WEB-EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: LACUNA COIL’S CRISTINA SCABBIA ON TOURING THE U.S.

In Revolver’s July issue, out now, we interview vocalist (and Revolver columnist) Cristina Scabbia of Italian goth rockers Lacuna Coil just after she and her band were about to release their new album, Shallow Life (Century Media). For those of you who didn't get enough (or are too cheap to buy the fucking magazine), here's the best of the rest of our wide-ranging chat.

Photo by Chris Denner

REVOLVER It’s been three years since Karmacode came out. After such a long time away from the recording side of things, how did it feel to get back in the studio?
CRISTINA SCABBIA It was awesome, especially since everything changed. We changed studios, we changed cities—for the first time, we recorded in the U.S. So everything was different from just the vibe of the recording, changing the producer, the weather. Everyone was incredibly happy.

What was it like working with Don in the studio?
He’s very relaxed and puts you in a very good condition of being relaxed to get your best. But at the same time he’s very, very anal about everything you do. He squeezes you 100 percent, which is awesome because it’s great that you can challenge yourself as a musician, as a singer on a new album. So we learned a lot about songwriting and the pronunciation of a few words. We definitely learned a lot from him.

Did you choose to record in the U.S. this time around because that’s where Don’s based out of?
Mainly because of that, but it’s been a while that we’ve been thinking about recording in the U.S. because we’ve always loved American productions. They always sound better, at least in my opinion. The sound is always really clear and powerful.

In our interview in the print edition of Revolver, you mentioned that Shallow Life is more of a rock album. Was that Don’s influence?
No, we wrote everything before we met Don. We actually sent the demo to him just to show what the music was sounding like. Basically he just came in, maybe, to cut some parts that were maybe too long or boring. When you start composing, you try to squeeze [in] everything that you have in mind, but not all the parts are sometimes working the best for the song. But sometimes you just don’t notice and that’s where the second opinion comes in. It’s like when you’re trying a dress on and a friend tells you, “Hey, don’t you think that you need a different size?” We’re totally open to suggestions if they are done in an intelligent way and that’s where Don came in.

Lacuna Coil have toured both the U.S. and Europe several times now. What do you like and dislike about touring the U.S.?
Probably the most is just the fact that it is just so much more comfortable to tour here. You can find places to stop and eat late at night. The tour buses are bigger because the space is bigger. That’s what I love. Every time you change states you see a completely different place. You can drive and find the desert and, in half an hour, you can find mountains and then the sea. It’s just beautiful. If you love to travel, the U.S. is just an amazing place to be. This is what I definitely love the most. In Europe, it’s really difficult to find places where it is convenient to be for artists. If you’re hungry in the middle of the night, there’s nothing. If you want to take a shower in the middle of the night, there’s not a truck stop that will provide you with a shower. So, America is definitely the best because of this. That would be the main reason why touring here is amazing besides the fans and tour, themselves.

Do you have a favorite city to play in the U.S.?
I have a few, because being here so many times we have a lot of friends and places we like to go. Now we know some people in Los Angeles, so it will be kind of cool to go there to visit. I don’t think I’d be able to live there. It’s too crazy for me. I’m not, like, a party girl. I’m pretty reserved and kind of quiet. I would say New York, as well. We have friends there—Type O Negative and other people. Florida for personal reasons.

I’m sure that you have experienced how different European and American crowds are from each other. Lacuna Coil are popular with both. How did you manage to break that barrier?
I have no idea. We started like the typical band that starts touring Europe. Then, all of a sudden our album got accepted well here and we started touring here. Probably the difference between Europe and America that I have noticed is that in America it works better if you play, perform a lot, and make yourself known on the road. In Europe, it’s more being promoted by magazines. It’s also about tours, but we don’t have as many venues as you guys have here. I’m really happy about that because I come from Italy. I mean there isn’t exactly a really big rock scene there. In America, it’s such a huge territory and unless you have a big budget and are, like, Madonna, it’s absolutely impossible to touch every single town in the U.S.


Interview by Valerie McQueen