revolver magazine

REVOLVERMINI

BABESOF ROCKTOP 5 ALBUMS OF 2012

2 Revolver April 2012

April 2012 Revolver 3

2. Here And Now

Nickelback

4. American Capitalist

Five Finger Death Punch

Top 5 Albums of 2012

Babes of Rock

Emma Anzzai

Avril Lavigne

Amy Lee

Lzzy Hale

Table of Contents

1.Amaryllis

Shinedown

3. The Strange Case of...

Halestorm

5. Vulnerable

The Used

Creator: Jake GallegosEditors: Jesus Balladeres

Jarell AndersonArticles Courtesy of:

RevolverCosmopositan

Halestormrocks.comBillboard

Photos Courtesy of:Billboard.com

Halestormrocks.comRevolver Magazine

Maxim


Emma Anzzai

of Sick Puppies

Babes of Rock

Birthday1982/04/30Nickname

Female FleaBirthname

Emma AnzaiSign

TaurusHometown

Sydney

CountryAustraliaEthnicity

WhiteHeight

5’5”Tattoos

YesPiercings

Yes

Emma Anzai is the bassist and only female member of Australian rock band Sick Puppies. She was once

proclaimed the “Female Flea” for her compelling bass lines and lively action on stage by an Australian Television Show. Together with Shimon Moore she is one of the founding members of the band. Emma is an official endorser of Warwick bass guitars, Ampeg amplifiers and also once played a role of a bassist on an Australian television show.

Emma uses Warwick bass guitars and Ampeg amplifiers. She considers herself influenced by Giovanni Ribisi because “he’s odd and unique and I can always appreciate someone who isn’t stock standard”.Sick Puppies don’t do things halfway, not when they’re playing live in front of their rabid fans, nor when they tackled Tri-Polar, their second major label album for RMR/ Virgin/EMI and follow-up to Dressed Up As Life. When the Australian band decided to break through in the U.S., founding members, vocalist/guitarist/songwriter Shimon Moore and his high school classmate, bassist Emma Anzai, simply picked up and moved lock, stock and guitar amps to L.A., advertised for a drummer on Craig’s List, and were soon joined by Orange County native Mark Goodwin. After getting signed and putting out their debut, the trio made their own video independently to accompanying the first single, “All the Same,” shot in a Sydney shopping mall in which fellow Aussie Juan Mann held up a hand-

written placard offering passersby “Free Hugs.” The clip attracted over 43 million views on YouTube alone, and spawned a world-wide phenomenon. Emma agrees much of that aggression found its way onto the album. “When you’re on that one-track path, you tend to suppress all the other stuff that may come up along the way. But all those years of playing live have paid off with us sounding stronger and more cohesive than ever before. When you perform, everything is very visceral. This album is an expression of that kind of raw emotion.” “We wanted a big-sounding record that would connect with live audiences,”

adds Shimon. “We just stuck with what we knew worked from playing over the last few years. We had a little more creative control in the studio this time, more ideas about what we wanted to sound like. “Second time around, you’re always a little bit more aware of how to do things,” says Emma. “We’re really begin-ning to know what kind of sound we wanted, and how to achieve certain effects. We’re now mindful of how these songs will come across live.” Now that Tri-Polar is done, Sick Puppies are preparing to get back out there and do what they do best—play live.


The biggest mystery about Avril Lavigne: How can one of the edgiest and most powerful voices

booming out of everyone’s iPod these days come from someone so incredibly tiny (5 feet 2, tops) and shy? Yep, that’s right: The always outspoken, bird-flipping singer is so quiet that her voice rarely elevates above a girlish whisper. At times, though, it’s hard to determine if she’s hiding behind her large black hooded sweatshirt because she’s really timid—or because she simply can’t be bothered interacting with people she doesn’t know. But after a little while, the sweatshirt comes off and she starts to open up. Dressed in a fitted, long-sleeved black tee shirt, jeans, and her ever-present black Converse sneakers, she sits sideways in her chair, her legs dangling over one side, and plays with her mane of long honey-blond hair. She suddenly looks less like a pop-rock sensation and more like a pretty teen-

age girl, gossiping with her best friend. Not too long ago, 20-year-old Avril was just that: your average teenage girl. The daughter of a phone-company employee and a stay-at-home mom, Avril grew up in quaint, rural Napanee, Ontario, Canada, where she managed to beat the small-town boredom by doing two things: playing ice hockey with her older brother and singing her heart out around town. In 1999, at age 14, she won a radio contest to sing with fellow Canadian Shania Twain, and that exposure helped land her an Arista record deal at age 16. Four years later, she’s promoting her second chart-topping album, Under My Skin, which is a deeply personal CD. Lyrics such as “You were everything, everything that I wanted/We were meant to be, sup-posed to be, but we lost it” and “Sit on the bed alone, staring at the phone/He wasn’t what I wanted, what I thought, no/He wouldn’t even open up the

door” describe the heartbreaks she’s endured over the years, but luckily all that’s in the past now. After being linked to her former guitarist, Jesse Colburn, and her current guitarist, Evan Taubenfeld, she’s reportedly found love with Sum 41 singer, Deryck Whibley (although she has never publicly admitted to being romantically involved with any of them). Listen in as Avril tells it like it is.

Would you say that most of your songs are about guys you’ve dated?

Avril: Yeah, a lot of them. They’re about what I’m experi-encing with the whole dat-ing thing, but I’ve really only dated two guys in the past four years. It’s easiest to write songs when I’m either really in love or really mad at a guy. It’s just always best when I’m feeling superemotional. When you fall in love, you have emotions going through your body, and the same thing happens when things are going badly with a guy. When I’m going through something that has a big im-pact on my life, it’s much easier to sing.

C: What’s your type?

A: Boys with guitars…they’re really fucking hot. That rock kind of guy with skaterish punk style. I could never date a preppy guy with button-down shirts…like most of the guys in L.A. And I like guys who are short and kind of small, because I’m short—although I did date one tall guy in high school— and older guys, about four or five years older, because girls are much more ma-ture than guys are. Guys are babies, and I like to feel like I am being taken care of. But I’m not even looking anymore, so I don’t really care.

Would you say you’re less of a tomboy than you used to be?

A: I’ve actually always been girlie, but now I’m more girlie—especially in terms of the amount of time it takes me to get ready in the morning and how much I like shopping and clothes now. Sometimes I dress up fancy.…I’ll wear a dress if I’m going out somewhere.

How else have you changed in the past few years?

A: I’ve changed a lot and really matured. I’ve grown up and experienced so much. I’ve taken on more responsibility recently—I have my own house now in Toronto.

Avril Lavigne


Amy Lynn Hartzler, better known as Amy Lee, is an American singer-songwriter and classically

trained pianist. She is co-founder and lead vocalist of the rock band Evanes-cence. Her influences range from classi-cal musicians such as Mozart to modern artists like Bjork, Tori Amos, Danny Elfman, and Plumb.

Amy Lee was born to parents John Lee, a disc jockey and TV personality, and Sara Cargill. She has one brother, Robby, and two sisters, Carrie and Lori. Lee had a third sister, who died in 1987 at the age of three from an unidentified illness. The song “Hello” from Fallen has been reported to have been written for her late sister, as well as the song “Like You” from The Open Door. Lee took clas-sical piano lessons for nine years. Her family moved to many places, includ-ing Florida and Illinois, but eventually settled in Little Rock, Arkansas, where Evanescence started. She briefly at-tended Middle Tennessee State Univer-sity to study music theory and compo-sition, but later dropped out to focus on Evanescence.

Evanescence

Lee co-founded the band with gui-tarist Ben Moody. The two met at a youth camp after Moody heard Lee playing Meat Loaf’s “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That)” on the piano. Within a month, the pair were

playing acoustic sets at Arkansas book stores and coffee houses, and they eventually recorded two EPs, Evanescence EP (1998) and Sound Asleep EP (1999), selling them at various local venues. In 2000, Evanescence recorded the longer EP Origin. This demo contains three songs from the de-but album Fallenand was written by Lee and Moody: “Whisper”, “Imaginary” and “My Immortal”. Whereas “Whisper” and “Imagi-nary” were altered before being included on Fallen, “My Immortal” is virtually unchanged.

Appearance

Lee has a recognizable fashion style, marked by her occasional use of Gothic make-up and taste for Victorian-styled clothing. She also designs many of her own clothes, including those worn in the music video for “Going Under”, the dress she wore at the 2004 Grammy awards, and the dress worn for the cover of The Open Door. After she designed it she chose Japanese designer H. Naoto to make it for her. In concerts, she often wears a corset-top and fishnets, as well as long skirts and knee-high boots. She at one point had a piercing on her left eyebrow, which is visible on the cover of Fallen.

She has stated on a number of occasions that she would never flash her breasts or en-gage in other publicity stunts that would draw attention to herself. In fact, in the music video for “Everybody’s Fool”, she aimed to mock such artists by suggesting that celebrities who use sex to appeal to an audience are, in fact, merely peddling “lies” (the unifying

theme of the music video). Many fans praise Lee for her refusal to emulate other celebrities by using sex appeal in her music.

In 2006, Blender listed Lee as one of the hottest women in rock alongside such singers as Joan Jett, Courtney Love and Liz Phair.

Amy Lee of Evanescence


LZZY: observation, I like being a sponge and soaking up what’s around me, not just what’s happening personally to me, but everything surrounding me. I have a whole box full of napkins and receipts with lyrics and one liners writ-ten on them. Also, if I’m in the moment when something happens to me, like my heart is breaking, or an argument, or a tough situation that I have to step up and prove myself, I make sure I write down everything I’m feeling, EVERY-THING while I’m still in that moment, because that is when the truth comes pouring out... And you have no control over what your writing. Which is good. I don’t think that an actual writer should have conscious control over what he/she writes. It should come from some subconscious where you’re not trying so hard, you’re inner self posseses you.

4) How do you get yourself psyched up for a show? Any pre-show rituals?

My pre show ritual is about an hour be-fore the show, I warm up my voice and fingers, I put on my stage outfit, and my make up, write down anything I want to remember while i’m under a rock n roll state of mind on stage, and spend 10 or so minutes backstage with my boys where we are absorb the vibe from the crowd, do our band handshake, and bask in the glory that is that bubbly feeling right before the lights go down. A feeling I physically need everyday.

5) Do you have any other tattoos be-sides the Halestorm symbol? Where? If not, are you thinking of anything else? What about piercings?

LZZY: I have 3 tattoos total, working on my fourth. I’m not into sleeves, I like to keep things hidden. Every one tells a personal story;) if you’re lucky enough to see one, I don’t mind, but what and where is for me to know and you to find out.;) I have no piercings, not even earrings.

6) Who is one person that you would love to meet, past or present?

LZZY: Janis Joplin. Just to hear her story from her, not anyone elses opinion of who she was.

7) Any pet peeves or things that annoy you?

LZZY: Adults who push past little kids in line at our meet n greets. I realize

that you’re probably drunk, but be respectful of the little ones in line, it’s most likely their first concert, and they deserve the autograph they want, it’s unfair for a part of their memory of their first rock show to be some drunk man or woman, cutting in front of them in line, or pushing them out of the way so you could get to me first. Just sayin’;)

8) Is there anything you would like to say to the girls out there that idolize you?

I think there’s an unspoken idea, that girls are supposed to lead their life in a certain way. I encourage all of u to follow your own path, to make yourself happy. There are no rules or standards. Everything that has happened to me since I decided I wanted to be in music, has never been according to plan, and has been incredibly unorthodox! You have to follow your gut. And some-times it’ll be hard, and life will suck, or people won’t necessarily be supportive or understand you, but that doesn’t mean you should stop, and no matter what, remember you are a powerful woman. Because it takes a real woman to find her own path. It takes patience, strength and confidence. Love all of yourself. The only one you need to answer to is YOU. That goes for your career, your lovelife, your body im-age, your lifestyle! Two of my favorite mantras are “ the greatest risk is never taking one” and “ well behaved women hardly ever make history”.

Elizabeth “Lzzy” Hale has been ac-tively writing and performing origi-nal music since 1997 when she was

13 years old. She started learning piano at the age of 5; Lizzy later progressed to a keytar. Lzzy took guitar lessons at 16.

8 Questions with Lzzy Hale

1) What’s the one question that you don’t like being asked in an interview? …hopefully that’s not it...

LZZY: Theres not much I won’t talk about, and Ill always be honest. But all I say is that people don’t have to become too obsessed with my dating life or personal religion or lack of, or my sexual tastes. If u listen closely to my songs, you’ll know where I stand. That being said, I don’t mind being asked;)

2) What is your favorite place to write?

LZZY: I like when I’m walking some-where, and an idea will pop into my head, that I have to record onto my phone, on the go. You get this tingly magic feeling, like your channeling something. When I used to live at home, not on the road, I would set up my 8 track recorder in the corner of my bedroom, screw a guitar holder into the wall, and have a mic set up, so that no matter what time it was I could get up, walk over and put my heart on tape.

3) Your best inspiration for writing is?

Lzzy Hale of Halestorm


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