Evanescence Recording New Album, Plots Summer Tour

"It wouldn't be an Evanescence album if it didn't sound somewhat like Evanescence," explains Lee, who's incorporating the harp, which she learned to play between albums, in several of the new songs. "I feel like our band has always had programming and inspirations from Bjork and Depeche Mode and Massive Attack and that kind of thing. It's not like we're making one of those records; it's just, like, that is playing a bigger role in the sound of Evanescence this time. Those little nuances and hints come in in ways that are cool. The sound that we're going for as a group is to fuse synthetic instruments with organic instruments and create something that sounds like a whole new place. It just sounds larger than life."

Lee says the group -- which also includes guitarist Terry Balsamo and bassist Tim McCord -- and producer Steve Lillywhite are currently recording about 16 songs and is "still working and...finishing writing here and there. Some of them aren't finished lyric-wise or writing-wise, but I really feel like it's mostly there." Some of the songs, Lee acknowledges, are compositions for potential film projects that weren't used.

Lee confesses to being a bit apprehensive after the long gap since "The Open Door," but she says a pair of one-off shows during November in New York and Brazil gave her confidence that Evanescence's following is still intact. "I was really nervous 'cause it had been so long," she says, "but it was amazing to see how many fans there still are that are waiting for us after all this time. It's really inspiring, and it makes me excited to show them how much we've grown."

Lee is, not surprisingly, less excited to talk about We Are The Fallen, the group formed by Evanescence co-founder Ben Lee and other former members -- John LeCompt and Rocky Gray -- whose debut album comes out in May. "It just doesn't have anything to do with me or Evanescence," she notes. "The only thing that bothers me about it, really, is I keep hearing...about 'the original members.' The only original members of Evanescence are me and Ben; John and Rocky came into the band after we'd already recorded "Fallen," so there's a lot of years there...that didn't include anybody but Ben and I. Other than that, I don't have an opinion or anything to say about it."