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Interview with
Andrea Ferro of Lacuna
Coil
Let's start with the basics;
I know Lacuna means "Empty" or a "gap" but what does the whole name mean to each of you?
Lacuna Coil can be translated as Empty Spiral.
We decided to create this name by putting together an Italian
word with an English word; we wanted to have a similar meaning to Ethereal - our old name that we couldn’t use for copyright
reasons.
What is the band all about and what drives you as a band?
The band is about
writing good songs by mixing rock, metal and dark music. I guess the passion for music and our friendship is the reason
we’re still making records.
What’s the writing process like? You’ve got multiple
members and I’m sure each of you help out musically when it comes to writing, how does this whole process work?
What atmosphere or mood do you need to surround yourself in order to write?
Usually we need to be home
to write music, we need to sit down and have time to elaborate all of our experiences, give a direction to our feelings and
most of all have something fresh to say. We’re not the type of band that can write a record every year.
Regarding the songwriting, we’ve been developing the way we contribute to the songs and now everyone is really involved
in the process.
What or who influences your writing?
When we started we were really
influenced by our music heroes and we were trying to sound like them, but right now we get our influences from everything;
music, movies, life…
There’s been a lot of press on the band lately, but not necessarily about
the music – focusing more on Cristina and her beauty. How does the whole band feel about this type of press and
how are you able to show everyone that she’s not just a pretty face in the music scene?
Actually,
I think that this was happening much more in the past compared to now. In the rock / metal world to have a nice girl
in the band can be a plus to get extra attention, but can also be a minus to be taken more
seriously as a band.
I think that we have proven in twelve years of history of the band and five full albums that we are a real band, we’ve
been able to tour the world with some of the biggest names in modern music and constantly sell a good amount of records.
I read in another interview that you guys were spending a lot of time playing Xbox while on tour; what games
were you playing and do you guys still play games?
Yeah, we love videogames, personally I’m a big
soccer fan and I like to play Pro Evolution Soccer or Fifa, but we also dedicate a good amount of time to Guitar Hero, we’ve
been playing the Metallica edition quite a lot recently.
Are there any American bands out there that you'd
love to work with in the future, either on tour or maybe even collaborating on a song or album?
There
are many great American bands we would like to tour with even if right now we’re more focused on headlining our own
tour in the states. We’re always open to collaboration if something really interesting comes
up.
What are some of your favorite songs to play live and why?
Right now the songs from our new
album “Shallow Life” are our favorites because they are still fresh and we’re learning how to make them
sound right in the live set.
With the way the U.S. economy going downhill and people are either making
less money or no money at all - have you guys seen a dramatic change in the record or ticket sales?
I
feel it as a world wide crisis and not only in America. There has been a change, but not so dramatic, we are experiencing
slower record sales compared to the past when the people were there day one to buy the CD and
now they get it after a
month, but it’s still good. Regarding tickets; I think that less people are getting them in pre-sales and more
are coming directly to the show to make sure they have enough money to make it.
How does a band who relies
highly on sales make it through such a tough time? Especially when illegal downloading is at an all time high.
It’s a complicated situation for all the music business and bands are forced to always look for ways of making
money, very often the art is the main victim of this situation. I don’t see an easy way out in the near future.
What are the plans for the band this year?
Touring, touring, touring.
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