Lacuna Coil – interview met Andrea Ferro (vocals)
Andrea Ferro: “We were coming from an era of the analogue world when we did not have any internet or any cell phones and we are the first generation, or maybe the last generation also, that lived through the shit of the new digital world.”
Als er één band uit Italië het gemaakt heeft qua internationaal succes, dan komen we toch wel bij Lacuna Coil terecht. Een vaste waarde sinds de jaren negentig is het, maar zij begrijpen de noodzaak om mee te gaan met de tijd, zonder identiteitsverlies. Steeds wordt de muziek geïnspireerd door wat er in de wereld om ons heen gebeurt en dat is natuurlijk een nooit opdrogende bron van ideeën. Het tiende studioalbum, met als titel ‘Sleepless Empire’, is klaar om boven de doopvont te houden en dus overliepen we met zanger Andrea Ferro de stand van zaken vanuit zijn thuisbasis Milaan.
Vera Matthijssens Ι 14 februari 2025
The previous album ‘Black Anima’ came out in 2019. Then we had the pandemic and if my memory serves me well, I think during that time Lacuna Coil took a pause… So what did happen on the Lacuna Coil front during these years?
Basically the two years of the pandemic were very weird. The first year was really negative with people dying and stuff like that, but for us it was a sort of break that we never took for so many years, because we usually have album cycle, tour, album cycle, tour and so we never stayed home for such a long time all in all together. So it wasn’t that bad for us, only something different. Then the second year has been harder, because we did not know if normal life was coming back or that it would keep repeating the same pattern of staying home. So we were a bit worried about it. Overall and obviously it did not give us any positive input for inspiration. We did not want to do an album that was talking about the pandemic or a virus or people dying. We wanted to let it sink. Okay, it was something that happened – and we never expected it to happen – but we want to move forward, you know. We wanted to start touring again. It took a long time before we felt ready to go and record a new album or write a new album. So we had to go back on tour, travelled a bit, talked to people, seeing our life coming back to a normal routine and then we felt ready to start working on a new album. So we separated ourselves a little bit from the pandemic and then the main reflection about those years society has developed from death, staying home or staying on line instead of seeing people. That was the only contact we had with the outside world. That reflection led us to the new concept for ‘Sleepless Empire’ where we are considering a sort of analyzing this new world we are living in. We were coming from an era of the analogue world when we did not have any internet or any cell phones and we are the first generation or maybe the last generation also, that lived through the shit of the new digital world. The online world, 24 hours a day connected, always new inputs, lots of information we have all the time. So the reflection of these things has created a concept for ‘Sleepless Empire’ where we are asking ourselves if nowadays we are only algorithms that keep relating the same pattern and then this generation is losing their capability of collaborating thoughts, because there is too many information, too much activities all the time. So we live in this huge empire where we are always within reach with information and possibilities, but we also do not sleep anymore, because we are always with our face on the phone and on the screen, always connected. So this reflection generated the new concept for ‘Sleepless Empire’, although it is not a real concept album in the classic way, where there is a story that starts and finishes, but every song has a little different topic. This is the overall reflection that started us into the process of working on a new record.
‘New Dawn’ was the first single you already launched at the world in 2023. Why did you choose this song?
We had written the music already for that song, because we were talking to people about a video game called ‘Call Of Duty’ and they wanted one song from us for the game, but for a number of reasons it did not happen, because they choose a different artist and so we had the possibility of using this song for a board game called ‘Zombicide’, which is one of the biggest board games nowadays and they wanted the music for the trailer of the game on YouTube and so we took that music and wrote some lyrics specifically for that. Then they used it for the game and then we actually ended up being characters in the game and we actually became little miniatures being part of the game. I just received it, this is the game and we are these little soldiers in miniatures (shows it). So that is how this song came alive. It started for one project and we did not use it and then it ended up in another project and we wrote the lyrics based on the game plan and story.
The second single is ‘In The Mean Time’, not only a single, but it has guest vocals of Ash Costello. This album includes the first ever guest appearances on a Lacuna Coil album…
This is the second new song we put out and we had the idea of using another female voice in one of the songs for the album and we had this part in the break that was fitting. We already had a part written by Cristina and we wanted to have a voice that was more of a rock voice, not someone who was singing operatic or clean, but more someone with a more raspy, dirty voice. So we had two or three names in mind and one of them was Ash Costello from New Year’s Day which is also a friend that we met before at some Award ceremony or on the festivals. We had a tour already planned with our band in America and some festivals we played together. So we asked her if she would try to sing the part and she said immediately yes. We sent her the part and she did it right away with a producer in the studio and sent it back. We liked the result, it was exactly what we had in mind and so we just decided to go with it. Then we had a chance to do the song live together, because the tour was already planned in North America and also at the festivals.
Another guest on vocals is Randy Blythe from Lamb Of God on ‘Hosting The Shadow’, but he seems to be a long time friend. What can you tell about that?
We know Randy since 2004, so twenty years. We have been touring the world together many times in different situations and also we saw him at many festivals. So we are friends, the whole band. We also love Lamb Of God, we like his voice, but he is also a real friend. Sometimes he comes to Milan, on vacation with his wife and we go out. We take pictures, he is a very good photographer. We go see photo exhibitions, having dinner together… So he really is a great friend and that’s why it was a natural choice to ask him to be part of the song. We sent him the song and he loved it and did it right away. Thus it was a very natural collaboration. He was super happy to be part of the record. I hope one day we will be able to do the song live together as well.
Maybe during the upcoming American tour in April and May…
Yeah maybe, I don’t know if he is home and we can play his town. We are always open to it…
For the time being the last song you have released as single, called ‘Oxygen’…
It is quite a heavy song, one of the heaviest songs on the record. When talking about lyrics, it is really crawling inside ourselves. It is about a relationship that is full of tension and you cannot even breathe in this relationship, or it can be a self-created cage that you built around yourself. For us the lyrics kind of return to a place of pain and we survived and we also fight our way out of this situation. So that is the meaning of the lyrics. The song is quite rhythmically and heavy, we wanted to show the diversity of this record with another really heavy track, but one with a big chorus. It was a conscious choice to put one with a diverse approach on the record as well.
The record also shows the tendency to start a song or have an interlude which is atmospheric and sometimes even ethnic…
Indeed, I think you can notice that a lot in the song ‘In Nomine Patris’, because there is a traditional folk chant in the beginning from a region in the south of Italy. It is a dialect language from Calabria, that is the name of the region. It is the very last part of Italy, right before Sicily. We wanted to give the song that deeper, spiritual kind of feeling. It is a chant from the people that work on the land and it created a different atmosphere, but we also have some other songs which have parts in Latin, which is the root of the Italian language. We started with the previous record to use it in one song and we really like the way it came out. Also other people like the way it is sounding a little bit different, so we used it also for a couple of songs of this record, like ‘Gravity’ and ‘Sleepless Empire’. It is a way we like to combine traditional, ethnic elements of our country or regions into our music to give it a stronger personality concerning the sound of the band.
The title itself speaks to imagination. ‘Sleepless Empire’ made me think of don’t having time to sleep anymore – as you said – or even to breathe. Are you the kind of person who is experiencing that very strong or don’t you have any trouble with modern rat races…
As I said, we are the generation in between both, a little bit. We saw the world before the internet and we see the world after internet. So I think we are still able to have a balance, but even with that said, I still realize that I am overusing the internet at times. Sometimes I find myself looking at the screen and say ‘why?’ I should be doing something else. I should play guitar, I should do something more comfortable, I should go and see friends… so I think we are still able to have this balance, but it is hard. You don’t even realize and you do it while you don’t want to do it. It is a kind of drug. But at least our generation still realizes it. (laughs)
Maybe younger people will never think about it as a drug, but just a useful toy…
I think that life always find his way, even in a digital virtual world with cybers and stuff, you still find a way to exist, but that does not mean it is going to be for the better (chuckles).
Another topic you touch is AI…
I think technology in general is not good or bad. A lot of artists are afraid of artificial intelligence and I understand why, I can see why, but in general I think it is always the way you use it that makes a difference. You can use it for becoming a better artist or you can use it to substitute an artist. So it depends on the intention why you are using the technology. Every technology, every development of human kind can be used very positive or very negative. It all depends on the intention of the user. So I don’t think we should be afraid of AI, but I think we should be careful on the way we use it and make sure we use it only as an helping tool and not substituting what we should be doing. Also I think, at the moment, what AI cannot do is to make mistakes and the artist or the people often learn by mistakes. If you do something by mistake and you think ‘wow it sounds great’ because it is different, because it is something you would not use with reasoning. So that is something AI cannot do, it always tries to be perfect and very often it is superficial and fake, because it only tries to imitate the human being, but he does not have those characteristics that made us human – at least at the moment – it doesn’t mean that in the future they will not learn also that, like we see in movies like ‘Terminator’ or some others. It is always a gamble, but I don’t think we should be afraid of technology. I think we should be careful on the way we use it. That is the main concept, at least at the moment.
What about video clips for this record?
We have done two clips so far, one for ‘In The Mean Time’ which we shot in Sweden, in Gothenburg, because the director is from there and the locations were made available there. So we just flew to Gothenburg and did the video. Then we have done another one for ‘Oxygen’, which we did in Rome, here in Italy and we have shot another one, which has not been released yet, for the song ‘Gravity’ and that is going to come out in January. We shot it two weeks ago (I did the interview on 12/12 – Vera). Probably we will do another one before the release date on February 14th. At the moment we are not 100% sure which one it is going to be, but we are discussing that right now, which one it is going to be. Video’s are still important, even if they are not as important as they used to be when there was music television. Back then you could reach a lot more people and, as we discussed before, the internet made everything so fast and people get annoyed very quickly. They get bored and then they want to see something else. So there is not the same importance as there was ten to fifteen years ago, but they are still meaningful. People still like visuals and there is still demand for it, just the budget has been going lower down because of the situation with the reality of things.
What are the plans for touring in the near future?
We are starting in March in South America and then we have a tour headlining in South America and Central America with Honduras and four shows in Mexico as well. Then we go straight to North America. We do a tour together with Machine Head, In Flames and Unearth. It is going to be a tour all around the United States and Canada. After that we are coming back to Europe. We have some festivals in Summer. We are still booking some festivals that we will announce later and then most probably we are working on a tour in the Fall, around October/November, also for Europe. That will be a headline tour, because we haven’t headlined in Europe for a long time and so it is time for us to come back. We are trying to organize it around that time in Autumn.
