LACUNA COIL's FERRO: 'We're The Only Rock/Metal Band From Italy With Mainstream Exposure'

Gus "Griesinger" of Glam-Metal.com recently conducted an interview with LACUNA COIL singers Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Glam-Metal.com: You guys just released "Within Me" — it's your fourth single off the new CD, "Karmacode". How do you guy decide what single is going to be released? Do you guys have a say in that or is it pretty much the record company that says "We're going put this out?"

Andrea: The main idea is always coming from the label, then we always have our own opinion about it but it's together. They come out with an idea and we say yes, no. It's always a little bit of fighting because you don't know what is going to work in the end. You can suggest the song that you like the most but you don't know if it's going to be great for the people, radio or TV so it's a tough decision to make. I think they also hire some people to test what will work with the radio director or TV. So it's something all together with the record label and the band.

Glam-Metal.com: Which market do you guys test — European or North American?

Andrea: It's pretty difficult to do we're the only rock/metal band from Italy with mainstream exposure. All of our videos have been in rotation on MTV (Italy) so you don't need cable or satellite to see it. All you need is a TV and basically you can see our videos. Here they don't play videos anymore, it's basically all reality TV. (everyone laughs) Videos here in the U.S. are more important on the internet, (ie YouTube). New artists just release singles to the internet because they have a lower budget. Possibly they could do something more shocking because there's not as much censorship many artists are doing two different videos — one for internet and one for TV — so its very hard to base the taste on European market and compare to American markets because it's so different.

Glam-Metal.com: We interviewed Zakk Wylde this past Wednesday and my female associate asked him this question, now it's my turn to ask you the same question. What did you think about being voted rock's sexiest female by Revolver magazine?

Cristina: (laughs) To say its not a cool thing I'd be an open hypocrite, I mean its always nice when get recognition in any way. I like it better when they say I'm a good singer more than just an image. But I think that if you can combine things being like good looking like pleasing to see but still do your job properly I think that it's great. But at the same time, I don't believe in polls in general because most of the time when you vote, you just say the first name you have in mind. I know there are more beautiful girls than me. I know there are more awesome singers. I think it's cool that a lot of people think that.

Glam-Metal.com: Do you see a lot of bands now copying your style?

Cristina: I wouldn't really call it copying, if you can get inspiration from different bands because when you start as a band you're always inspired by other bands or at least you like other bands. So you say "I like their music, their image or whatever it is." It's not that you're trying to steal something, but you get inspiration from the band and then you make it personal. So as long as the new bands are saying like "Wow, I really like LACUNA COIL" because they did this or that, let's try to recreate the same thing but personalize it. That's fine with us and of course it's flattering. In the very beginning we were compared to other bands and now new bands are being compared to us. That means that something happened.

Read the entire interview at Glam-Metal.com.