LACUNA COIL Guitarist: 'Fans Tend To Be Very Conservative When It Comes To Their Favorite Bands

Steven Rosen of Ultimate-Guitar.com recently conducted an interview with guitarist Cristiano "Pizza" Migliore of Italian heavy rockers LACUNA COIL. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: Cristina [Scabbia, LACUNA COIL singer] had said she thought LACUNA COIL were getting heavier but other metal bands getting, in her words, "mellower." Would you agree?

Migliore: Yeah. [laughs] I do agree. I don't know if it's something intentional of if it's just the way we feel when we write the new songs and stuff. Although we like to experiment a little bit, we just like to stay true to our origins. We all grew up listening a certain type of music and we still like it. Although we like a lot of stuff, a lot of different genres, we like to play heavy stuff and I guess that's what we are gonna do for the rest of our career.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: Cristina also said, "We'll record anything we like." Would you ever get as adventurous as say, KORN and MASTODON did on their two last albums ["The Path To Totality" and "The Hunter", respectively]?

Migliore: I think that's something you really have to be careful with. We like to record stuff that's different from time to time. For example, on "Shallow Life", I think that was our most experimental record with songs like "I Like It" or "Underdog", which actually sound a little different than what we actually did before. And some of our fans didn't super like that you know. I know that people and fans in general tend to be very conservative when it comes to their favorite bands. They like that band because it gives them certain feelings and they can expect something. If you buy an AC/DC record, you know exactly what you're gonna get. . . I know and I agree that you have to be very open-minded, and we always try to be, but at the same time you have to draw a line, in my opinion. There is a point that you shouldn't really go beyond, because otherwise it's a big risk. Some of your fans may not actually really understand what you're trying to do. At the same time, I know that, as an artist, you really want to try to do stuff that makes you move on and really stimulates your imagination and stuff like that and your will to play music.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: There is definitely a line between pushing limits and changing who you are musically.

Migliore: I think if you want to try to experiment more, you may want to try and do it with a side project or something. Although for some bands it actually works very well. I heard the new KORN and it's actually very different and I really like it — honestly, it's a great album. But I don't know that all their diehard fans will actually enjoy that kind of change. I didn't have the chance to actually listen to the new MASTODON album.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: It's like heavy PINK FLOYD; it's an amazing record.

Migliore: The way you describe it it sounds like something I would really like. But I like those guys and I really like the stuff they have done in the past. I think if that's something you feel like you wanna do, you should definitely go for it. It's a risk and it's something you have no guarantees that it's gonna work. But at the same time we're not in it for the money or otherwise we wouldn't be here anymore [laughs].

Ultimate-Guitar.com: Don Gilmore produced "Dark Adrenaline" and "Shallow Life". You said that "Shallow Life" was kind of a change in direction for the band — was Gilmore in any way responsible for that?

Migliore: When Don came in on "Shallow Life", most of the songs were already written. So he actually didn't really change the band or the way we sounded. That's exactly what we wanted to do at that time. He just came in and he helped us shape those songs and polish 'em off a little bit. At that time, when we wrote those songs, that was the kind of stuff we wanted to play. "Shallow Life" was experimental not because of Don coming in and trying to have us doing something that we were not, but it was really like us wanting to do that kind of stuff. He just tried to make it sound as good as it could.

Ultimate-Guitar.com: With "Dark Adrenaline", you knew where you wanted the band to go?

Migliore: That's exactly the same thing that's happened with "Dark Adrenaline". We always sit down and we don't know exactly what's gonna come out. We just start playing and record a few guitar riffs and keyboard parts and blah blah blah and we just try to mix them all together and then we see what happens. If we like it we just keep going and try to follow that same kind of direction and that'll be pretty much how the album will sound like.

Read the entire interview from Ultimate-Guitar.com.