Jen Majura of Evanescence

A Report From The Road with Jen Majura of Evanescence

Interview by Ken Morton - Photos by Jack Lue

Evanescene and Halestorm made their way across the United States on The Worlds Collide Tour, thrilling their many fans with a concert for the ages! It was an absolute honor to interview guitarist Jen Majura to not only discuss her return to the road with Evanescence after pandemic downtime, but to also chat about her vast and brilliant career in music that includes working with Blind Guardian, Northgard, and a recent solo album entited Inzenity. Read on as Highwire Daze presents our exclusive interview and Jack Lue photoshoot with Jen Majura of Evanescence!

How has the tour with Evanescence been going and what have been some of the highlights for you so far?

Every show is a highlight. And this tour is the biggest production Evanescence ever has done. We are on the road with eight trucks, countless buses, a crew of fifty people – it’s a mind-blowing tour to be honest – because I’ve never been allowed to be part of a production of that size. It is a very exciting thing – especially the first show in Portland was nerve wracking. Because that was the first show after 771 days. Our last show we played was September 26th of 2019 in Saint Petersburg in Russia. Everybody was excited to get back onstage and it’s beautiful to be reunited with my band again. I live in Germany and I’m the only one from Europe – so during Covid there was no chance of me getting ahold of anybody and come here to the States. It’s just great to be back.

How did you wind up joining Evanescence?

Alex Skolnick is a very dear friend of mine – and I played in another band back in 2015 – and we were scheduled to play two festivals in one weekend. And Testament were scheduled to play the same two festivals. Alex watched me onstage and then he sent me a very mysterious email saying,

(in a hushed voice), “Jen! Friends of mine are going to reach out to you. I can’t reveal much but it’s something you should say yes to!” Three days later, our management hit me up and asked me if I would consider being a part of Evanescence - and I immediately said yes. And within a heartbeat, Amy flew me to New York – we hung out for three days – took long walks, laughed together, ate great food, drank, sang, played music a little bit – and she was like “Jen! You got the gig!” “Woo-Hoo!!!”

People see Amy Lee as a legend and this icon in music. How do you see Amy Lee as?

I see her as a very, very dear friend – she’s family. We all in the band are honest friends. We love each other and we respect each other a lot. But I can’t lie – I have moments when I’m looking at her – the way she works. She knows exactly what she wants, which I think is amazing – and she’s a super strong woman with that remarkable, beautiful voice. And every single night that I get to sing with her – because I sing a lot during Evanescence shows – it’s the first time ever that a female vocal is performing with Amy, because she never wanted a voice to do harmony and backgrounds. Now I’m singing a lot and it’s beautiful. I’m very blessed and I’m very grateful for that.

So, you have a few solo albums out on your own – the latest being Inzenity. How close are you to recording new solo music, or do you even have time?

Honestly, every musician had a lot of time in these past years – but the thing is – what I realized – at the beginning of the lockdown in Europe, I was like, “Oh, I have so much time now! I’m going to make this work! I’m going to write music!” But after a couple of weeks when you realize there’s nothing happening in your life, you have no output – because there’s no input in your life. Everybody asks me that question – “Hey, when is your third solo album coming out?” Honestly, I wrote one song in 2020. One song! Of course, we did the Evanescence album which came out in March. We recorded. But it was not as busy as a normal, traditional way of recording an album because Amy and the guys could meet up in the studio and record and write while I was remotely at home in Germany. So, I had to record everything myself, and I missed the input from Amy and Nick (Raskulinecz) our producer. Like “Hey that was a great take!” “Try this again.” “Do a little bit more that and try that note!” So, recording at home all by yourself, alone a home, is just different.

What is meant by the title of you last solo album Inzenity? What does that mean to you?

So, I heard the joke a lot – why don’t you call it “In Jenity?” Hahaha! (Laughs) But Inzenity is – I’m Asian and I find my inner peace in Zen by acknowledging there’s black and white – the Ying and Yang. There’s good and bad – and you find your inner peace as soon as you acknowledge there’s both. And the whole album is in black and white – you can hear that in the songwriting. For example, the title track Inzenity we have a jazz solo, but we have death growls – we have long Oriental-like sounding parts. It’s like literally I said I don’t care about mainstream roles – I just do what I do. And that’s my inner peace – that’s my Inzenity.

You were on the Blind Guardian album At The Edge Of Time. What was that experience like working with Hansi and Blind Guardian?

I’ve known those guys for so long. The European metal community is very small – and everybody knows everybody. I’ve been friends with them forever. We sang together I remember – it was so long ago – but I also played digeridoo on one of the songs. Charlie Bauerfeind produced the whole thing, and it was fun. The way they work, again, was a different way other bands work. We were three background vocalists and Hansi (Kürsch - lead vocals) – and we were standing around one microphone. Each one of us had a different tone and flavor and frequency in their voice. And all four of us recorded together at the same time and built this giant, big, massive frequency of vocals. It was very interesting. And I learned a lot!

Another band you worked with more in the underground was Nothgard. Tell me about that experience and how it came about.

Well Dom the singer and head of the band – he’s a friend of mine. He asked me if I would be interested in joining them a little bit on the songwriting, on the backing, on the harmonies – and I think I wound up on almost every song singing background vocals because it was so much fun. And especially the video shoot in one of the songs I finally got to play a dead person. I’ve always wanted to play a dead person in a music video, and I finally did it!

Black Thunder Ladies – are you still doing that?

No, that was my AC/DC tribute band. I’d say this is the years of learning and experience collecting – because I literally did everything in the band from managing to contracts to

merchandise to website – and that’s when you learn how to coordinate stuff – how to tour in a tiny little van – you know, the hard-working years. It was fun. We did one album called First Take, but then let’s just says it’s difficult to keep a chicken coop with five chickens.

You did an interesting project called Anywheredoor earlier this year. Tell me about the project for people who don’t know about it.

It’s a project by my friend Kris Claerhout, – he lives in Asia. And he’s a booker for all these guitar players, guitar players. It’s Mattias IA Eklundh from Sweden, Guthrie Govan, Ron “Bumblefoot” Thal – and we’re all friends. And when he asked us if we would be interested in doing this weird electro-guitar album – he gave us all the program stuff – all the single stems – and we were allowed to cut, edit, and just do whatever we want to do. And I thought that the idea was very challenging and interesting, so I immediately said yes because I got to be on an album with all my friends that was challenging, amazing, super different and interesting!

Do you have any other projects you’d like to mention before we close out the interview?

I did record an album with a friend of mine called Alen Brentini – and we called the project Something On 11. And the album is out – you can buy it and find it everywhere. And it’s again another part of my history where I don’t give a shit about mainstream rules – just do what you want to do and have fun with music. That’s something that is really fun. And then there’s a bunch of stuff that I’m not allowed to talk about yet...

So, what’s up next for you after the Evanescence / Halestorm tour is over?

Christmas with mama and papa in Germany. I think I’m going to go on a small vacation in January. And then next year – in March/April we have an arena tour in Europe together with our friends from the Netherlands Within Temptation. And then we have more planning for May, but that’s not official yet. And then I believe in June we’ll be back in Europe and tour all over the place – so I hope this whole thing will happen. I’ve known Sharon and the boys again because the European metal scene is very tight. I’ve known them for years and I can’t wait to be on the tour with them. Also, I’m super happy to be on this tour with Halestorm because Lzzy and I are friends. Touring with friends on this kind of level is like a big vacation with your best friends – and you get to play these rad shows and awesome venues!

http://www.jenmajura.com/