It's been almost seven years since Ben Moody departed Evanescence in the middle of a tour while promoting "Fallen," the band's multiplatinum debut, due to being at odds with band co-founder Amy Lee. The album exploded after its track "Bring Me to Life" gained an audience and introduced a new female music idol in singer Lee, along with a brace of radio-friendly rock tracks with enough mystique to gain approval from the emo/goth set.
But it hasn't been long enough for some fans to let bygones be bygones. After a successful stint as a songwriter for such pop stars as Kelly Clarkson and Celine Dion, Moody announced in a June 2009 press conference he had formed We Are the Fallen. The band includes himself on guitar plus former Evanescence guitarist John LeCompt and drummer Rocky Gray.
Team Amy instantly started howling about Moody recruiting his old bandmates. At first blush, you could see why they thought he was flipping them off. First song "Bury Me Alive" showed the band following the "Fallen" prototype: sky-high orchestration, tasty guitar licks and dramatic production. Even the subject matter—emotional suffocation—reflected that of "Going Under," the opening track to "Fallen." Topping it off? A black-haired, black-clad, black-eyeliner-ed singer ("American Idol" alumna Carly Smithson) with a take-no-shit diva wail. Hmmmmmm.
However, after a few listens to We Are the Fallen's debut record, "Tear the World Down," its budding personality emerges. When it comes the goth accouterments, Ev is midnight to WATF's twilight. The rock unit's song structures are more pop-oriented than the free-form direction Lee took for "The Open Door," Evanescence's second album. Her experimentation lead radio to shun "Door" after its first single, "Call Me When You're Sober," but the familiar style of "World" stands a better chance at gaining air play.
Once eyes are closed and ears are opened, Lee and Smithson also differ. Lee is currently the more experienced and vocally diverse, but Smithson shouldn't be dismissed. Her aural lightening bolts mimic Ann Wilson's powerhouse balladeering, and the covers WATF have been performing on the road (Madonna's "Like a Prayer," Journey's "Separate Ways") demonstrate her interpretation skills.
The Killing Words spoke with Moody by phone in mid-March. The band was preparing to play its debut show at King's College in London before going on tour to support H.I.M. The past didn't breathe down our necks like an 800-pound gorilla: It was a whining chimpanzee who eventually got quiet. Moody patiently fielded all the questions about the similarities between the two bands, and he explained why he was returning to the spotlight for what he hopes will be his main gig from now on.
"I have been behind the scenes trying to put together the right vehicle for myself to get back onstage and back to doing the music I love," he says. "And I’ve tried different things . . . I tried looking for a male singer for a completely different rock group that wasn’t as heavy or as epic. It was more 'Journey' kind of stuff. And the catalyst was simple my absolute, undying need to get back to what I do, which is: be on the road. Play. And write heavy stuff again. So that’s what started it.
"I’ve been searching for several years now for the right way to get back to it and of course, ironically enough, I just had to go back home," he observes.
Part Two
In part two of The Killing Words' interview with Ben Moody, the former guitarist/co-songwriter for Evanescence, he discusses the similarities between his new band, We Are the Fallen, and his old one, along with how they differ. [Editor's note: Only the single "Bury Me Alive" was available for listening at the time of the interview. The rest of the band's debut album, "Tear the World Down," wasn't yet available to provide the basis for comparison that's given in the introduction in part one.]
The Killing Words: Being the co-writer of Evanescence [when "Fallen" was released], it’s got your stamp all over it. But at the same time this band, from what I’ve heard on the track "Bury Me Alive," it has a lot of similarities to Evanescence.
Ben Moody: Yep. It does.
TKW: How would you say it’s different from Evanescence?
Moody: Well, based on the one track, it’s hard for me to be able to give you, “Oh, this is how it’s different.” But the way this is different from Evanescence—I mean, if you listen to the record as a whole, it becomes very obvious . . . There is a lot more metal on this record than there is on "Fallen," but there’s also a lot more pop. It’s this really complete mix of all of our writing styles. Whereas Evanescence was the style of three people who . . .
TKW: Sorry, I should phrase the question better, because I am referring to "Fallen," not where Evanescence is now. I’m glad you’re describing the album because, granted, I haven’t heard the whole thing yet. But when you hear that one track, you hear it, it’s there.
Moody: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. And here’s the thing: I wasn’t trying to hide from that at all. Because the one thing that was the problem with all of the bands and different projects that I had put together before We Are the Fallen came out was that I wasn’t being true to myself. I was specifically trying to be different than what I had done. I spent my entire life, from the time I picked up my first instrument, I heard music in a certain way. And I spent my entire life building that in Evanescence.
Things happened, and things transpired, and it did not work out with the way, the lineup that it was. That doesn’t change how I heard music. And so all this time I’m learning how to write better, I’m learning how to write for different people, I’m becoming a real songwriter, or at least, I like to think [laughs] that I would be becoming a real songwriter all these years.
The thing that made my heart ache the most was that I couldn’t give it to a vehicle like what I had done before because that is the way I viewed music. I finally woke up one day and got smart and said, “Fuck it, stop trying to hide who you are.” Evanescence is not like, that’s that thing over there and this is over here and I’m trying to be that. It is me. The sound that you heard on "Fallen," like, that was the way I heard it in my head. So the similarities are there because that’s just what we do. [Guitarist John LeCompt and drummer Rocky Gray] and I—we get together, we start playing music, that’s what it sounds like. You know what I mean? Like we just can’t help it.
Part Three:
In part three of The Killing Words' interview with former Evanescence guitarist/co-songwriter Ben Moody, he talks about why he chose one-time "American Idol" contestant Carly Smithson for his new band, We Are the Fallen. Smithson shares a physical and musical resemblance to Evanescence singer Amy Lee.
The Killing Words: You have Carly, because you need a singer who can belt. That stuff [you write] is not easy to sing. But her look is similar to Amy.
Ben Moody: That was not something we had any control over. You know what I mean? The thing is, you can’t put somebody in hot pink on the cover of a record that sounds like ours. Our goal here was to also find someone who we meshed with on a personality level. It’s a cliché to say this but, people like us, we wear what we wear, we look how we look. We just are who we are. We do look similar to other people. Evanescence, we didn’t look original either. At that point, you could compare us to a number of other people. I just find it ironic and comical that now I’m being compared to myself [laughs].
TKW: Interesting.
Moody: It’s a funny world we live in.
TKW: How did Carly come into the band?
Moody: I personally, even before [drummer Rocky Gray and guitarist John LeCompt] were in this full time, I had to come to them with something legitimate before I asked them to change their whole world again on a whim for me. 'Cause that would be the second time that I said, “Hey, why don’t you put your whole life at risk and upheaval with your family and all that to follow a dream?” [Editor's note: Gray and LeCompt were formerly in Evanescence with Moody.] So I wanted to have the right person.
So I searched and I searched and I searched, and there were some that were good. There were some that were so awful they made my ears bleed . . . It took years for me to even accept "American Idol"] as a legitimate source of talent. Which, after Kelly [Clarkson], I kinda couldn’t deny it. And then Daughtry, you know, I’ve written with both of those people and they’re amazing. Like, literally amazing people to work with. So I finally accepted "American Idol" as legitimate.
My girlfriend, her mother were pretty on me about checking out Carly Smithson because this person who was renting a room from me at the time, she knew her. And I was like, “Ah, God, even if she is into it, even if she is cool, even if she can hit the notes, chances are she’s gonna be tied up with 19 Entertainment, gonna be all these entanglements . . . ” I just didn’t want it.
Well, the night we were about to begin work full time with another singer who was nowhere—just didn’t fit us, truly—my girlfriend sat me down and I watched Carly on YouTube. And so of course from that moment it was like, “Well, fuck, man, she can sing.” So I called my friend and she was out with her at the time, and her place in this band was solidified that very night because, we stayed up till dawn talking about so much more than just, “Hey, this is what I wanna do, can you sing these notes?” It was about who she was as a person, could she survive in a band with all of our personalities, which are both strange and ridiculous.
So it was just one of those things—it was kind of inevitable. Very much like my last band. There were some things about it that—the three people that wrote "Fallen"—we couldn’t be more different people, but together we made something I consider very special.
Part Four:
In part four of The Killing Words' interview with former Evanescence guitarist/co-songwriter Ben Moody, he reveals the songwriting dynamics in his new band, We Are the Fallen; whether the act will ever perform Evanescence material live; and why he thinks fans are so passionate about the band he co-founded with singer Amy Lee.
The Killing Words: Are you the sole songwriter for this band?
Ben Moody: No. Actually, I’m not. And I love that. I didn’t want to be. Part of the structure of this was I want everyone to have equal stake and I want to be able to take the best from all these people and use those to inspire me to be better. The one really cool thing I can swear to with We Are the Fallen is that I am not the principal songwriter. I am equally a songwriter as everyone else and even the drummer, Rocky [Gray], he brings guitar stuff. It’s a very, very interesting dynamic and everyone came through on this record which was, I guess, both relieving and surprising. I couldn’t believe how well it worked.
TKW: Are Evanescence songs are going be part of the set list?
Moody: No. They’re not. At first, we considered that. We played ["Going Under"] at our press conference [in June 2009 to announce the band] because, truth be told, we thought it would get a reaction and it would surprise people and it would even piss some people off and it turns out, we were kind of right. Some fans got angry, other people were confused, and we thought, "Eh, at least they're talking."
But we are very proud of our history. We have just as much right to those songs as anybody. However, this record is so much more of a foundation than we could have even hoped for. We would like to build upon the past, but this record we feel speaks for itself better than we ever could, so we're gonna start from scratch, and we are not going to play any Evanescence songs. Not now, anyway. The future, who knows.
TKW: It's easy to say that rock bands have passionate fans, but the people who follow Evanescence and anybody who's ever been a member of it, people are extremely passionate about Evanescence. Why do you think that is?
Moody: You know, it's funny you said that. We've actually had conversations about this within the band recently. I don't know why it is. I like to consider it unique. It's very incredible how diehard people are to defend what we were, and what is was, and what it is or what it will be. Even some people were so against what we were doing in the beginning, but they kind of realized that you can have both, these people who were absolutely rabid about hating us are some of our biggest supporters now and helping with street teams and building fan sites and things like that.
I think at the end of the day it's gotta be something to do with the music. It has to be something, there's a chord that's being struck with the listeners, and something in the music is speaking to them on a very personal level. That's the only explanation I can give is it makes a difference in their lives, and that's all we can really hope for.
Part Five:
In the fifth and final installment of The Killing Words' interview with Ben Moody, the former Evanescence guitarist/co-songwriter discusses how some people are unhappy that he recruited one-time Evanescence bandmates John LeCompt and Rocky Gray to play in new group We Are the Fallen. He also admits that while the angry buzz doesn't hurt in terms of getting the word circulating about the project, We Are the Fallen wasn't created for a publicity stunt.
The Killing Words: I've seen postings online, as I'm sure you have, for what you're doing, against what you're doing, so I wondered what your take was on that. You've got some people who are like, "Oh, it's fine," and some people who are just furious.
Ben Moody: Oh, they're so mad. They are so, so mad. And all I can say to them is, "Look, you don't have to listen to it. But if you like what we've done in the past, there's no reason why you can't have both. We're not trying to replace anything or anybody," you know what I mean? We're just doing what we do.
I don't know. It's both disheartening but flattering at the same time that we're causing that much of a reaction in people.
TKW: But at the same time, publicity-wise, it can't hurt.
Moody: It doesn't hurt, no. It absolutely doesn't hurt.
TKW: Not that I think you put this band together just for publicity.
Moody: I put together this kind of a band because I knew it would make me happy. At the end of the day, anyone who knows me knows that [laughs] I wanna have a peaceful life and I wanna be happy. And this music gets out things in me that I can't get out without it. And because of that, I become happy. And so, if you like it, great. If you dislike it, you're gonna have to just shut if off, because I'm never gonna stop . . .
Just come out and see a show. We're here to entertain you, to give you an escape and we're writing songs that hopefully will mean something to you at some point in your life. If it's not now, if it's something that happened in the past or if it's something that'll happen in the future, we just wanna connect, we just wanna place music.
This isn't a publicity stunt. This isn't anything other that five people who just wanna play music and put on one fucking great show. That's it.
http://metalmusic.suite101.com/article. ... -part-five
I'm glad they gave Carly a chance 
