Being born in 1990, I’ve never witnessed a band or artist inflict a cultural movement that shocked society and inspired a new age of thinking. All those shenanigans ended in the early 90s. Instead I had boy bands, girl bands, and 90’s rap; nu-metal popped its head up, but you get my point, all we had was the left overs of the ‘real’ music; who was speaking to Generation Y? Few bands in the past 10 years have managed to infiltrate mainstream society in a manner as spectacular as Evanescence. Despite not necessarily creating a subculture, they brought the numbers to it, essentially providing the foundations for the scene we know and love today. Having recently released the 2011 self-titled album and the even more recent announcement of their Australian tour, I caught up with a newer addition to the band, drummer Will Hunt to learn about the world of Evanescence.
Will Hunt: Hey Mike, how’s it going man?
Music Feeds: Very well sir, what’s been happening?
WH: Oh man, we just got done going one of the late night television shows over here, Conan O’Brian
MF: No way! What was it like to meet Conan?
WH: My wife and I have been watching him for years, he’s one of the funniest guys I’ve ever seen, really cool guy, so funny and to play on the show is a real honour, like wow!
MF: It’s a huge deal, that’s shown all around the world!
WH: Conan is? No way I didn’t know that. The whole vibe was really cool, all the people treated us so nice and we totally rocked it out ha ha. So I guess that means even people in Australia can check it out.
MF: It’s great to see that you guys are still playing the late night show circuit. It really makes me think, Evanescence has seen it all, survived all the trends, and as an entity of itself, very few bands have been able to penetrate society to the point of enforcing a subculture and remain relevant, what’s the Evanescence secret?
WH: Well I think, first of all, a lot of it is attributed to Amy [Lee], she has a very clear vision of what she wants to do, you know Troy and I came in 2007, we were from a band called Dark New Day. She really liked our band because she found it very unique – I can’t remember the exact words she used to describe it, but I would describe Evanescence’s music in the same way, very unique and I think there’s two factors here, one of which is her voice, great voice, transcends, man, good music is good music, it doesn’t matter when its made. Songs were made before Troy and I came along that are classics and the ones that we made on this new record will stand the test of time as well – timeless music. And the other factor is the dedication of the fans, they’re amazing. Phenomenal fanbase, very loyal…very loyal actually, they stuck around for 5 years with this huge gap so we really wanted to give them something they liked, and at this point it looks like we did…those are the biggest factors for sure.
MF: So you mentioned that the album has been well received by your fans; is it difficult to write an album of this genre being in the position that Evanescence was when you began writing?
WH: I think it’s interesting; it was such a long break between the last record and this one, in a weird kind of way it sort of took the pressure off because we all kind of looked at it like we’re going to make the music we want to make and play the music we want to listen to and it’ll really test how loyal the fans are, it could come out and people could reject it, they could listen to it and be like ‘what is this crap?’ but I think that’s not what’s happened. What’s happened is the people have embraced us with open arms, and for us, in one hand you think, if we tried to follow the previous record and took two months off then got right back into writing, I think there would have been an immense amount of pressure to back that up. It was such a long break and none of us had any expectations going into it with any predisposition other than wanting to write the music we wanted to write. The pressure really wasn’t there, it was really more on us to be the best we could be, write the best songs we could write. That’s really what happened…I mean, sure the pressure was there, and it would creep in here and there.
MF: Was it one of those situations where your fans expectations were the last box you ticked when making the album?
WH: Yes. Definitely, I mean it’s just another one of those things. If you take Fallen and hold that up to Open Door, they are such different albums, and then if you take this record and put it up to either of those two, it’s even more different. The only constant is her voice, as long as that’s intact and she doesn’t start screaming in some weird way that no one knows…if she came out screaming like that girl in that one band….shit what are they called?
MF: Archenemy.
WH: Yes! Archenemy…Exactly. If she came out screaming out there, I’m sure there would be a lot of confusion. Like I love Archenemy, they’re a great band, although I don’t think it fits into our spectrum.
MF: Well I guess you guys have been doing what you’ve been doing for so long now, and so well, may as well keep at it
WH: That’s it man, you can only own one thing…what’s that saying…Jack of all trades master of none. That’s the truth, you really gotta focus on one area that you’re going to own.
MF: You’ve also just announced the Australian tour, so for your Aussie fans it’s been a long time between drinks since they saw you last; what’s the vibe like in the Evanescence camp for this tour?
WH: Yeah man, first of all we’re just stoked to be back out again, playing in front of people, playing new music, I don’t care where we’re at, that’s always a thrill, but on the other side of the coin, for me I’ve never even been to Australia. There’s many places I’ve been, many things I’ve done, but I’ve never been there. There’s been so many times when it’s been like, OK let’s go to Australia! But it fell through, so I’m really excited to come check it out and see what’s going on down there. I hear that the people and fans are amazing and everyone else is chomping at the bit to get back there
MF: Well hopefully we can get the weather right for you
WH: Yea, you guys have had like three weeks of rain or something, its been on the news here! I would love to get some time to go for a surf in Australia, you guys have all the sharks, it’s not them I’m worried about though, you have so many other weird creatures down there!
MF: Yeah man, the sharks are nothing, you can dodge them, the snakes will get you though
WH: Dude! You guys have it all, I’ve heard so many stories…like is it really like that?
MF: Just try not to think about it and you’ll be fine.
WH: That’s what everyone says, try and ignore it and nothing will happen
MF: Well yeah, you can ignore it until something bites you, then you’ll never be able to take it off your mind again.
WH: Ha ha oh no way!
Evanescence self-titled album is out now and you can catch the guys on their Australian Tour.
Evanescence Australian Tour 2012
MMarch 23rd – Royal Theatre, Canberra [AA]
March 24th – Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne [AA]
March 26th – Convention Centre, Brisbane [AA]
March 28th – Entertainment Centre, Newcastle [AA]
March 29th – Entertainment Centre, Sydney [AA]
