LACUNA COIL's ANDREA FERRO Talks About Songwriting Process For 'Karmacode'

LACUNA COIL fan site EmptySpiral.net recently conducted an interview with the band's male vocalist Andrea Ferro. The second part of the chat follows in its entirety:

EmptySpiral.net: How would you say that the recording process for this album has been different from say... [2002's] "Comalies"?

Andrea: "This is the first album we've written for three years. Before there was always a maximum year and a half between them, so this time we have a lot of time to collect ideas and collect thoughts and to really think about what we want from this new album. So it's different to work on this album as we started about one year ago then we stopped to play some live shows and the restarted writing and then we ended the process of recording. We changed the studio where we are working with Waldemar [Sorychta] only as co-producer, and we worked with different engineers and now we are mixing with a different guy again! It's a completely different process compared to the past. There will be more evolution compared to the previous albums, as I feel like this time we have had the time to release what we really want to do, and we have more time for mixing so we really feel like we are reaching what we really want."

EmptySpiral.net: Has the success of "Comalies" changed the way you recorded this new album?

Andrea: "No, we're have always seen our records just as a picture of the moment. Of course, now probably we can play better, we can sing better, we can have better or bigger sounds, but we don't mean to change what we do from the past because we are proud of what it was — the best we could have done at that time. So we never look back too much, we concentrate on what we can do now. It's also very hard when we begin the writing process to think we might have another 'Heaven's a Lie' or another 'Swamped' because they have been so successful. But then, when it comes to writing albums, we have never wanted to really re-write those songs; it's not natural to redo something like that. When we wrote 'Heaven's a Lie' or 'Swamped' we were different musicians and we had different ideas about the songs so it's very hard to repeat that. Of course, we will have songs in the style of the band, but it's not possible just to repeat what you've done in the past. That was a perfect picture for that moment and now it's a different story."

EmptySpiral.net: Have you got any favorite tracks on the album?

Andrea: "Actually, there are certain songs that I already listen to a lot because we did a rough mix before we recorded the first part of the album, and those songs are already older to me because I listen to them a lot of times. Every time they send me a new song completely mixed it is always my favorite one (laughs). This time I like both the atmospheric and the heavy songs. Once, maybe, I would say that I liked better 'Swamped' or 'Daylight Dancer' or whatever; now I would have to say that so far I'm very proud of both types of songs."

EmptySpiral.net: Have there been any songs that have proved the hardest to complete?

Andrea: "No, not really. There is one that we have only recorded the music for so far — it was the last one we wrote and it's quite a diverse song compared to the other ones, so we want to wait a bit. Maybe we will keep that song for a bonus or something — as we haven't recorded vocals for that one… It's really a question of time not really a problem of inspiration. This time we have recorded many more songs compared to the past."

EmptySpiral.net: Are there any real slow songs or ballads on the album…?

Andrea: "Yes. We haven't decided yet how many we're going to put on the album because we have some extra songs. We will probably not do seventy percent ballads and thirty percent heavy. We should have a balance in the album so we will pick out the songs as soon as the mixing is complete. Every time a new song is completed I'm pretty happy about it so it's going to be very hard in the end to choose which ones we have to keep out of the normal CD. Basically I can tell now that for sure we are going to have a lot of different songs in the album. I would say that we have about fifty percent between heavy and atmospheric and some of them are semi-acoustic ballads."

EmptySpiral.net: Do you have any Italian tracks on the album?

Andrea: "Yes. We have one song in Italian, but I have to say that it is very different from 'Senzafine' because it is more of a ballad. It's also something very new for us because we have never sung a very slow song in our own language and it's a different experience. I really like it so…we still have to mix this song, so we don't know how it turns out in the end, but I'm pretty positive that it's going to be a good song – but not a potential single."

"Karmacode" was co-produced once again by Waldemar Sorychta was mixed by Ronald Prent (RAMMSTEIN, H.I.M., IRON MAIDEN). Songtitles set to appear on the CD include "What I See", "Fragile", "In Visible Light", "Fragments of Faith", "Within Me" and "Our Truth". A March 2006 release via Century Media Records is expected.