Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Cristina Scabbia & Maria Brink

Though common in Europe for years, women in metal bands have been a rarity in the United States—until recently, that is. Italy’s Lacuna Coil, with singer Cristina Scabbia, has led the way in showing the typical male metalhead that a female can rock as hard as any man. Exhibit A: The “Hottest Chicks in Metal Tour,” featuring Lacuna Coil on its first full U.S. headlining run, as well as Holland’s Within Temptation on its initial U.S. tour and American acts In This Moment (labelmates of Lacuna Coil at Century Media) and the eclectic Stolen Babies. In the end, though, it’s all about the music, and the package is dynamic and entertaining because each band brings a unique vibe and energy to the stage.

At the tour’s recent stop at Jaxx in Springfield, Va., Live-Metal.net’s Greg Maki sat down with Scabbia and In This Moment frontwoman Maria Brink on Lacuna Coil’s bus. While Lacuna Coil is nearing the end of their current touring cycle, In This Moment is just getting started, having released their debut, Beautiful Tragedy (READ REVIEW HERE), in March. The two ladies discussed the tour, Ozzfest, the highs and lows of life on the road, and more.

So the “Hottest Chicks in Metal Tour,” they’re calling it. Who came up with that idea and how did it come together?

Cristina: Well, I think that the management together with the promoters came up with the idea because it’s connected with the Revolver magazine issue of hottest chicks in metal. So it was a good idea promotional-wise to get the same name, even if I like to look at it in an ironical way, especially with a lot of preconceptions that some people have about females in the band. I look at it in kind of an ironic way, like, “We’re chicks, but we can kick your ass,” basically. [laughs]

Cristina: I don’t think of any of us has this kind of problem. Maybe it’s a problem of somebody else if they misjudge the name or if they get another meaning out of it.

Cristina: If you start worrying about that stuff, it’s over.

Is it fun—because it doesn’t happen too often—being out on the road with other women?

Cristina: I like the idea, especially being on the road with guys all the time. That’s nice sometimes to do.

Maria: Yeah, it’s a nice change. It is.

Cristina: We met once during a photo session, and the vibe was already good. I hope that we’ll be able to spend more time together because with this kind of schedule it’s so busy every time. They are either doing promotion or we do the same thing, so it’s kind of hard.

Cristina: Yeah, this is the fourth date.

Cristina: I think it was good.

Maria: Yeah, they’ve been awesome.

Cristina: The reaction of the people was good.

Maria: Good crowds, good vibe.

Cristina: Do you have a couple of hours?

Cristina: No, on this tour, nothing happened to me. I don’t know if you had any—

Maria: No, nothing odd or crazy on this one, no.

Cristina: They’re usually really nice.

Maria: I can’t even imagine some stories, maybe, you have.

Cristina: I don’t know, I mean, starting from people that jump on stage even when there’s tons of security and I always wonder how they can. But it’s nice because they’re just showing love, then you freak out because you’re just singing and you’re not expecting somebody coming, like, “What the fuck is going on?”

Maria: Smelling your hair.

Right now, more than ever before, there seems to be a lot of women in heavy music. Do you think there’s a reason for why it’s happening now?

Cristina: Well, coming from Europe, I don’t find it strange. Within Temptation are from Europe. The Gathering are from Europe. There are tons of bands with a female in the band, so it’s probably more common over there. So I was kind of surprised when I came here and it’s like, “Ooh, wow, you have a woman,” and I was like, “So what?” There have been bands for, like, years and years.

Maria: Yeah, I agree. I mean, it’s a positive thing. It doesn’t matter if it’s a woman or a male if it’s a good band and they’re doing what they’re doing.

In This Moment is playing Ozzfest this summer. Are you looking forward to that?

Maria: Yeah, of course. We’re so excited. We can’t wait.

Cristina: Is it your first Ozzfest?

Maria: Yeah, our first one.

Cristina: Oh, you’re gonna love it. You’re gonna love it. It’s like a summer camp.

Maria: Yeah, that’s what everybody was saying.

Cristina: A lot of barbecues going on. It’s great. And the crowds are always amazing, even if at you play at 9 in the morning, the people are right there already. It’s unbelievable.

Maria: We’re so excited. We’re still a new band. Our first album just came out in March, so we’re really honored to be playing it and doing all these tours.

Maria: Of course, Ozzy every night, I can’t wait. But I like Lamb of God, Hatebreed. Yeah, there’s a bunch.

Cristina: It was different. [laughs] Of course, it was more prestigious from one point of view. But from another point of view, it was a little less fun because on the second stage, it’s definitely more rock. I mean, you definitely have a different relationship with the people in front of you. They can mosh, they can do whatever they want. On the main stage, there was always a big distance between you and the crowd. People are sitting. The majority of the fans are up in the lawn, so really, really far from you, and so it’s kinda weird. I mean, it’s not that I want the people to stay on me when I sing but definitely not that far.

You mentioned your album just came out. How cool is it to go into a store and see your CD there?

Maria: Oh, it’s awesome. We’re total dorks, too. The first day we were running into a bunch of different stores, looking for it [laughs], buying CDs at random stores and stuff. It’s amazing. We’ve worked for this for a long time, so we’re just excited. We took pictures. [laughs]

Cristina: And I love the booklet. I never told you that.

IN THIS MOMENT - Beautiful Tragedy

In the last couple years, one of the things that’s been big in the music business has been MySpace. I know that was big for In This Moment. How important do you see it being?

Cristina: I just thought that it was growing constantly. I don’t know how much it helped the band because we were already a little bit popular with the promotion and the magazines and stuff. But I definitely like the fact that you can find people that you haven’t heard in a while and the connection you can have with fans. It’s almost impossible to reply to every message you get ’cause every day it’s getting bigger and bigger, but still you can post blogs, you have the chance to say whatever you’ve gotta say without any people in between you that can misunderstand what you’re saying and write something completely different. So I think it’s good because of that. I actually started it as a joke, my page.

Maria: Really? That’s crazy.

Cristina: Yeah, and it’s so out of control now.

Maria: And I think for bands who aren’t signed and who are trying to do things for us, it was good because before we were signed or had managers we actually could tour the whole country, just from MySpace. ’Cause there’s no way that anyone in, like, Texas or Connecticut would have known who we are without it. So, for us, it helped us in the beginning like that. And, also, our managers wrote us on MySpace and said, “Hey, how are ya?” And then they wound up coming over to our house. So I think it’s a cool tool for musicians if they can make the best of it.

So this is Lacuna Coil’s first full headlining tour here in the United States?

Cristina: Yeah. We already did a sort of headlining, but it was more like a radio tour. We came by, we did a few shows, but we basically went into the radio stations and did acoustic songs. We toured a lot in radio stations, but this is the first headlining.

Cristina: Yeah, we did that because, of course, we have a very loyal fanbase, and they were always coming to the shows, like, “Why don’t you do this song from the first EP?” So we just decided, OK, we’re gonna do the first headlining tour and we’re gonna do something special. So we’ll let them choose the songs—I mean, not completely because most of the people coming to the shows, of course, knows Comalies and Karmacode. There is a small amount of people—I’d say 20 percent, 10 percent, whatever it is—that knows the old songs. So it’s kind of a gift. We want to give to the fans but without letting the other people, like, “What the fuck are they playing?” So we’re playing old stuff, as well, but, of course, we’re more concentrated on the new stuff.

Cristina: Yeah, we wanted to give something special.

Cristina: It depends because in some clubs there was a huge ovation for the old songs, and some other places, of course, that were going crazy for more popular songs like “Heaven’s a Lie” or “Our Truth,” more recent songs.

Cristina: “Heaven’s a Lie.”

Cristina: I still love to play it because I can see that people like it and it’s a classic of Lacuna Coil, but I don’t think there is a show where we didn’t play “Heaven’s a Lie,” probably a couple because we switched it with “Swamped.” So, basically, “Swamped” and “Heaven’s a Lie” are the songs that are just like yeah, I like them, but—

Maria: Did you guys actually sing one at a time the other day? [Referring to Cristina and fellow Lacuna Coil vocalist Andrea Ferro singing the chorus of “Heaven’s a Lie.”]

Maria: That was beautiful. It really was.

Cristina: Yeah, I wonder what people think when we’re singing. [laughs]

Maria: Oh, it’s beautiful.

About a month ago, I went up to the show on the Jäger tour in Philadelphia and you did the in-store acoustic there. Was it hard to rearrange the songs to play them like that?

Cristina: No, it’s not really hard. Some songs definitely needed a lot more work. But with other songs, it came out natural, like “Closer” is completely different than the album, and the acoustic version came in like—you just try and see what happens.

Cristina: I think so, yeah. Unless a big support tour comes out, like, in the fall ’cause before we have to do the summer festivals. I think we’re definitely gonna go back home and write the new album.

Maria: We’re still babies, yeah.

Maria: Just as long as, maybe, it seems like people are still biting. I hear that you can just really tell that once it’s kind of played its course, the time comes to do a new album. So whenever the label thinks and we think that, you know—

Cristina: You can never tell ’cause there is something that can happen that will keep you working for years.

Maria: Right. Some people tour one album for years.

Cristina: Yeah, we toured Comalies for, like, four years ’cause we did two years in Europe and then it started to become popular here, so we had to start a promotion from the beginning here. So four years’ distance between the albums is not a normal amount of time you should have in between albums.

Cristina: I don’t know. [laughs] I don’t know. I’m assuming that next year there will be a new album, but you can never know.

Cristina: We’re collecting stuff, but we don’t have songs ready yet. We don’t usually write on the road. We’re too lazy to do that.

[To Maria] Do you guys have a lot of stuff that either didn’t get on the album or—

Maria: Actually, no, not tons of songs, and the ones that we didn’t use we wouldn’t use again on the next album. But we’re writing little things just acoustically here and there, and I have a little mini recorder if I think of chorus or a verse, [singing] in the corner of the van, six people around me. So we’re just collecting little, tiny things.

So you said you haven’t really had a chance to hang out yet, you’ve been so busy.

Cristina: Whenever we can do that, we love to. We usually to love to invite people on our bus to offer Italian coffee—actually, if you guys want one when we’re done—’cause we’re really proud. As Italians, we’re really proud about our food and our real mocha coffee.

Cristina: We’re stupid.

Maria: And they have all been very sweet and very, very nice.

Cristina: I hope we’re gonna do more barbecues all together. I definitely like this family idea. That’s what it’s all about.

What other kinds of things do you like do on tour, especially when you’re just driving all day?

Cristina: Well, when we have spare time we watch movies, we stay on the computer, we try and stay in touch with the people we left home—family, friends, boyfriend, girlfriend. We have video games. We sleep a little bit here and there. But there’s not much to—Whenever I can, I like to walk around the town if we’re in a place where you can actually go around, like New York or San Francisco.

Maria: I always go hunting for a coffee shop.

Cristina: [whispers] Starbucks.

Maria: There’s one up the street. I had to go hunting, like walking around.

Cristina: If you want a Frappaccino, we have them in the fridge. [laughs] I just said that I’m proud of Italian coffee.

Cristina: That’s a real mocha. If you ever wondered what is a mocha, mocha coffee [gets up and points out a small coffee maker], here it is.

Maria: Oh, really?

Cristina: That’s the mocha machine. This is the electric one, actually. But that’s how you do the mocha coffee.

Cristina: I definitely like to meet different people, meet different cultures. I just look at myself, I grew up so much being on tour, being used to little things that people very often forget, like to stay in touch with reality, to go out, spend time with other people, realize that there are so many more important things in life than stupid things you’re thinking every day about. So I definitely like the whole package. Sometimes it’s hard for me to go back home ’cause when I go back home after a month, I’m just like, “I gotta go.” And then I love to travel, so it’s not a problem at all for me.

Maria: Yeah, I agree. I love traveling. I’ve never been to Europe, and we’re going to Europe for the first time and we’re so excited. We’re so excited to go to Europe and do all that. We have fun. We have it a little bit more tight. [Points out the window to a van.] That’s our little house that we’re all in. Actually, we’ll be in a bus in Europe, so we’re excited about that. But just traveling and, yeah, keeping in touch with our loved ones, too. We have fun times. Sometimes we get a little stir crazy in there.

Cristina: And then they talk about women. “Oh yeah, women, how it is to be on the road.” Sometimes they [points to Cristiano “Criz” Mozzati (drums) and Marco Coti Zelati (bass)] are the ones that are like, “I wanna go back home. I want a proper bed.”

Criz: How to be on the road with women, that’s the problem.

Cristina: Oh yeah, that’s the problem. That is the problem. ’Cause we have too many shoes, that’s why, and they’re always in the hallway.

Maria: The funniest thing is I wear dresses on stage a lot and I love my dresses, and we don’t have anywhere to really put it, so we have this pole that hangs—you can’t really tell because of the back door—and I have this big zipper-up, hanging closet in the middle of the van.

Maria: And I love them for letting me take it, though. It zippers up and I have a bunch of dresses in it, so that’s pretty funny.

Cristina: You can’t help, you can’t help. I left from Milano with two bags, one into the other, completely empty because I was like, “OK, I’m gonna pack light. I’m gonna go back home, and I will not have stuff.” In, like, two weeks, it was completely full, both of them, and now I have three bags. I have to get another one.

Cristina: The worst part for me is when I’m not able to take a shower every day. That’s the only thing that bothers me.

Criz: And us, also.

Criz: Just kidding.

Cristina: Oh no, you can eat on these armpits.

Cristina: I think that’s the only part that I don’t like. The only thing I’m really picky about is my bunk. I keep it clean with cotton sheets ’cause I can’t sleep in the synthetic ’cause it really bothers me, I can’t sleep at all. So that’s the only thing I’m really picky. So I have to be clean whenever I can.

Maria: For me, probably missing my son. I’m a mom. And he’s coming on Ozzfest with us, but sometimes when I’m not with him that’s kind of torture sometimes. But beside that, always, showering. Sometimes if we have to drive really far and I’m stuck in the van until, like, 9 o’clock in the morning like last night and I didn’t get to wash my face after the show and I’m still in my clothes, and I wake up and I’m like, “This is hell!” [laughs] But then I get used to it, take a shower and I feel better.

How did you end up working with Megadeth [on the new version of "A Tout le Monde" on United Abominations]?

Cristina: They just asked me. I just got email from their management—no, actually, from my management. But it was like, “Megadeth would like to do a song with you.” I was really surprised because, I mean, I met Dave [Mustaine] once in Italy , Milano. He was playing in a club close by my house, so I went to see the gig and I met him briefly. But I don’t even know how it happened. He probably heard about me. I mean, I assume that ’cause it was the first time that he did a duet, so I was actually really happy ’cause doing the first duet with a woman, that’s the sign that something’s changing, especially for [the metal market]. I mean, they’re an historical band and a respected band, so I’m really happy that I opened that little door for other women. I’m really happy about that. I always loved the original song, and I think that the result is pretty good.

Maria: I can’t wait to hear it.

Is there anyone else out there that either one of you would like to work with or tour with?

Cristina: We once toured with Type O [Negative], so I think that we would love to go back, maybe Europe ’cause we did a tour in the U.S. It would be cool to go back to Europe doing a tour with them ’cause they’re like family.

Maria: We haven’t been on as many tours as them by any means, but we love 36 Crazyfists. We’re just fans of their music, so we toured with them, and it was so fun.

Maria: Yeah, and Walls of Jericho and Kittie, they were all nice and sweet. Walls of Jericho was great to watch every night, too.