Interview with Lacuna Coil singer Andrea Ferro and guitarist Cristiano Migliore
Lacuna Coil kicks ass. They have a new album out called "Karmacode" that is selling like crazy, they played the main stage of Ozzfest and they are on this months cover of Rolling Stone magazine, but they still wanted to take some time out to speak as directly to their fans as possible. So I went all over the net gathering up some questions for the band from their fans and sat down with vocalist Andrea Ferro and guitarist Cristiano Migliore to answer the questions YOU wanted to ask. I can't tell you how friendly and accomodating the band, and their entire staff were for this. I've worked with A LOT of bands in my day, and very few were as down to earth as they were.
Anarchy: Let talk about your new cd "Karmacode". I think its got a really nice evolution of your sound. Can you explain to me a little about the direction of the album and where you guys are at now musically...
Andrea: Basically, when we started the songwriting for the new album we were thinking about our point of start, which was "Comalies" and how we could possibly evolve that album into a new sound incorporating some new influences from all the tour experience we've done for "Comalies", which has been almost 3 and a half years of touring between Europe and America and everything. There's so many new experiences and we were definitely moved to a different level as a band during all those years. So we had a lot of new ideas and new sounds that we have incorporated from the experience, especially here in the states. For example, we have taken some influences through the bass and the drum sound having more groove part in the rhythmical section. But on the other hand we also had our European heritage with the violins, we do a symphonic arrangement, the way we use the vocals as kind of an instrument which is maybe a little more European compared to other bands from over here. So I would say that this sound on this album is mostly something in between a European sound and an American metal sound.
Anarchy: How do you guys handle that, as far as the songwriting goes? Does it start with a guitar riff?
Cristiano- Basically we always start by writing the music first, so it'd be a guitar riff or maybe a keyboard part or something like that. We work on it until we get some kind of structure we can actually put some vocal lines. Vocal lines or lyrics are the last thing we usually do. So we sit down and write ideas down and then get together and work to try to put these ideas together and see how the song will be and try to make it as complete as possible so they can add their vocals.
Anarchy: How does that work as far as you and Christina (Scabbia, co-lead vocalist) writing lyrics? Lyrics are such a personal thing, does it gel well between you two?
Andrea: yeah, i think so, because its something we have developed over the years. Maybe we have learned how to manage it during the years. But everybody has ideas for some topics you want to talk about but usually since our main lyrics are talking about the life experience we have, most of them we live together because we are always on the road together. we spend more time between the band than what we do with our families. So i think that most interesting things that have happened through our lives in the past has been together as a band. So, very often we agree on topics because we share so many things. Sometimes even when we are around during a break from the band we go out for a beer and we say the same things at the same time because there is so much chemistry that we have developed by living together, by playing together for so many years that we are very close together. Sometimes one song can have lyrics which are a little more connected to her experience, sometimes more to mine. It depends from song to song. But in general we sare a lot, I think in terms of lyrics.
Anarchy: When I think of Italian rock music, it begins and ends with you and...uh...Alex Masi
Andrea: Alex Masi, I know that
Anarchy (to my photographer): See! they know who he is!
Andrea: Its a guitar hero from Italy
Anarchy: Them and me, we're alone!
Andrea: i saw him live actually. We played together in a sort of little festival many years ago. He was really great live. i saw him live and was "wow!". i was amazed.
Anarchy: Is there a rock scene there at all? And how does living there impact the way you sound?
Cristiano: There is a rock scene, but its mainly underground. Rock bands are not very popular in Italy or at least they don't get signed by labels. There are very few examples of Italian rock bands that that made it abroad. I think we are the only band in this sense. There are many bands that are playing the same kind of music. The problem is that basically there is no market for this of music in Italy, or at least there wasn't until we got popular. Now we are in the charts in Italy, which is something that never happened before. Maybe after this the labels will be more willing to take other rock bands.
Andrea: There are independent labels which are very small and they produce records but they never really have the budget to give tour support to a band, to send them out of Italy or to send them even around Italy. So, unless you play the local scene then it's tough to move from that level. Even if we got a couple of big festivals about metal and bands like Metallica or Slayer are still very popular, but theres no history about native bands that have made it big. we are the only one who's actually made some sort of impact out of the countr and worldwide. So we are seen as hope for the people because they see if they make it, we might do the same. We might try to do the same. So there are more new bands that are working in a more organized way, trying to have a scene, to have a club scene. You can do a tour in Italy, but its never big because there are only passionate people who support this music and not many mainstream media that give attention to this kind of music.
Anarchy: Starting out was it a goal to come over to the states and do as well as you have?
Andrea: Maybe a dream even before a goal
Cristiano: A dream, because when you start as a band you always hope that you will get somewhere. Of course, we didnt know that we would have been playing Ozzfest one day or playing in the states even. You can never know for sure. It all depends on how hard you work and also a little bit of luck
Andrea: Also, because when we signed there were no other bands from italy signed to an international label, even if its an independent label, but it distributes your record all across Europe and in the states so it was totally something new. We were the first Italian band to be signed to this kind of label, at least in our age. It was already kind of a miracle for us. When we saw the fax coming from the record label we didnt know if it was "did they really listen to our demo?". We just sent the tape around, like in the old days. We sent the tape to the labels and we didn't know anybody. We didn't have any contacts with any labels so we just wrote randomly to the A&R guys at the labels.
Anarchy: This next question was asked by several people...your fans seem to be really dedicated music fans that really love you guys...Is there a crazy, kind of over the top thing that sticks out that a fan has done for you?
Andrea: We have many people that follow a lot of shows here in the states for exapmle. Theres some guys that follow like 20 shows and its a lot of money to drive. Or they bring us presents, very nice presents. I see what you say, I understand because we recieve so much mail from people who had children with problems and they let them listen to our music and all of a sudden they have solved the problem. Maybe not because of our music, but they feel that there's something special about the music. Its not only about the image of the band, there's something deeper in the lyrics. Maybe because it's kind of emotional music that we play so they really feel the emotions that we try to bring in the music. That probably put us in a different position as compared to other bands which are maybe more the fashion of the moment, or the trendy music of the moment, or the moments of rebellion for young kids like with punk rock music. Its more that they really care about what we say, about what we give to them.
Anarchy: On Karmacode, you've got a great cover of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy The Silence". What led to covering that song?
Cristiano: Basically we are all big fans of 80's music.We grew up listening to it and we wanted to have one of these songs that we all grew up with and try to rearrange it in a way that it could try to sound like one of our songs. We tried to do "Black Hole Sun" by Soundgarden" or "A Question Of Time" by Depeche Mode still. In the end, "Enjoy The Silence" was the one that really fit to our style the best. We were like "oh wow, it sounds very good" so we just kept working on it and it ended up being on the record.
Anarchy:You mentioned Ozzfest earlier, obviously the first time did really really well for you. Now youre on the main stage, how's it working for you this time and who do we need to check out on the tour?
Cristiano: Compared to what we did in 2004 when we were playing on the second stage, to be on the main stage, its the bigger stage, the nicer stage, with all the big bands and stuff. So its a matter of prestige somehow, but on the other hand it takes away a little bit of the live energy that you have on the second stage because basically everyones sitting down the whole time. Your fans are not there in front of you, they' re back in the lawn. So, its more like some kind of a challenge for us, even though the conditions are sure much better and we play in front of a lot more people.
Andrea: Its more about convincing people that are there maybe waiting for Disturbed or System Of A Down or Ozzy sometimes and they just know the name of the band maybe never really heard the music and your fans which are the young people they are more in the lawn because they dont have the money to afford the seats in the front. So, its a different feeling and its probably also teaching ussomething more about how to convince a crowd that doesn't really know the band. You have to show them in 35 minutes your style of music and let them go on with the show. So, we had pretty good shows and it was maybe tough in the beginning to get used to playing in tis situation. Especially since before Ozzfest we did a lot of the European festivals which are no seats at all. You've got 40,000 all standing up, all screaming all moving, so its a different vibe, compared to even another 40,000 people but all sitting down or being very far away. I think we have learned a lot and we have gained a lot of new fans through Ozzfest.
Anarchy: This will be the first time I've seen you guys live but everyone keeps telling me that that if you really want to experience Lacuna Coil, that live is where its at. thats theres something added to your sound. Explain for us what the live show is like.
Cristiano: Basically, when we started we didn't have any money, so we had to decide what to do live to impress people. So we started watching the other bands, and we started moving a lot. We give a lot of energy during our shows. I think that this is what impresses people the most because they expect maybe the band with a female singer standing there all quiet and stuff
Andrea: Very goth...
Cristiano: But we really move on stage, almost like a death metal band sometimes...maybe even too much. But you know, but this is something that we had to learn to do because we didn't have any lights for example, or we didn't have any special effects or anything like that. So, its something that we still do as of today, but trying to combine everything with a light show and whatever is possible. there's for sure a lot of energy involved.
Andrea: Maybe also, never having a big budget to record albums. We never had the time enough to develop the sound we wanted to have. Where live is was maybe easier to make a sound that is really what we wanted the people to percieve the band as. So now maybe with the last album its a little bit of a different story because we have a bigger budget so we had time to work on the sounds and experiment more and really bring more of what we are live to the record than we have in the past this time around. But as he said, the fact that we had to convince people all the time, it helps to learn how to give them a proper show and not just us playing the song pefectly, but not give any emotion to the people. We like for people to jump, to sweat, to sing, to move, to clap their hands. Because it has to be a rock show for us, not just you there admiring some kind of idols. Understand, we are there to rock, and they have to be ready to rock as well.
Anarchy: Do you have a favorite song to play live?
Andrea: The new ones maybe, because we have played so much the old ones in the past that maybe we are more excited about the new songs. Also, because as I said before we have incorporated a lot of groove in the rhythmical section so those are songs that live have a very strong impact. Either you know the band or you dont, its still very easy to keep going because of the rhythmical part of the song, so its more easy to catch the attention of people with the new songs.
Anarchy: How about bands you'd like to tour with in the future?
Cristiano: Its kind of difficult to say because theres so many bands that we like. We'd love to tour with Korn, System Of A Down, Metallica...but it's always something, it could happen, you don't know. At this point, we should see what happens after Ozzfest
Andrea: And it also depends on what you want to do. There are bands that we'd love to tour with, but they're not such big bands that are interesting froma promotional point of view. But we still like the people so much that we would love to tour with them even if they're not bringing many people to the show, because they are friends. And on the other hand you've got people you want to tour with because you know that there's going to be a lot of new people coming to you because of their crowd.
Anarchy: Every other email I got asked what you guys thought of the band HIM...for some reason the cross section of your fans was incredible.
Andrea: Yeah, I can understand, I can see why.
Cristiano: We thought about touring together and everything. Of course it was proposed to us as well, but we never really got the chance.
Anarchy: Yeah, they aren't over here too much either so I can see where it'd be a tough thing to schedule.
Andrea: I think mostly, we talked with Ville, we're friends with the guys and we talk with them. We always say "oh we should tour together", but then it's also a matter of the right moment. Because they have to be here promoting an album, we have to be here. You have to combine alot of different aspects. Maybe one day we will do it, we have nothing against it. We just have to find the right time, to get the right chance.
Anarchy: The records doing well, are you going to be headlining anytime soon?
Cristiano: We're thinking about that. We don't know anything for sure but probably yes.
Andrea: We're taking about doing something like that in November/December here, but we still have to see if everything can go right.
Anarchy: With this record, as soon as the last one came out you immediately started working on this as far as ideas go. Are you already working on newstuff for the next one?
Cristiano: No, we have some stuff that we didn't use for this abum that we don't know if we are going to use for the next one, but this one was just realeased so we're not thinking about it. It will take a little while before we start working on writing stuff.
Andrea: We will try to make it more quick compared to the past because "Comalies" has been out for a long time because it really started to pick up here in the states after one year of the official release because of attention from the media and radio stations. So, basically one year was only working in Europe and Italy and then we started to tour a lot here and then explode and Ozzfest. So, in the end we spent almost 4 years between one album and the other. This time we'll try to do it in 2 or 3 years, more of a normal cycle. It depends also because if things start to pick up even more then we'll probably have to tour more so then we are at the same point as before.
Anarchy: One last thing, since this is a website for fans, and they were the ones asking questions, is there anything you want to say to them in closiing?
Cristiano: We want to thank them.
Andrea: As we say, we will surely be back in the states headlining, or supporting somebody for sure, so it's going to be at least two years of promotion for this album, so we have the chance to meet everybody on the road.
Cristiano: Theres going to be plenty of time to check us out.
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