Last fall, Evanescence gave its beat-heavy, metal/prog/goth-rock one musical twist it didn’t already have by pairing it with a symphony orchestra.
“Synthesis,” the band’s first album in six years, featured songs from previous efforts, plus three new tracks, and put powerhouse singer Amy Lee’s voice in the kind of pop-opera context where it likely always belonged.
Evanescence, whose hits include “Bring Me to Life,” “My Immortal” and “Lithium,” toured behind the album, including a December St. Louis date.
Looking to continue the concept for summer, the band searched for something special to make the show a new experience.
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Enter Lindsey Stirling, the violinist, dancer and viral video star who, as it happened, appeared on the “Synthesis” track “Hi-Lo.”
Lee and Stirling had long been fans of each other. “I don’t know anybody else that fills the space she fills in the music scene,” Lee says. “She’s created her own genre.”
The idea is for both Stirling and Evanescence to play separate sets with the orchestra and then have Stirling join the band for “Hi-Lo” and possibly a couple of other songs. Lee hopes to sit in during Stirling’s performance as well.
The secret to getting “Synthesis” off the ground, Lee says, was finding the right collaborators, which she did in producer Will Hunt (not to be confused with the band’s drummer, also named Will Hunt) and David Campbell, who did the orchestral arrangements.
“It got to the point where we were going to do this project, and I’m just thinking about how to build it and make it all work and to think outside the box and find a producer that understands. It couldn’t be just a rock producer; it has to be somebody different. Everything about this was a new world.”
“Hi-Lo,” a decade-old, previously unreleased song, brought the collaboration to fruition.
“It just dawned on me: Oh, now we can do ‘Hi-Lo,’” she says. “I hadn’t been thinking of it as an Evanescence song but more about the programming side of it. When I imagined it with the strings all over it, I got really excited.
“And then Lindsey came in, too, and it was like we got this big new instrumental section. Plus, it needed another voice, but not my voice, and we started thinking of the idea of a soloist. The move made so much sense, I can’t believe it was the first time we collaborated.”
Taking the show on the road last fall, and having to hire classical musicians along the way to keep it economically feasible, seemed daunting, to say the least. “It took some guts,” Lee admits.
“But you have to have the bravery to try something, to be open to the idea that it’s possible it’s going to fail. But it’s like, ‘We’re just going to pour everything into this and make it awesome somehow. Let’s try it.”
“It’s gotten better and better as it’s gone along. It’s different every night. Sometimes it’s more aggressive. Sometimes it’s more sorrowful. But that’s what makes it great. It’s not safe. I’ve really been enjoying that vulnerability and that rawness.”
What Evanescence + Lindsey Stirling • When 7 p.m. Saturday • Where Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre, 14141 Riverport Drive, Maryland Heights • How much $25-$99.50 • More info 1-800-745-3000; ticketmaster.com
