GENRE IS DEAD! Interview With Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabbia

GID: Because so much of this album is interconnected and even talks about some personal stuff, was this record more challenging to make than past records?

CS: Not necessarily. This is what we love to do for a living, so the only stress involved is when you have deadlines and you always have deadlines. You’re working with a label that’s aiming to put out a record on a certain date. In order to do that you have to be ready with a master of your CD months in advanced because you need time to produce the physical CD and print the booklets. They also need time to arrange the marketing plan and everything. So, it’s only stressful when you have the pressure to finish the record. I have to say it kind of sucked that we had to go through some personal events during the songwriting process. We had a dear friend of ours passed away after a car accident. Then Marco had another friend pass away pretty much two days after. So, it sucked because you have to go through all those things regardless. No matter what happens you must go on. Life won’t stop for you.

GID: A very sad, but harsh truth about life and loss. On a happier note, you guys recently launched your co-headlining tour with All That Remains. How has that been so far?

CS: So far so good! I mean minus problems with the bus, everything has been amazing. We’re friends with the All that Remains guys, so it was already a pleasure to tour with them. We also got to know the other bands too [supporting acts Bad Omens, Toothgrinder, Uncured] and everybody is super nice. The shows are doing well in spite of everything being on the road right now. Now, we’re on the Canadian leg of the tour and we will go back to North America in a few days. But we’re very happy about how the tour is going.

GID: Great to hear that’s things are going well, but did you say there have been bus problems?

CS: Oh my god, yeah! We changed busses like four times because now everybody’s on the bus and it seems like it’s really hard to keep up maintenance. Every bus basically breaks down or wheels are exploding or something. We are on our fourth bus now. So far so good! I’ve been afraid to say it out loud. But that’s what happens when you tour all the time.

GID: Hopefully this is the one that’s going to make it through the rest of the tour! Another exciting thing happening for you guys is your collaboration with the Dark Knight himself Batman to celebrate his 80th anniversary. Can you tell me more about that?

CS: We got invited by DC to be a part of the celebration in Italy as the representative Italian band. They created special artwork of us and Batman [for Batman #68] along with a special cover that will be released as a limited edition box set for Batman’s 80th anniversary where people will be able to put together the three covers so they get a whole big picture of the band playing in between other monsters. It will be super cool because it’ll be like Batman gadgets and visuals and Lacuna Coil gadgets and visuals all together in this limited-edition box. It’s going to look really cool and be a great collector’s item.

GID: Sounds awesome! Are you all big fans of Batman?

CS: We are fans of the whole geek world in general. Marco and Andrea are huge fans of comics. I’m more into the gaming world, but I always loved Batman. I love the imagery, the drawings, the art, the action figures – I’ve always loved it. It’s definitely a huge honor to be a part of that.

GID: Not only is the new album out this year, but it also marks the 20^th anniversary of Lacuna Coil, which is incredible. What’s it feel like to still make music that thousands of fans still love?

CS: We feel blessed because we do what we love for a living and that’s because of our supporters. We have the luxury to tour the world and we’re lucky to have a real career because our fans grew with us and there are a lot of newcomers. We have fans that have been supporting us from day one and that’s not happening for new bands nowadays. It’s way more difficult because it’s hard to keep the attention span alive. We’re lucky we’re in this position. We still love what we do and we have the privilege to continue doing that. We’re very thankful for this.

GID: Even though you’ve been making music with Lacuna Coil for 20 years, what’s one thing you still want to achieve in your career?

CS: We always talk about how we would love to write a soundtrack to a movie or a video game. Our songs have been used for games and movie soundtracks before, but we didn’t write music from scratch for them, so that’s what we would really love to do. On a personal level, it would be fun to act in a movie just to try and see how it is. I’m having a lot of fun when we’re doing videos, so it would be cool to try acting in a movie.

GID: What would be your dream acting job?

CS: Definitely an action or horror movie. That could be fun. A movie with special effects would be cool or playing a villain because they’re always the most interesting characters in their look and personality. They’re always more intricate to understand, so I would love to explore something like that.

GID: You guys recently reissued your debut album In a Reverie on vinyl. What’s it like looking back on that album thinking about who Lacuna Coil was then and comparing it to where you guys are now?

CS: Well, it’s just weird. We don’t really sit down and think too much about things like that. It would be like if I asked you how you were 20 years ago. Of course, things were different. We were inexperienced about life and most of all about how to write and record music and how to deal with the music world around us. But in the big picture, nothing has changed drastically. The core of the band is still the same even though we’ve evolved. So, we just don’t think about it. Every record is representational of what we were and what we are right now like with Black Anima. Otherwise, we don’t compare records. We don’t look back and think too much on it because it’s hard to go back and remember how it felt back then.

GID: You want to acknowledge the past and you want to celebrate it, but it’s always important to keep looking ahead.

CS: Yeah, it’s important for us to look ahead because we never get stuck in the past. We never take inspiration from the past. We live the present and we don’t even think about the future that much. We enjoy living in the present because that’s where you are. It’s the most important thing because you don’t know about the future and you’ve already experienced the past.

Lacuna Coil’s new album, Black Anima, is out now. The band recently wrapped up their North American tour with All That Remains. They’ll head out on the European leg of the tour in November. Find all their dates here.

Related Images: