Unchained – An Interview Cristina Scabbia of Lacuna Coil
When speaking with Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabbia there are times her responses to questions might sound a little short and gruff but they’re not much different from anyone else who is speaking in a language other than their native tongue. Scabbia laughs often, exudes an energy that is seldom seen after more than a decade in the music business, and is confident enough in her singing ability that she can rock just as hard as the boys can.
Having just embarked on their first North American tour in more than two years, the Lacuna Coil boys (and girl) are riding the wave excitement over their recent release. Shallow Life, their fifth studio album debuted at #16 on the Billboard Top 200 chart – the band’s highest Billboard chart entry and the highest Billboard debut for Century Media Records.
Their five-week American Spellbound headlining tour, now in progress, also features the bands Kill Hannah, Seventh Void and Dommin.
Scabbia discussed with NoneLouder how they went about deciding the tunes for the set list of the current tour:
“Well we’re doing four songs off of ‘Shallow Life’ for sure. And then we’re planning to play more in the next [shows] but definitely four. It’s not really hard because most of the time we play stuff from ‘Comalies’ just because they’re the most popular ones, so of course people want to listen to these songs. So it’s pretty easy because some songs are much better live than on the records so we tend to play the more energetic songs, let’s say, and leave the atmospheric ones to listening to the CDs,” says Scabbia, a native of Milan, in her Italian accent.
Out of the entire Lacuna Coil song catalog, does Scabbia have any personal favorites as far as performing live?
“Well, probably at the moment the new ones are the most exciting for us because, you know, even if you love every single song you did as a band – to play the new stuff is more exciting because you didn’t really play them so many times live. So of course I would say the new stuff.”
Scabbia continues: “I think that there’s not a favorite because they’re all different from each other. You know, a song like ‘Spellbound’ it’s completely different from a song like ‘Not Enough’ or others, I don’t think there is one that I prefer over the other right now.”
Shallow Life was produced by Don Gilmore and was Lacuna Coil’s first experience working with him; he's produced albums for artists like Linkin Park, Dashboard Confessional, and Avril Lavigne - just to name a few. Did Gilmore bring anything new to the table for the production of Shallow Life?
“Well, he brought a lot of energy and a lot of positivity. Of course I don’t want to say that the previous producer wasn’t like that, but Don is just different because Waldemar Sorychta, which is our old producer, was more a metal producer where Don is more of a rock/metal producer. He’s also produced other bands that are more mainstream, let’s say, so he has a different eye. And when he listened to the songs – because they were all written by the band – he just gave us some suggestions for like cutting some parts or work better on others. So he didn’t really work on the song writing or anything like that but I think that he brought a new sound out of Lacuna Coil. It just showed us that we could do something in a different way and it’s always good when you learn something new.”
Is the goal to try to maintain the balance between experimenting with some new sounds or styles but also trying to retain that signature sound that fans have come to expect?
“Absolutely, absolutely. It is the natural evolution of the band because of course, we love what we did so far in more than 10 years of career, but at the same time it would be stupid to close yourself in a cliché and do the same thing over and over. That wouldn’t be creative - and to be honest, we love music in its entireness so we want to experiment and see where we can go. We never really write music to please other people, that wouldn’t be fair. We write for our personal pleasure and then, of course, if fans - if other people can enjoy what we do it’s just a pleasure because we owe everything to the fans. But I don’t think it’s fair to owe fans your creativity; that would make no sense at all.”
When Falina shared with Scabbia that she was probably only the third woman she’s interviewed in the music industry, Scabbia laughed heartily:
“Yeah, there are not a lot of women in the scene,” Scabbia stated gregariously.
Are there ever any situations that arise due to Scabbia being a female that make things awkward or difficult for herself or for the band?
“To be honest I don’t think it’s awkward if you don’t care at all. Because when you’re on stage – especially in the beginning of the career, hearing someone saying stupid things to you like, ‘Get naked!’ or ‘Give it to me!’ The biggest satisfaction is that when you start singing and start to perform [and] just looking at these people and shutting them down completely. That’s the most amazing thing to me because if you are sure about your potential and you understand that they are just idiots, then that makes things absolutely easy and you don’t care about that anymore because you can’t help ignorance. But I never really had problems with professionals or people in the business. I always got along in an excellent way with everybody and I’m highly respected in the scene so I never really found it difficult.”
But standing the test of time in the music industry has helped to bypass the sexism for Scabbia as well.
“That was happening in the beginning, you know, now it kind of happens contrary. Now I kind of embarrass some people - sometimes people are intimidated by me. Maybe not because I’m a woman but because when you’re a woman and you start to establish your name then it’s different. They don’t look at you like the weak one that they can make fun of, it’s like, ‘Uh oh.’”
The re-recording of Megadeth’s "À Tout le Monde (Set Me Free)" with Dave Mustaine promoted varied responses from music fans.
“There were different reactions because probably the most traditional, close-minded metal-heads were against it just because, ‘Oh my god, Dave Mustaine changed the song!’ But I got a lot of positive comments because a lot of people said that the song was sounding good and it was cool of Dave to try something different. It’s been a collaboration with a friend so we were absolutely comfortable. And then you’re always free to like or dislike a song, but to not like it just because Lacuna Coil are playing different music from Megadeth is another idiot-thing.”
Now that twelve years have passed in the history of Lacuna Coil, does it seem like it’s been that long to Scabbia?
“No, not at all. Not at all because we always try to renew ourselves during the years we try to reinvent ourselves musically and working on our image, and of course we grew up as persons, we know the business much better than we did in the past. So everything is completely different, we didn’t get stuck in our own stuff for years, we always try to change.”
What life-lessons has Scabbia learned after more than a decade in the music industry?
“Well, I think that the most important thing is when you start to travel and you meet different cultures you just realize that everybody’s different and you don’t have to make comments about other people because every single person is completely different. So now I really don’t care about anything, about critics, about sometimes I know it’s awkward to say – it’s not even a compliment, it’s like living in another dimension. Where you do what you want to do and you let things go on without really caring – kind of floating on air,” she chuckled. “But it helps you to deal with life in an easier way. To understand there are so many more important things to care about.”
No one can make everyone happy…
“Absolutely, absolutely – and not only for music, in every single thing in your life – whether you work in an office or you work at Starbucks or you’re a dancer, whatever.”
In addition to music another one of the hats Scabbia wears is as an advice columnist for Revolver Magazine.
“They asked me to do it, they sent me the question and I just accepted to do it. I think it’s cool when you’re in trouble or when you just want to be listened [to] I think it’s cool to have an opinion from a person who is not in the situation, you know? You can have a point of view which is completely honest and always without bias. It might help or not, and from the mail I got with thanks – it helped some people. And at the same time it’s really cool to know you’re listened to by somebody.”
Has Scabbia been asked any questions in her column that made her uncomfortable formulating a response?
"No, no, not really. I travel the world with five guys so I think I’ve seen everything,” Scabbia laughs, “And not only that, just it’s really difficult to make me feel uncomfortable.”
So music (and advice column writing) aside, is there anything else that Scabbia would like to accomplish in life?
“Well, there’s so much stuff and every day I’m kind of changing my mind, it’s like, ‘Well I could do this – but I have no time,’ and ‘Then I could do that.’ And there are just so many different things that I would love to accomplish but I have no time at all. I would work more on my cooking skills, I would love to do different collaborations in music, I would learn to play another instrument - just for fun, I would paint more, I would arrange my house – it needs to be remodled a little bit, but no time at all.
"Yeah, that’s the price you have to pay, you’re always away from home.”
Lacuna Coil Headlining Tour Dates:
*Supporting bands Kill Hannah, Seventh Void, and Dommin
07/11 The Rave – Milwaukee, WI
07/12 Station 4 – St. Paul, MN
07/14 Wilma Theater – Missoula, MT
07/15 Knitting Factory – Spokane, WA
07/17 Knitting Factory – Boise, ID
07/18 Roseland – Portland, OR
07/19 Neumo’s – Seattle, WA
07/21 Last Day Saloon – Santa Rosa, CA
07/22 House of Blues – Hollywood, CA
07/24 House of Blues – Las Vegas. NV
07/25 The New Oasis – Sparks, NV
07/26 The Senator Theater – Chico, CA
07/27 Slim’s – San Francisco, CA
Lacuna Coil Related Links:
Lacuna Coil Official Website
Cristina Scabbia on MySpace
Watch the video for the song “Spellbound”
*Photo of Cristina Scabbia by Adam Bielawski
Tags: cristina scabbia, lacuna coil
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