Lacuna Coil: Interview with Cristiano Migliore
After the doors closed on the final show of the Karmacode touring cycle, Italian metal six-piece Lacuna Coil spent almost an entire year penning what would eventually become Shallow Life.
“This gave us the chance to experiment because, before, we never really had so much time to write stuff,” guitarist Cristiano Migliore said. “We decided to go and explore new ideas…basically anything that was written, we would try and see where it would take us.”
Unlike albums that came before it, the music on the band’s fifth studio album was crafted with the input of all six members.
“[That] gave us the chance to have a wider variety, and that really make it more interesting because we were really excited about this way of working,” Migliore said. “We don’t really work that way. Normally one or two people come up with the idea and we all work on the arraignment, but this time we all worked. You can tell because every song is actually different from the other.”
The video for the first single off of the new record, “Spellbound,” was shot at Gold, a restaurant in Milan owned by famed fashion label Dolce & Gabana. The band performed the song 30 to 40 times at double speed, Migliore said, to achieve the slow-motion effect that is seen in the final cut.
“It was actually a very fun experience. It’s one of those over-the-top places, full of gold everywhere. It was actually the perfect location for the message behind the lyrics,” he said. “I think that the concept behind it is that you have to be yourself. Sometimes we show a part of ourselves that’s not really what we are or who we are.”
Pitting the superficial against the truly meaningful is a theme Lacuna Coil explored again in their album photos. In one shot, singers Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro are portrayed as arrogant socialites pushing their way through a crowd of protesters made up of their band mates. 
“We sometimes got the impression that people only tend to do their own thing without caring about others, so what we wanted to portray in those picture is the balance between these things, two total opposites with Christina and Andrea well-dressed like Hollywood stars and the rest of the band being more like the people in riot clothes fighting for important things,” Migliore said. “And the contrast between these two things is exactly what the meaning behind the title is, Shallow Life, the life where everything has to be fast, everything has to be very good looking or people looking for their 15 minutes of fame. There should be a balance between these two things. We can always have our shallow moments sitting on the couch and watching TV, but we shouldn’t forget a lot of more important things that we should all take care about.”
Though it may appear to be a twist of irony when the focus of the band’s latest work is taken into consideration, it doesn’t take much effort to figure out which band member is the media favorite. Type “Lacuna Coil” into Google image search, and single shots of vocalist Cristina Scabbia are as plentiful as group pictures, not to mention that her name is the only related search suggestion at the top of the screen. Scabbia has even appeared on magazine covers solo. But Migliore relates with levelheaded assuredness that he and the rest of the band don’t take the considerable amount of attention showered on the only member without a Y chromosome as an insult.
“If you’re in a metal band and you have a female singer, that’s not very common. It’s something that people would go and right away at look at her simply because she is a girl,” Migliore said. “It’s not something that bothers us because we know it’s something that’s normal. But I think that people after a while realize that it’s not just about having a nice, pretty girl to show. She is a really good singer, too. We complete each other as a band. If we weren’t there, then she wouldn’t be there either and the other way around, as well.”
Despite the success they’ve achieved so far in their career, you won’t find this band cruising the Italian countryside in matching Ferraris or contracting private helicopters, Migliore said. Of the things Lacuna Coil has set out to do, becoming excess-driven rock ‘n’ roll divas doesn’t even make their list.
“We’re still the same people we were when we started. We’re six friends stuck together and having fun playing music,” he said. “Of course, we realize that what we’ve done is great; it took a lot of work, a lot of sacrifices, and it certainly wasn’t easy at some points. But we just know and we realize where we come from, and we try to stay focused on what we want to do, which is a one chance thing. Either you make it or not, and we’re really trying to stay with our feet on the ground. We don’t feel like turning into rock stars or spending money or being assholes would really help with this. We really want to try and do what we’re doing the best way we can…”
It comes as no surprise to learn that Migliore and the rest of the band are laidback about the whole world-touring-artists-with-legions-of-fans thing when it’s taken into consideration that, back in the day, they couldn’t catch a break in their own home country. Early on, Lacuna Coil toured around Europe to broaden their fan base and snag a record deal.
“And then when we were here in the states, that’s when everything happened. We became already more successful in Italy after we became successful over here, which is kind of a weird thing,” he said. “We realize sometimes that we spend more time over here in the United States touring than we do in Italy. But that’s only because this kind of music is really hard to sell over there. Most of the radio stations, I would say even 90 percent, they play only pop and hip-hop and all that kind of stuff. It’s really hard for bands playing this kind of music to get somewhere [in Italy]. It takes a lot of time, and sometimes it’s not even possible at all.”
It is perhaps because of that knowledge that after 15 years and five albums, Migliore is still grateful that he is able to make music for a living.
“[Being in a band] gives you the chance to do what you like and be able to live with it, which is not some thing that everybody can do,” he said “Sometimes there are some problems, and you’re not lucky enough to get to the point where we are. We’re really thankful for what we have.”
