Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Lacuna Coil's Cris Migliore

Cris Migliore: Very, very well. We are on the fifth week, I think, of the tour right now, and so far every show has been really good. We’re flip-flopping with Chimaira as the opener for this stage. Even when we’re playing first, the reaction from the crowd is great, way better than we’ve seen for any opening band, or for us, even opening for other bands, this time is great.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. To be honest with you, we never really tour with any band that plays our style of music. Usually, we play with bands that are much heavier or a completely different style. But it always works. People seem to be very open minded, even though it’s a different kind of music. When we did Ozzfest in 2004, we were playing with all metalcore bands on the second stage and still people really seemed to enjoy it. So it’s good.

Well, it’s not really hard because having only half an hour to play and to have people listen to your songs, you kind of know what you’re gonna do. I mean, we have a new album coming out in a little less than a week now and we’re basically trying to focus on the latest stuff. There’s no sense in playing stuff from our first album. You always have to think, first of all, what you like to play live, what you think are the songs that are gonna work. We have a few classics that we know are gonna work, so we usually play those.

The new ones, for sure. We play two new songs off of the new album and the rest is basically all from Karmacode. We didn’t really want to include anything from Comalies because it’s been done already and most of the people here don’t know who we are anyway. They’re here for Disturbed or Killswitch or Chimaira. So whatever you play, it doesn’t really matter. So you just have to pick the songs that you know are gonna work well live, so that people are actually impressed or you think they’re gonna work. So far, it’s been, actually, really good.

Yeah, first time ever.

We always recorded in Europe, and to be more specific, in Germany, where our record label is based in Europe, with our longtime producer Waldemar Sorychta. That was the studio where all the Century Media bands used to go because it’s a good studio. So we actually recorded all our albums there because that was what our budget allowed and what was handy. This time, because we had a bigger budget and we’ve always loved how American records, American productions sound, we’ve always wanted to try and see what would happen if we recorded here.

So when we started looking for a producer, and we ended up working with Don Gilmore, he usually works in L.A. at the NRG Studios. So it was a natural thing to actually go there. It worked out great. As our first experience, how better can it be? You’re in L.A. All our endorsements are there. Whatever you need for the studio—equipment or whatever—you can easily get it. When we recorded in Italy or Germany, whenever we needed to get an amplifier or a different cabinet or microphone, it was always a little bit of a problem because it’s not as easy as it is in, you can imagine, L.A.

So yeah, we ended up recording with a bunch of amps and a bunch of really different equipment to try to find a good sound. It’s a way of working that we never really had the chance to experience before because we didn’t have enough time or because the studios didn’t have all these possibilities. It was a very good first time, for sure. We probably will do it again in the future.

Well, yeah, of course, you always want to have the best possible album. That’s always our goal. When we write songs, we always try to make sure that we write something that we are really happy with. We don’t like to go into the studio halfway done with our songs and then have to hurry to find the right arrangements or something. So for this album, we actually took a long break to write the songs, which is something we never did before. We took almost an entire year off from playing live and going on tour. And that gave us the possibility to work very, very well on the songs. Obviously, we didn’t work for an entire year. We took some time off, relaxed, pulled the plug for a little bit and then worked on the songs. We wanted really to have the best possible songs we could put together. Everybody this time really helped with ideas, with advice and working on different stuff. This is really like a great teamwork this time.

Yeah, it was actually the first time. We’ve always tried to do as much as we could, of course, but Marco [Coti Zelati] has always been the main songwriter, our bass player. Well, Andrea [Ferro] and Cristina [Scabbia], obviously, wrote their lyrics and the vocal lines. This time, though, everybody really tried to come up with ideas since we had so much time and luckily we really don’t have to work anymore when we’re back home because we can survive. It’s not like we’re driving a Ferrari or we have a huge mansion or whatever, but we don’t have to work. So at least we could focus on the songs, and that was really, really a big change for us because everybody really brought something to the table, and it was something that in the end somehow ended up being used. That was really our goal, to try and have a bunch of songs that were really what we wanted to do, regardless of whatever people would think or how the market is going or whatever.

Actually, it kind of worked out that way. We didn’t really want to write an album that was always gonna be like this. When we did Karmacode, which is probably the heaviest album we’ve ever recorded, we didn’t know it was gonna be like that until it was done. The songs were coming out like that, we were practicing and all these ideas turned out to be what Karmacode is in the end. And the same thing happened for Shallow Life. We just put a bunch of ideas together and we just followed this direction, and that’s how everything came together. It always actually happens the same way. Probably this time, we didn’t want to have boundaries. We didn’t get into this thing with the idea of leaving behind stuff that was too different or that didn’t really have anything to do with our music because we just wanted to try any kind of idea we had. Obviously, some stuff ended up not being used because it was too different. But it actually worked really well. Karmacode, for example, I think it’s a very good album, but you can totally tell that every song is very tied somehow to the other—the style is the same, the sound, everything. With Shallow Life, this is really not happening that much. Every song is very different.

Yeah, that’s exactly what we thought. When we were writing the songs, we were like, “Why should we just tie ourselves down and not experiment a little bit more?” In the end, this is our fifth album, so we know what we can do and what we really shouldn’t. So when you actually try a riff or a part a couple of times, you realize if this is something that may develop into something that’s great or if it’s just maybe something we may use in a side project somewhere.

It was great. At first, we didn’t really decide to work with him right away. We had a few different people we wanted to try working with. After a few e-mails and discussion, Don ended up being the one who seemed like the best candidate. We met him in Milan because he was on a trip in Europe with his wife and we played some of the demos we had for him. We had pretty much 80 percent of the songs done when he started working with us. He really liked them right away. He’s a really cool and chill person. He’s not the kind of person who is gonna tell you, “We have to do this! That doesn’t work! Let’s do that!” It’s not like a tyrant or anything. He’s actually the total opposite. But he knows what’s gonna work and he understands what the bands want.

It was great to work with him because he actually took us exactly where we wanted to go and didn’t really impose his ideas. You would expect somebody like him who’s worked with so many big bands [Linkin Park, Avril Lavigne] to be maybe responsible—of course, he is, partially, but it’s not like he wrote all the songs or the lyrics. Instead, he tried really to see what worked in the songs on the demos we had and we developed it together—like, “This part could be a little bit longer. This part doesn’t fit here; we should probably try it in a different song” and so on, stuff like that. It was a very relaxed way or working. We totally felt at home somehow. And he’s a really funny guy, so we had a great time in the studio.

It’s really hard to say because for the first time, when we entered the studio we had ideas for about 20 songs, which is very unusual for us. We usually get into the studio with like 13, 14 ideas and then we’ll record 12. So in the end, we recorded 15 songs, 12 of which will be on the album and three will be used maybe in the future as bonus material. So it’s a lot of songs and we wouldn’t have recorded those songs if we didn’t like them all. This time, because we had so much time, I think, we didn’t start recording with stuff we weren’t really sure about. Everything we had was like, “Well, this should be on the album.” When we had to leave behind three songs, it was very hard because we love all the songs we recorded and to actually think that three of those won’t be on the album is like “Maybe people will have the chance to listen to them”—just to give you an idea of how every song is special somehow.

Of course, there are gonna be songs that will be better to be played live and others that will be perfect for a soundtrack or whatever. But every song is really a special thing, so it’s something on its own. I can’t really tell you, “This is my favorite one” or “That one I don’t really like” because I honestly like them all and we all feel the same, really.

I’m sure we’ll be touring a lot. I’m positive we’ll be back in the States, probably around September or something—depending on what comes up. If there’s a good offer for a tour, maybe we’ll come back for a headliner tour. It’s really hard to say right now because the album’s not out yet and that’s a very good sign when you see how the album’s doing at radio and on charts. People start noticing what’s going on and you get offers and offers. It’s really hard to say. For sure, we’re going to do the festivals in Europe between June and July, and I’m positive we’ll be back here. Probably, we’ll go to South America and Japan and Australia again, but right now nothing is really confirmed. We’ll see.

We are discussing about a possible new video, but we don’t know what it’s gonna be or when it’s gonna be done. The video for “Spellbound” was just released.

Yeah, we shot two versions. I mean, it was the same but without the actors that appeared in one of the two versions. It was something just to have two different things. Some people prefer to see the band performing all the time and don’t really care about what kind of story there is, and some others actually like better to see a story. So with MTV and all these music channels, it’s sometimes hard to know what’s gonna work or not, so we have to be ready on every side.

I am really excited about the release of the new album and I’m really looking forward to see and to hear what people think about it. So far, as I said before, the reactions of the people at the shows here have been great, also, on the new songs. So I’m really curious to see what’s gonna happen and to come back hopefully soon and play maybe for a headliner show.