U.K. and Australia.At the 2004 Grammys, EVANESCENCE received five nominations, including “Album Of The Year”, “Best Rock Album”, “Best Hard Rock Performance” for “Bring Me To Life”, and “Best New Artist”, taking home the latter two. The following year, “My Immortal” received a nod for “Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocals”.Today, “Fallen” holds steady as the sixth best-selling album of the 21st century (ranking just behind Lady Gaga’s “The Fame” and ahead of COLDPLAY’s “A Rush Of Blood To The Head”) and remains one of the best-selling albums of all time, with more than 17 million copies sold worldwide. In 2022, “Fallen” received a rare diamond certification from the RIAA, which recognizes 10 million units in U.S. album sales. As a testament to the album’s enduring appeal, the video for “Bring Me To Life” surpassed 1.2 billion views on YouTube, making it one of the most-watched rock videos of all-time while “My Immortal” follows close behind.To date, EVANESCENCE has released a total of five studio albums, including the multi-platinum “The Open Door” (2004) and “Evanescence” (2011),both of which topped the Billboard 200. In 2021, the band thrilled fans with their first album of new material in a decade, “The Bitter Truth”. Now 20 years on, EVANESCENCE continues to scale new heights. Featuring a lineup of Amy Lee (vocals, keyboards),Tim McCord (guitar/bass),Will Hunt (drums),Troy McLawhorn (guitars) and Emma Anzai (bass, backing vocals),the band continues to travel the globe, staging some of the most successful shows of their career, including Allianz Parque, a soccer stadium in Sāo Paulo, Brasil, which was the biggest headline show of EVANESCENCE’s career to date, drawing 40,000 fans. EVANESCENCE’s recent single “Afterlife”, from the Netflix series “Devil May Cry”, has had great success, with over 20 million streams and over 10 million views on YouTube in just the first few weeks. “Afterlife” is the fastest-moving single of the band’s career.Photo credit: Travis Shinn[embedded content]