LACUNA COIL Frontwoman Talks About Recording Process For 'Shallow Life'

Kate Heath of myYearbook recently conducted an interview with vocalist Cristina Scabbia of the Italian rock/metal band LACUNA COIL. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

myYearbook: "Shallow Life" just hit the stores on April 21. It's the fifth studio album for LACUNA COIL. How does it feel to have come this far with the band?

Cristina: It feels great because it's a wonderful job. If you love travelling, it's fantastic. If you love music, it's amazing. I'm just happy to be in this situation because it's what I want to do, and it's just what I hoped it would be. It's really rewarding.

myYearbook: What was it about the gothic metal genre that spoke to you guys when the band first formed?

Cristina: When we started to do this kind of music, gothic metal was the only music that was communicating real emotions, at least to me. I don't know why, but sometimes I think the more melancholy stuff speaks to you directly. We were attracted by these bands like TYPE O NEGATIVE and PARADISE LOST. It was just the music that we liked to do. Now I think that we're not a goth metal band anymore, in the way that music has evolved. The old genre probably died a few years ago, but we're definitely keeping the roots and some melody and melancholy vibes in our music.

myYearbook: How did the creation of "Shallow Life" differ from your last album, "Karmacode"?

Cristina: We wrote more in the practice room instead of in front of our computers. In the past, we were basically meeting in the practice room when the songs were done to try them before we entered the recording studio. This time we wanted to try the songs in a live situation, to hear how they would sound before we needed to record them. That's probably the main difference.

myYearbook: What was it like to work with producer Don Gilmore (LINKIN PARK, PEARL JAM) on this album in L.A.?

Cristina: It was awesome. He's such a great guy. First of all, his professionalism is amazing. He's really precise and anal when it comes to the point where you have to record your parts; he really squeezes you as a lemon. He makes you give 100 percent of yourself. At the same time, he's an extremely funny guy. He helped us focus on the recording, but we had a lot of good laughs.

myYearbook: What inspired the theme behind "Shallow Life"?

Cristina: We live in the fashion capital Milan, Italy. We notice that everything in the media and press has to be absolutely perfect and shining. There's not a lot of place for normal people, normal jobs. If you want to be a winner, you have to have a shiny car. That basically inspired the whole album, even if it's not a concept album.

Read the entire interview from myYearbook.