Jen Majura departs from Evanescence

[Passenger]

Today (21), Evanescence officially announced Jen Majura's departure from the band. The german guitarist joined the band in 2015, and was part of the band for 7 years.

Through social media, the band announced they'll be making an announcement about the new lineup soon.

[Passenger]

Much respect for Jen! She's an amazing woman and will forever be part of the band's history. So glad to have had her on the band, she's so talented and I'm sure will always be friends with the remaining members of the group. Wishing all the best and hope she has an amazing journey ahead of her! <3

[mattthomas1992]

Genuinely really surprised, I wonder if it's down to location?

[tezbear_91]

All the best to Jen and I thank her for all the hard work she did for Evanescence. She’s extremely talented and I’m sure she will do something interesting in her next chapter. She always seemed positive and bubbly.

I’m excited for a new line up though if I’m being honest. I know it’s unlikely but if Terry returned it would be bass ass!

[Vexing.Rune]

This is definitely unexpected. Glad I got the chance to meet Jen a couple of times cos she's awesome and was a really nice person when I did. Regarding the new lineup, I really think the role should be offered to Terry before anyone else. If he turns it down then so be it but at least the offer should be made. Just my opinion.

[jastus]

Oh no! I really hope that there was no dispute between them. I guess it's due to Jen living in Europe which certainly caused problems.
As a german myself I was very pleased when Jen joined the band because I thought this would be a good reason for them to play more shows in Germany. I was looking forward meeting Jen with the band at their next concert in Germany, but due to Corona their concert in March 2020 was postponed to November 2022...

Well... if Terry returns, I would be happy too Maybe it's another person who worked with Evanescence before?

[rionka]

May 21, 2022 13:52:26 GMT -6 jastus said:

Oh no! I really hope that there was no dispute between them. I guess it's due to Jen living in Europe which certainly caused problems.
As a german myself I was very pleased when Jen joined the band because I thought this would be a good reason for them to play more shows in Germany. I was looking forward meeting Jen with the band at their next concert in Germany, but due to Corona their concert in March 2020 was postponed to November 2022...

Well... if Terry returns, I would be happy too Maybe it's another person who worked with Evanescence before?

^ me too. i hoped that they would play here more often again.



I'm really sad, that's all I can say now.. I'm so sorry I didn't meet her because I just couldn't.

[carolexodus]

Really sucks, probably related to location problems like you pointed out. One thing I really liked about Jen is that she did vocals live, that gave Amy some support and the sound felt more full live.
I wonder who is joining now. Hving Terry back would be awesome, such a sweetheart he is.

[imnotbroken118]

This was surprising news this morning. I immediately thought about how hard it must be to live half a world away from your band and have to manage the long travel for rehearsal dates before embarking on the pretty intense tour schedule they have planned this year. All on top of maintaining your personal life. I just hope everything is good with her and that this is a positive decision on her end.

Jen really brought new life into the band and I'm so thankful for the time we had with her in the line-up. She is such a kind and talented woman and I know this isn't the last we'll hear from her.
I'm really going to miss her live backing vocals and her social media postings during the tours.

I really thought Jen was such a great fit for the band so I am feeling pretty sad with the news. I'm trying to keep focused on the positive that we'll have a new member who will hopefully bring a whole new round of fresh energy, but I felt that this line-up was the strongest Ev has ever been and it sucks to see someone go.

I'll never forget when I got to meet her during the Synthesis tour. The first show I went to, during the meet and greet, I did my meet and greet, and then my friend did hers, and then we went back to get a picture all together. When I jumped in for the photo, I chose to stand between Tim and Jen which knocked Tim out of the picture shot. The camera operator was trying to motion for him to scoot in but he was not paying any attention so I decided to sass him a little.
I turned to him and said, "Don't you want to be in the picture?!" to which he replied, "Yeah, I wanna be in the picture!"
Jen started cracking up and then they took the picture which captured her laughing. So now every time I look at my meet and greet photo, I'm reminded of the time my sassing Tim made Jen laugh lol.


Edit: I just saw Jen's tweet saying how this wasn't her decision. Now I really don't know what to think.

[Rarkphoenix]

It's all moving so fast. I guess it must have been an Amy/management decision but it's impossible to know why at this stage. I wonder if the travel element was part of it because if you want to rehearse at short notice, that's not going to work out if your guitarist is half a world away. The fact that Jen says there's no hard feelings is comforting, but she's never struck me as the bitter type anyway so I feel like she'd say that even if it did sting a little getting that news.

It's all speculation at this stage, but it does at least seem to be amenable on the surface. I'm just hoping everyone involved is okay and this was a decision made in everyone's interests rather than a knee-jerk impulsive thing.

[rionka]

[gezurrak]

I am pretty upset with these news... and I was looking forward for their European tour because I own a VIP package and I really wanted to get a "meet and greet" with Jen, too... well... hm :/
To be honest, I usually don't care about the artist's private life, but somehow I wonder why Jen has to leave, especially given the fact that she says it wasn't her decision.
Am I the only one here who feels a bit ... strange when remembering all the interviews about their cover of the song "The Chain"? Wasn't it all about "we are Ev, no one can tear us apart etc."?
But, well... I will really miss her. Always loved her backing vocals and her energy on stage and stuff.

[Passenger]

I feel like some are reading way too deep into this. If Amy said before that there would be no lineup changes is because something unexpected happened (for her, too). It's not that hard to understand honestly, to have a member of a group live in a totally different continent must come with hardships when it comes to logistics and even music-making. It's been 7 years, that's a long time!

If Jen said she had no hard feelings herself, why would anyone else hold something against Amy or anyone else? If she's said before there would be no lineup changes is because she surely didn't want nor expected it to happen either. It's not like Amy can predict the future so she could stop herself from saying there would be no lineup changes if she knew something was gonna happen.

Instead of reading too much into the sidelines and holding stuff against anybody, we should thank Jen for her hard work and bringing so much joy and talent to the band! Spread love ❤️ 

[imnotbroken118]

The more I think about it, the more I think that this has to do with the logistics of Jen living across the pond. I truly believe nothing about this is personal. Amy has always spoken such kind things about Jen and I don't think there was any reason to be fake about it.

We have to remember that when Jen was hired into the band, Amy's focus was not on growing and expanding Evanescence. All the band was really doing at that point was putting together small tours which isn't too difficult to manage with remote band members. At the time, Amy was probably just looking for someone who the band got along with who could play the shows. Since there wasn't real music project work happening, it was probably easy to overlook the complications that could arise from having your band members live so far away.

Things have changed though and Amy seems more sure about the band having a future and putting out new music. Having that future means that the band needs to be available when opportunities arise. If you get a phone call saying, "Hey, we had a band back out of a performance this weekend. Do you want in?" you absolutely want to be able to say yes. Unfortunately, with Jen in Germany, every decision comes with the added cost (both money and time) of having to work out getting your guitarist and their gear here. Having a commercially successful band (especially without a label) is not an easy thing and anything that hinders the opportunities to set shows, rehearse, create music, film music videos, attend PR related events, etc. could be detrimental to the band if they're not doing enough to pull in money to fund their projects.

Of course, this is all just speculation, but unless there is major hidden backstage drama that we aren't aware of, this is really the only thing that makes sense to me. It still sucks to see Jen go, she was a great addition, but looking at this from the perspective that a lot of people (Ev and the entire crew) rely on the band's success, I can start to understand maybe why this decision was made.

[carolexodus]

I was hoping it was a mutual decision. Yikes. This ain't looking good.