Interview with Cristiano on 5th January 2004 on WCRX 88.1 FM radio
Brian: This is Brian the Maniac, sitting down with Chris from Lacuna Coil. How is it going, brother?
Chris: Everything’s good, thanks.
Brian: You guys are blown up by commercial radio now, did you ever expect this in the US?
Chris: Actually, it was kind of a surprise for us because we are not on a major label and usually bands like us don’t get a lot of airplay on radio stations, it was actually a very good surprise. You know a lot of radios picked up our songs and played it, actually that’s very, very good for us
Brian: Speaking of a being on a smaller label like Century Media, do you think they are able to promote you guys well enough, considering they are more known for heavier music?
Chris: We’ve been working with Century Media now for 5 years, it started in 1997 with our first EP and since then they always worked and promoted us the best they could, so we could say they are doing a good job. Of course they probably don’t have the means of the big labels like Sony or whatever but for what they are, they are doing a really great job.
Brian: Heaven’s a Lie seems to be your big single, what’s the whole meaning behind that song?
Chris: Well, it’s not at all something against religion, like a lot of people think. The song talks about.. I didn’t write the lyrics so I can’t really tell you exactly what it talks about, but mainly it’s like relationships between two people and when you understand that everything is not going too well, it’s not heaven any more, so if the other tries make you think that you are living in heaven, then it’s not true. It’s pretty much something like that.
Brian: Did you expect that song to take off, when you guys made it?
Chris: Not really, I mean when we wrote all the songs for Comalies we knew that we had some good stuff, we could tell the difference between these new songs and the ones we did before, but we really didn’t think that it would’ve been so good, the fact that Heaven’s a Lie has been playing on the radio… so often, it’s actually kind of amazing for us [laughs]
Brian: It’s great to see you guys are actually on major commercial radio stations in Chicago now. For you personally Chris, what’s your favorite song on the new album?
Chris: I would say, Daylight Dancer. That is by far my favorite song.
Brian: For a lot of people that don’t know Lacuna Coil, what’s the meaning behind the name of you guys?
Chris: Well, Lacuna Coil is actually made up of two words. Lacuna is a Latin word that means a lack of something, and Coil is like a spiral, coil, something like that. So basically the meaning would be ’empty spiral’. We just had to create this name because we were first named Ethereal, but there were like 2 or 3 bands having the same name, so we had to find something original, so we looked for some good words and we tried to put them together and that’s how we came up to Lacuna Coil. [laughs]
Brian: You guys did a tour with Type O Negative, which seems to be a good fit for you guys, and you guys did a tour with Anthrax. How was like it touring with Anthrax, being such more of a mellow band, then being more of a thrash metal?
Chris: It was great, I mean we’ve always been big fans of Anthrax since we were kinds, you know, so touring with them was actually like achieving of a dream. It was pretty cool, that are really nice guys, too. We didn’t tour too long with them, it was only 2 weeks, so when we started to know each other a little deeper, then the tour was finished.
Brian: Actually your first night was here, at Oasis 160′
Chris: Yeah, this was actually the first show we played with them.
Brian: How did the crowd react to you guys, did you see, like, a pretty positive reaction out there?
Chris: It was great, I mean with Type-O it was easier for us because we played pretty much played.. not really the same kind of music, but closer, you know. With Anthrax it’s completely different, so we were expecting, like.. really tough reaction from the crowd. Actually, it didn’t happen, it was pretty positive. People really were.. you could see that they didn’t really know us, but the reaction was good after the show
Brian: I remember seeing the crowd and thinking OK, I’m into you guys a lot and I just want to see how other heavy metal fans are gonna react to you guys and it was pretty positive, for the most part…
Chris: Yeah, definitely.
Brian: You guys were also rumored that you were supposed to tour with.. was it Puddle of Mudd?
Chris: We were offered to tour with them, and there was a choice of three bands, and were one of the three. In the end they chose another band, so It was a rumor and in the end they just went to tour with some other band.
Brian: I thought you guys just chose not to do it and instead go out on a headlining tour, but they just chose somebody else You guys are from Italy, is it hard for you to adjust to American culture here?
Chris: Not really, because actually in Italy, the American culture is pretty.. it’s pretty there, you know? We have a lot of influences from America and we have clothes, we have, like.. I don’t know.. we have video games, we have music, a lot of music in Italy comes from the States, and from England, so it’s not that hard for us to adapt to the American culture since it’s already there in Italy, with us.
Brian: Growing up in Italy, who were your influences, is there a lot of bands in Italy?
Chris: There are a lot of bands, the scene is pretty big, but it’s mostly underground. Metal and rock music is not that popular as it is over here, and it’s mostly Italian music and pop music. It’s really hard for rock bands to get in touch with all the people who might be interested in listening to that kind of music.
Brian: Do you find that you guys go over better here in the States and maybe other places in Europe then actually your home country?
Chris: Definitely. When we started back in ’97, Italy was really one of the worst markets for us. Germany was our main market and I think it still is, and the rest of Europe is very, very good for us, we sell a lot almost everywhere and Italy is getting better. You know, the mentality in Italy is that if you are Italian, even if you are good, you gotta be worse then all the foreign bands just because you are Italian. [laughs] That’s pretty stupid I know, but that’s the way it is, and you have to earn you respect to the people, so you have to show them that you are worth listening to. We had to work hard to get there.
Brian: You guys are headlining now here in the United States, what made you guys decide to headline instead of maybe going on a tour with somebody else again?
Chris: Well, basically the main reason is that since we have this big airplay right now going on, we wanted to keep it high, you know we wanted to keep it there and there weren’t any other tour available, and we just though well, let’s just give it a try and it actually worked out pretty well so far.
Brian: So you had a lot of people showing up so far to the shows?
Chris: Yeah, of course we can’t really compare with Type-O or Anthrax because this is our first headliner tour, but so far average amount of people is around 200 every night, so it’s not bad.
Brian: It’s not bad at all. Are you guys gonna be working on a follow-up to Comalies?
Chris: Yeah, definitely. We already have some songs ready and as soon as we come back from this American tour, we’ll be home for about one week, and then we will start this European tour which is two weeks, with Moonspell, Passenger, and Poisonblack. It’s gonna be fun, we know all these bands and it’s gonna be really a lot of fun.
Brian: Passenger with Anders from In Flames..
Chris: Yeah, yeah they are all cool guys. Right after this we are gonna start working on new material.
Brian: So you guys got some stuff written already, is there any particular vibe you got going?
Chris: We are just collecting ideas, really. One thing I can tell you this album probably is gonna be heavier then Comalies. This year, we’ve been on tour for a long time, and when you play live, you have a lot of energy when you play the same songs you have on the album but it’s completely different vibe going on on stage. We want to try to re-create the same feeling on the next album because we feel that the heaviest songs that we play live are ones that people get into easier, so we’d like to have the same feeling on the album for next time.
Brian: Speaking of writing albums, it seems like when I read the lyrics and stuff, and just the music in general, it seems like you guys are write it from personal experience. Is that where you guys…?
Chris: Yeah, definitely, definitely. I’m not one of the writers for the lyrics, basically Andrea and Cristina, the two singers, do all the job for vocal lines and lyrics. But I know that they take all the ideas for their lyrics from everyday live, you know. Anything that happens to them, to the band when we’re on tour, anything could actually get into the lyrics.
Brian: And finally Chris, what’s the future hold for you guys?
Chris: I don’t know, we’ll record another album, go on tour, try to be as popular as possible [laughs]. That’s what every band wants to do, you know.
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