Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Lacuna Coil - Cristiano Migliore, Marco Emanuele “Maus” Biazzi

April 3, 2006

Fresh off the breakthrough success of Comalies, which hit it big in America two years after its release, Lacuna Coil is back with a new album, Karmacode. When guitarists Cristiano Migliore and Marco Emanuele “Maus” Biazzi sat down with Greg Maki and Jason Price of Live-Metal.net on their tour bus prior to a recent show at the 9:30 Club in Washington, D.C. (they are opening for Rob Zombie), their excitement over the record and the opportunity to play new songs after four years could not be contained.

Live-Metal: So you have the new album coming out April 4?

Cristiano: Yeah.

Can you tell us a little bit about the sound of the new album?

CM: It’s actually the first album we had the chance to work on for a really long time. Karmacode was – we started working on it right after recording Comalies. So it was like four years ago. Of course, we started collecting ideas and stuff that always didn’t stay the same until the final version, but that’s when we first started to think about new songs. Of course, then we had to go on tour for so long and we did not have a lot of time to sit down, relax and write new stuff. This is probably the album that has the sound that we have always wanted to have. We had a higher budget. We had a longer time in the studio. We could focus on every single detail, and we could find exactly the sound we liked, that we never really had the chance to have because of time limitations.

Maus: Yeah, we toured so long here in the States, so we’ve been influenced by a lot of different, especially American sounds. This album, talking about the music, it’s mixed between the American groove, the American powerful and the European. It’s still the melody you need, plus the more groove, more powerful sound.

What does the title mean?

CM: The title comes from a book that Andrea [Ferro], our singer, was reading. It’s a book written by a mathematician. It tries to explain religion using mathematical formulas. It was something really striking. And it’s the combination of these two words, karma, that’s something that’s spiritual, and code, which has something to do more with the modern times. The times that we’re living in are all ruled by computers and technology. We liked the idea of having these two words that have a completely different meaning together, and that’s how it came out.

What is the songwriting process? How do you put together a typical song?

MB: Usually, we start to collect ideas and we start from the music. For example, me and [bassist] Marco [Coti Zelati], we start to collect ideas. Then we rehearse together. We try to find the arrangement for every song. And then later comes also the vocal lines, because they just start writing vocal lines when the music is almost done. That’s the normal process that we use.

With two singers, how do you figure out who sings what?

MB: It’s natural. We don’t have to fight to play a riff, for example, me or him. [says something to Cristiano in Italian]

CM: Yeah, who plays it better just ends up doing it. It’s the same thing for vocals. Sometimes Cristina [Scabbia] writes vocals lines for Andrea and the other way around, he does for her. Then it depends on who actually fits the part better. If it’s something that has to be powerful, maybe Andrea will sing it, or if it’s something that has to be more melodic, Cristina can do it. Or even the way around. It doesn’t have to be a certain way. It changes according to the mood of the song…

MB: To achieve the best results possible.

Why did you decide to cover “Enjoy the Silence”?

MB: We tried more songs, but actually first because we love Depeche Mode and we love especially that song. That’s why we choose that song. We tried, for example…

CM: Soundgarden, “Black Hole Sun.” “A Question of Time” by Depeche Mode. We tried to cover Sisters of Mercy. But they really didn’t sound like it was Lacuna Coil. We could do something that sounds like one of our songs even if it’s a Depeche Mode cover. “Question of Time,” for example, sounded exactly like a thrash metal band, so we really didn’t feel like doing that anymore. It was cool, but it was completely out of context from the album. Besides, “Enjoy the Silence” is really one of our favorite songs. It was really cool to do it and it came out actually like – it almost sounds like a Lacuna Coil song when you listen to it.

How is the tour with Zombie going so far?

MB: It’s going good. It’s a Zombie tour. For sure, we’re supporting him. We just started the tour six, seven days ago. I really have a good impression about this tour. Almost all of the gigs are sold out, which is the best promotion also for us. We are coming out with a new album and he just did it, so it’s a perfect combination. I like the crowds every night. Also, Bullet for My Valentine, they’re a great band.

CM: It’s a very nice package. Every night all of the bands have really good reactions from the crowds. It couldn’t be better.

You guys said you’ve been working on this album for so many years now. Are you doing the same thing with whatever you’re working now or have you even thought that far ahead?

CM: No. Actually, when we did our previous albums, it was always like you go in the studio for one month, you record everything. Then for about one year, you’re out touring like one month, then you’re home, then one month, then so on. Which is something that didn’t happen with Comalies, because when it came out, the first two years were kind of the same routine. So we had time sit down and try to write stuff. But then when it actually exploded here in the States, we couldn’t stop anymore. We were always on the road constantly, and we cannot write stuff while we are on the road. So we had to actually after Ozzfest take a break, and, like, we have to finish the album now. We played some festivals, but that was pretty much it. Now that we have success, because of the success of Comalies, to have a higher budget and stuff like that for the recordings, we will probably do the same thing with the next album. I hope we’re not going to wait four years for a new album because it’s not really cool even for us, like to play every night the same songs. But we will actually take more time. Before, it was like one year, one album. Every year was a new album. Now, I think we’re actually going to take a couple years to have the songs sound exactly the way we want them. It takes time. We cannot push it. We found out by writing Karmacode that until you’re totally satisfied with a song you shouldn’t settle down. We had a lot of ideas that were done in a certain way, especially in the beginning, and then if you hear the song now, it’s completely different even though we kept in a few things that were in the original version.

MB: We changed so much.

CM: We changed a lot. Imagine in four years, even our music tastes have changed completely by touring with all these bands. It was like we should try to do this, we should try to change that. I think the final result reflects exactly what Lacuna Coil is nowadays.

What are some of the bands that you’re listening to and that Karmacode was influenced by?

CM: Well, all the bands we toured with, for sure. We started with Opeth in 2003. Then it was Type O Negative and Anthrax.

MB: P.O.D.

CM: All bands that we knew before, but to tour with them is a different thing. You see them every night. We did Ozzfest with all these bands. There were a lot of bands there playing. Even the atmosphere of the crowd, you actually feel which are the songs you enjoy the most playing and which ones the people actually enjoy listening to. This also influenced us a lot. It’s not that we wanted to have an album that was more commercial, but you understand which are the songs that you actually play the best or the people enjoy the most and so on. That’s kind of influenced all the songwriting for the album.

Are you looking forward to another summer on Ozzfest?

MB: Yeah. We’re gonna open the main stage.

Does it feel like you’ve graduated going from the second stage to the main stage?

[laughter]

CM: Yeah. It’s gonna be cool. Starting on the second stage, it wasn’t really like a great scene for us.

MB: Playing at 9:30 in the morning.

CM: Yeah, that wasn’t very nice for us.

MB: We were rotating every day. So it means that one day you play 9:30, the day after 10, 10:30 until 2. And then you start again.

CM: Finally we can sleep in the morning and start playing at six o’clock or something.

Is there anybody on the tour this year that you’re really looking forward to seeing?

CM: Oh yeah. System of a Down, Disturbed. A lot of bands on the bill are actually very interesting. Strapping Young Lad.

MB: I’m really happy because Strapping are playing at the Ozzfest.

CM: Yeah, we’re really good friends. It’ll be a really good chance to hang out and maybe find out about other bands, as well, that we don’t know yet.

How big was Ozzfest for Lacuna Coil the first time around?

MB: It was huge.

CM: It was the biggest thing we had ever done.

MB: Especially playing with Black Sabbath and Judas Priest. It’s kind of a dream, especially for an Italian band that is not so common to do this kind of shit.

CM: We still find it kind of hard to realize what we’re doing. We were asked to play the Ozzfest main stage and we were like, “Wow. How come?”

I think for a lot of fans here in the United States that you guys are maybe the only Italian band they know. Is there a big scene there?

CM: Not really. In Italy, rock music unfortunately is not the most popular music around. If you listen to a radio station, you will always hear the same kind of pop MTV stuff, like R&B or hip hop or dance and stuff like that. Rock is not really super popular.

MB: You can see some metal videos, but late night.

CM: But just for the really big bands, like Metallica or Iron Maiden. It’s not really that common to see. Or even though you can see it on TV, it’s always special shows like Headbanger’s Ball or stuff like that. There is a big scene, but it’s mainly underground because record companies don’t really care about signing rock bands in Italy. Maybe with what we did I hope things will change. Actually, they’re starting to change a bit. Foreign record companies are starting to get their attention on Italian bands. But it’s not yet very open market. There are really good bands, but we are probably the only one who actually made it this big, especially in America. I don’t really know any other Italian bands that play this kind of music here. Rhapsody and Labyrinth, probably the two most known Italian bands other than us, only made it in Europe. They became quite popular over there, but I don’t think they ever came over here.

MB: South America.

CM: Yeah, maybe South America, but that’s pretty much it.

When you’re on tour here or other places, what do you miss most about home?

MB: Food. Actually, here in the States it’s easy to find an open store, diners and shit like that. Because when you are on the road it’s really hard to … How can I explain? Put it this way, if you want to take a shower, there are places open 24 hours a day. If you want a all you can eat steak, you can go for it. It’s a different kind of quality of food. Here, you have more of fast food type shit. I prefer to stay relaxed and eat something at the table with friends.

CM: Typical Italian.

MB: Italian style.

What are some of your favorite places, cities or countries, to play?

MB: Here in the States?

Anywhere.

MB: I really like New York, L.A. I enjoy so much New Orleans. Chicago is another good city to play. Let me think about it … Maybe San Francisco, but we didn’t have so many occasions to play there.

CM: The problem with us is always that when you tour you don’t really have a chance to go around and sightsee. So we don’t really know much about the city where we’re playing. Even in Europe, it’s the same thing. You basically get to the venue in the morning. You get up. You have interviews all day. Then you have to soundcheck. Then you play, and it’s already time to go to the next city. Unless you have a day off, you don’t really have time to see much. Once we actually stopped while we were coming back from Canada at Niagara Falls. That was cool because it was really early in the morning.

MB: Nobody was there.

CM: Nobody was around. It was like 6 a.m. And we were like walking by. The guard at the entrance let us in.

MB: In New Orleans, we had other great times with Opeth. When we were touring with Opeth, we would spend an entire day going around all the spots playing live music, jazz music that I really love, and we’d be so drunk.

CM: We couldn’t even soundcheck.

MB: Yeah, exactly. We skipped the soundcheck. I still have good memories about that experience, especially New Orleans because we met so many great people.

CM: It was a lot of fun.

MB: Yeah, a lot of fun.

CM: We had alligator, of course.

MB: The first time in my life, I ate the alligator.

CM: Meet Jerry. [points to an alligator head wearing a straw hat] He doesn’t bite. Don’t worry.

[laughter]

What are some of your favorite songs to play live?

CM: Right now? We have a lot of new songs that we are performing.

I guess you were playing the others for so long it’s probably a lot of fun to play the new ones.

CM: Yeah. Of course, when you play new songs after so long, it’s always great. There are old songs that we still enjoy playing. But when it’s like when you have to play “Heaven’s a Lie” or “Swamped,” it’s like asking Metallica play “Seek and Destroy” every night. It was something that was cool at the time, but if they have to play it now…

MB: Or “The Trooper” for Iron Maiden. Anyway, I really like the entire album, not because it’s the last one or because it’s our album, but I really like all the songs.

CM: All these songs are a lot more fun to play compared to the old ones. There are more parts that allow you to move more and stuff like that. So it’s kind of cool to play these songs, and we’re actually starting to get into them so we know how to move on stage. In the beginning, we were concentrating on playing.

MB: We don’t want to fuck it up especially when you’re playing new songs for the first time.

CM: Yeah, you’re really nervous, like, “What’s that part again?”

MB: We like to play live “Fragile,” which is the first one on the album, and “To the Edge,” the second one. I really like those songs. [says something in Italian to Cristiano]

CM: Yeah, they’re probably the two songs that represent the sound of the album the most. But I also enjoy to play songs like “Daylight Dancer.” It’s been one of my favorite songs. We’ll see with the new album which ones become the favorites.

You’ve recorded acoustic versions of some songs and played some acoustic shows. Would you ever think about doing an acoustic album or doing a bigger acoustic tour?

MB: Acoustic tour? No, we didn’t think about that.

CM: We did a short U.K. tour. But that was really like five shows. The set was basically an acoustic set followed by an electric one. But that was the only thing we did. I don’t know if we would do it again.

MB: Actually, we didn’t have our proper show. It was just me, him playing guitars and Andrea and Cristina. We didn’t set up anything like bongos or percussion.

CM: It was the same thing we actually did for the stores over here. It was pretty cool. It was a nice atmosphere and the people seemed to enjoy it very much. We’ll see in the future. You never know.

Do you know when we can expect a headlining tour here in the U.S.?

CM: Maybe next winter.

MB: We’ll see how the album does.

CM: Yeah, we’ll see how the album does, but for sure we’ll do an American headlining tour. We’re still concentrating on this one. There’ll be Ozzfest. We’ll be doing a European headlining tour. We have a lot of stuff to do. We’re still working on something, but we’ll be back.