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DARKLIFE: What does
Comalies mean? ANDREA: Yes, we put together two words "coma" and "lies" cause when we were writing the stuff for the new album we were under a sort of state of coma. We were coming from a lot of satisfaction because of the American tour and summer festivals so with the band everything was going really great, we were really happy but then arrived back home and we had to write the new stuff for the new album and it was a big clash coming back to the reality. At home you have the problems with you family, you have to pay all the bills with the money that's never enough. We have started now to earn more money but not really enough to survive so, there was a big clash between the reality and the artistic side of the band which was very positive. That's why we called it Comalies cause we were like in a state of coma during the recording and the writing of the songs. And also it sounds like comalised that is when you are in coma DL: Can you tell me what do the symbols on the cover mean cause you also used it on Unleashed Memories? ANDREA: This one is an evolution of the old one. Cause we gave to an Australian artist the music an the words of the songs and he came up with some ideas. At the beginning we didn't like much what he did but we realised that this strange flower with an eye in the middle was something really nice because of the colours, that warm colour but with the black background. It's something that really represents our music, which is like the strong Latin roots with a lot of warmth and hot and also a contrast with a bit darker side that we have in our music which is represented by the black background. And when you see it catches your attention and also what it represents, is something really weird like a flower with the eye in the middle, something in between the reality and something more freaky, more weird… DL: What are your plans now? DL: And that Chinese symbol that appears on the booklet and the web site? (Shows the symbol tattooed on her leg) Yes, that one!!! ANDREA: It's an "l" an "c", LACUNA COIL…haha, it looks like a Japanese logo, Marco, the bass player design it...it's "l" and "c", but it looks like a Japanese sign…we are a lot into Japanese stuff like manga, all these action cartoons they do in Japan. We just liked it and it was a good symbol for the band and now we will always use it. DL: What was this time your source of inspiration when writing the lyrics? ANDREA: Basically we always take inspiration from real life from what happened to ourselves or what happens around the band. In this record specially there are a lot of love songs, which are not always happy because love is not always happiness…like Heaven Is a Lie for example. Many people think that is like a satanic song or something like that, because of the title, but it is not, we're not like catholic and not even satanists. We have our own idea of religion and it's not absolutely a satanic song, it's a song about two people that are fighting and it's also a love story, it's really weird. We have also some songs about victims of the war like Angel's Punishment, so we try to keep inspiration from everything that is around, basically feelings are the biggest influence for us in the music and in the lyrics. Feelings that you have when you stay with a girl or with a boy, you know, and the feelings you have from real life, things which happen around you with your friends and the people you know well. So it's always about real life. DL: I've read in some magazines that Comalies is softer than the other albums, and therefore more commercial; I think it is balanced and that it is even harder than Unleashed Memories, what do you think? ANDREA: Yes, me too! Exactly, I think it's a dynamic album, there are many atmospheric songs… I don't know why they said that, probably because we tried to keep more simple structures and arrangements for the songs, so maybe it sounds easier to listen to. Cause in the past, for example in Unleashed Memories, we had lots of guitars and sometimes it was complicated to mix, cause there were too many guitars. This is really a more mature album so I think that's why people may think that is more commercial or pop or soft. But, for example, we used seven-string guitars with a very deeper tuning which are much more heavy than the ones we had on Unleashed Memories, so I don't think it's a softer album, I think it's a very dynamic album with lots of different songs. DL: In Comalies you have introduced more special effects, I mean, sound effects are you using them also in live performances? ANDREA: Yes, we have them on a sampler cause we don't have a keyboard player. But the parts that are in the songs are not really like a solo keyboard or something, which means someone who can play the piano. it's only arrangement and something behind the music so we have it on a mini disc, a sampler that the drummer controls, so we play with the sampler. DL: Have you ever thought of making a video? I mean a serious one, not like the one on the CD… ANDREA: No, not yet because, they always ask us for making a video but it's a lot of money, and with the money for a video we can do like three tours and for us it's better to go on tour cause the video probably they will never show it Ion MTV or whatever. So it makes no sense to make a video and spend a lot of many making it and then they show it only once a week in the night sometimes, somewhere, so it's useless to spend that money. DL: But in your country wouldn't show your videos? ANDREA: Yes, for example we have a sort of video for this album similar to the one on the CD, like home-made, for Heaven is a Lie and they show it on MTV in Italy but only in the metal programs, so only once a week, late night. So it's just spending 6000 Euro for a video that then no one will see. DL: But the company doesn't pay for the videos? ANDREA:
Yes, but part of that money is the band's money, so you will
never see money if you invest it in a video, I mean, the
royalties are really high but you have to sell more than
100.000.000 albums to see money from the royalties, so it's
very difficult. We have part-time jobs but with this record
we make more money. But if you want to see money from the
copyright… cause all the money from the royalties goes
to pay the cost of the recording, the producers. Well, not
the promotion and all the ads in magazines, this is paid for
by the record label, but with video and tours is always half
and half between the band and the record company. So before
you see the money you have to cover all the costs. And to
really earn good money you have to sell more than
100.000.000 copies, and we don't...aha, but we see money
from the concerts, merchandise, copyright... DL: Could you tell me something about the song Senzafine, it's like a hymn to you, cause you always play it… ANDREA: Yes, we have very good reaction everywhere with that song, playing in England or in America. Even though they don't understand the lyrics they love it, even more than in Italy. In Italy sometimes it's like… ok it's in Italian, but rock is not for Italian language, but in the other countries they love it so we always have to play it. DL: Maybe because it's so different… ANDREA: Yeah, I think for example we used Italian for the lyrics of that song cause it starts with an acoustic guitar. When we wrote it Marco was just with an acoustic guitar, Italian language fits with acoustic music, very melodic and good for atmospheric songs, but if you play something heavy, it's not going to fit. For really heavy songs English is much better, because it is a more strong language, has more power in the world so you can scream or shout it…so Italian is just good in those kind of songs like Senzafine. DL: You always keep much in touch with the audience and fans, and you also play in really good mood, this is very important to you, isn't it? ANDREA: Sometimes, specially now in this tour because there's a lot of people, it's not possible to go…for example in London we had 1600 people so it was impossible to go…cause everybody went "eehhh" and it's impossible to sign 1600 autographs, it's impossible really. Yesterday in Barcelona there were 500 people there, so we went to a bar together with the people drinking something. When it's a small venue like 500 or 600 people you can go and sign and take photos together, it's no problem, but when it is so big like in Paris or London where there are more than 1000 people it's really impossible, it's almost dangerous. DL: What was your impression of this venue? Because when I got in everyone was saying that "it's so beautiful" and so on. ANDREA: Yes, it's really good, actually is the second time in this tour that we have played in an old church turned into a club, the other was in Holland, and this one is really nice, very well done…very nice club. But tonight there will be no sound check for us because we arrived too late, they opened at four…so we just go and play without doing the sound-check. DL: Everybody says that this is a very good place because of the acoustic… ANDREA: Yeah, yeah, they told me yesterday so, there was a guy in Barcelona who plays in a band, a Spanish band, and he said it was excellent, so let's trust him for tonight. DL: Anything else you want to tell us… ANDREA: We just want to thank all the people here in Spain, in Bilbao, Barcelona, and also the next two days cause you are really good people at every show so…and that I hope to see many people in the Rock Machina if we will play there, we played two years ago and it was great, so… DL: Most of the people, though they didn't know you yet, said that you were one of the best bands of the festival… ANDREA: Yeah, lets hope to play also this year, because it was very good, the atmosphere with the people was very nice and the weather, the food…very good, it's much better than playing in Holland or in Germany. I mean it's also amazing cause you play in front of so many people but the weather is always shit, it's raining or very cold…here the weather excellent, it's much better for us because is more similar to Italy. |
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DL: It seems that you sing more in this last album than in the first one for example, in spite of a few songs like The Prophet Said… CRISTINA: No, I think that Andrea sings more in this album, I mean, I sing two songs alone but I did it also in the previous albums so there not a big difference, but I think there's a bigger balance between my voice and Andreas voice in Comalies… DL: Can you tell me something about the song Angel's Punishment? It's radically different from the others…I love it… CRISTINA: Angel's Punishment, yeah, it's completely different from the other songs, we just wanted to do a song and dedicate it to all the innocent victims of every kind of war and revolution. I mean, we weren't just talking about, for example the September 11th …exactly, but every war in the world…we just wanted to write a song regarding this. DL: But is it true that you wrote it after September 11th? CRISTINA: Yes, actually we wrote it a lot of months after, yeah, yeah… DL: Could you choose a song that will describe best the sound of LACUNA COIL? One from any album… CRISTINA: Well, it's really difficult cause we are a mixture between gothic, rock, metal, with a modern touch. The fact is that we are really open-minded, we don't want to close ourselves in a cliché, we are not just gothic, just metal or just rock, we are a mixture between the three. We also like to include electronic stuff, modern effects, we want to experiment more with the voices, we don't use for example the lyrical voice with the crawl one, we try to experiment different things. It's very difficult to try to classify our music. DL: Yes, that was my next question… in Comalies it seems you have been trying new things out with your voice… CRISTINA: Yeah, look at Angel's Punishment. I mean, it's like I'm talking more than I'm singing, because we wanted to sing the song as it was a sort of, you know, CNN tv show where I'm just presenting what's happening, just reading the news, and Andrea screaming representing the pain and the anger for the things happening… DL: You've played with lots of bands such as MOONSPELL, LACRIMOSA…how's the tour going with the Finnish guys (SENTENCED ndr)? CRISTINA: It's going excellent, I mean, we are playing always in front of lots of people, almost every show is sold out, we played in UK in front of 1600 people, we played in Paris in front of 1000 people…it's going absolutely great, great audiences, great response. The relationship between the bands is excellent…it's going really really good, one of my favourites. DL: Did you know them before? Because on the booklet of In a Reverie I saw that you greeted SENTENCED, so… CRISTINA: Yeah, yeah, we knew them before, I mean, we met them because we are of the same label, we have Century Media, so we already knew them before. DL: And how is it touring with all boys? Because you are the only girl I've seen around… CRISTINA: No, no problems at all, you can just see me, I'm really quite, I'm not that kind of girl like "hmm, this is dirty…", I'm really really calm and quite, I mean, I have no problems at all. DL: Anything else to tell us… CRISTINA: Well, I hope to see a lot of people tonight cause we are going to give a fucking good show…haha DL: Well, thank you for everything, CRISTINA: No, thank you…you are welcomed, live photos Helena Anguren |
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