LACUNA COIL Guitarist Discusses Upcoming 'Hottest Chicks In Metal' Tour

Greg Maki of Live-Metal.net recently conducted an interview with LACUNA COIL guitarist Cristiano Migliore. Topics of discussion included the band's upcoming headlining trek, dubbed "The Hottest Chicks in Metal Tour", also featuring WITHIN TEMPTATION, THE GATHERING, IN THIS MOMENT and STOLEN BABIES. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Live-Metal.net: Who came up with the package?

Cristiano Migliore: We were actually talking about this tour since a long time. We were trying to put a package together that would make sense, that would attract as many people as possible. Then we found out that [singer] Cristina [Scabbia] was gonna do this hottest women in metal photo session for Revolver, and we thought, why don't we try to put together a package that has all female singers? It would be, probably, interesting, and people would be interested in seeing, maybe, bands like WITHIN TEMPTATION and THE GATHERING that didn't really tour much over here. They have a new album out, and, also, bands like IN THIS MOMENT and STOLEN BABIES are quite interesting, you know, they've been playing a few shows around. Let's wait to see what happens. And so far, I must say, the ticket sales are doing really well.

Live-Metal.net: You mentioned Ozzfest. How did that go playing on the main stage?

Cristiano Migliore: It was great. It was weird. It was weird, though.

Live-Metal.net: People sitting down.

Cristiano Migliore: Yeah. It's a very strange atmosphere. When we did Ozzfest in 2004, playing on the second stage, the atmosphere is very wild. There's a lot of energy, people moshing all the time. Even though we were of the softest bands in the bill, there was still quite the wild reactions down there. But when we did Ozzfest this year, it was so different. I mean, the reactions were great pretty much every show, but it was weird to play in front of people, like, sitting down. They were there listening, and it was very hard to keep a lot of energy on stage. But playing on such a huge stage actually helps because you can move a lot. It was actually very good, very different from 2004 but very good.

Live-Metal.net: You also did the Blackest of the Black Tour last year. Glenn Danzig seems so intimidating. What is he like?

Cristiano Migliore: He's actually a very nice guy. He's been around for years. People know him everywhere he goes. I can see if he gives the impression that he's an asshole or he's a rock star or whatever, but he's a really cool guy. Sometimes when you are in this business for so many years and you have all this pressure, all these people want to meet you and blah, blah, blah, I can understand. For us, it's not like that, of course, because we're not as big. But, I mean, I can see where this comes from. Sometimes you just want to chill out. But it was really good to be on tour with him. He's, like, one of our godfathers, you know?

Live-Metal.net: Right before a show, what do you do to get yourself ready to go on stage?

Cristiano Migliore: We don't really do anything special. Usually, we're always, like, either lying down or trying to take a nap. We're always very lazy and stuff, like right before the show, Gus, our tour manager would come in and like, "It's time to go, half an hour." And then we start getting ready very slowly. And then as soon as you get there and you're ready to go on stage, this adrenaline rush gets there, you wake up and just go. Maybe the only ritual we have is, like, if we make an espresso coffee right before we go on. That's something that is never missing.

Live-Metal.net: Have you ever thought about putting out a DVD?

Cristiano Migliore: Yeah. We are actually trying to collect as much stuff as we can, but it's not really easy because the thing is that to actually have a proper DVD with behind-the-scenes [footage], professionally done, you really need somebody that's there only to tape anything that happens. We try to tape stuff ourselves, but you always have to walk around with a camera. Sometimes you have to take a picture or whatever, you have to do something, and you can't be there with the camera and signing autographs and stuff. You can, but, I mean, after a while you just can't be there all the time. It takes a lot of time and a lot of people and energy to do that. But we're trying to put together as many things as we can. We want to have something special. We like, for example, very much the TYPE O NEGATIVE DVD that just came out. That was pretty cool. We're not gonna do something like that, but we like that kind of stuff that people can actually see things that they usually wouldn't see otherwise. A live DVD is cool, but that's something that if you went to the show you know already. If you actually put some backstage scenes or whatever or stupid shit happening, people will be probably more interested. We're trying to put things together.

Read the entire interview at www.Live-Metal.net.