The Open Door - Writing and Recording

Writing and Recording

"The music comes from all these feelings that I need to purge myself of, things that I don’t understand. I’m trying to figure out the meaning of life, the big picture. What are we doing here, what’s my purpose? I’m a very passionate person. The music is all over the place, up and down, because that’s how I am."

The writing process for The Open Door took a period of 18 months. The new songs on the album were written by Amy Lee and Terry Balsamo who shared credits for thirteen songs. However, Lee wrote "Like You", "Lithium" and "Good Enough" alone while she co-wrote "All That I'm Living For" with guitarist John LeCompt. Lee stated that after Moody's departure she didn't have somebody to hold her back in the writing process. Instead, Balsamo was "lifting" her up and pushing her to do something she wouldn't have done with Moody. Lee said: "He's a great writer, and it was just like we were just having fun with it for a change. It was like, 'Let's stop taking everything so seriously and have fun,' and we wrote a lot of songs that I'm just totally in love with." Lee described Balsamo's writing process during an interview with The Sun, "He's got this sort of spooky, surreal element to his guitar writing. It’s really cool because it just works perfectly with what we do. He was really trying to create something so we were both discovering this new sound together and branching out. Writing with Terry was a unique experience in my life because I’ve never been able to just sit and write music with somebody and not be afraid of what they would say." In a statement she said that the making of the album was "really intense" and that she came out "feeling purified" while her writing partner, Balsamo, lifted her "to a whole new level of inspiration and possibilities." She said that it was only about "writing great music".

The album was recorded at Record Plant Studios, Los Angeles, California. It was produced and mixed by Dave Fortman at Ocean Way Studios. Jeremy Parker done the audio engineering with Mike Houge and Wesley Seidman as an additional engineers while Ted Jensen mastered the album at Sterling Sound, New York. The choral arrangements were finished by Amy Lee and recorded at Capitol Studios, Hollywood, California. The choir and the string were recorded in an old chapel near Seattle, Washington. DJ Lethal programmed every song on the album although John LeCompt was an additional programmer on "Call Me When You're Sober" and on "All That I'm Living For" which was also programmed by Bon Harris. David Campbell finished the orchestral arrangements which were performed by Seattlemusic.