LACUNA COIL's ANDREA FERRO Discusses 'Shallow Life' Lyrical Concept, Recording Process

Cameron Edney of Australia's Inside Out webzine recently conducted an interview with vocalist Andrea Ferro of Italy's LACUNA COIL. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Inside Out: Let's talk a little about the soon-to-be-released "Shallow Life". What are you hoping the fans will get out of the new album?

Andrea Ferro: I think it's going to be a really different album on one hand, and on the other, it's really in the style of the band. It has really bought the best out of the band unlike anything we have done before. It's focused, in your face, it's got a big production and there are a lot of big vocals and choruses as well. Of course, every band says it's their best album when they have a new album coming out, but this album is an album where you can better understand the style of the band, the more complete picture of the band; that's what this album is.

Inside Out: "Shallow Life" is already being called a concept album which deals with everyday people living superficial lives, media propaganda and other topics of this kind. When it came time to write for the new album, did you walk in with a clear view of what you wanted to do?

Andrea Ferro: Not totally, 'cause it's not a complete concept album; every song is tied in with the same idea, as you say of the shallow life, but it's also a more private aspect. Sometimes you experience the shallow life in a simple life; sometimes it's good to be shallow, just because you can stay on the couch with a beer and watch a soccer match. It's a kind of shallowness that I think is necessary to have in your life. I think a lot of people misunderstood and thought we were only talking about famous people, but it's not. It's also about normal life… those moments when you are shallow and you have to be. You can't always be deep and always thinking about big topics. It's cool to sometimes be more chilled out and more relaxed. It's a mix of all the situations where shallowness can be applied.

Inside Out: "Shallow Life" has been produced by Don Gilmore who has worked with GOOD CHARLOTTE, PEARL JAM and Australia's own THE VERONICAS. Why did you guys decide to go with Don when you could have picked almost anyone to do this album?

Andrea Ferro: We had a choice between two or three producers that we were looking for and were talking with, and Don seemed to be the one who believed more in the project. So Don came down to Milan and we went out to dinner and immediately we had a very good feeling with him and formed a good relationship; he seemed like a really easy-going person. Don really believed in the idea of working with an Italian band and trying to take it to the next level, to build a great album and work with us. It was the first time that we recorded in America, in L.A., at one of those very famous studios. It was a very good experience, like a dream come true.

Inside Out: Andrea, it's been three years since "Karmacode" was released. How was the first encounter back in the studio after such a long time away from the recording side of things?

Andrea Ferro: We spent a lot of time on the songwriting in the practice room here in Milan and we were going almost every day for six months. We really wanted to write the best most convincing songs for us. We actually wrote more songs than we recorded and a lot of those songs were too different; we chose the songs that we thought were more convincing first and more in the style of the band. We had a lot of experimentation; if there was something that was extreme we pushed it to the extreme, if we had a song that sounded more rock then we would push it more into a rock direction, so we tried to go everywhere to try and find the right way to keep you interested in our style without doing something completely different from what we have done in the past.

Inside Out: How much of Don's experience impacted on the overall outcome of "Shallow Life"? Cristina [Scabbia, vocals] has been quoted as saying this album is much more a rock album. Was that Don's influence or just the way the new material was written?

Andrea Ferro: I think it was more the direction that we were going as a band. If you listen to the songs; the style of the songs is exactly the same as we have always done. We didn't change any of the styles. We worked a lot especially with Don on the arrangements of the lyrics for the album. For the first time we really gave a lot of dedication to our arrangements of the vocals. We have never spent so much time in the studios as we have now; it was a totally different way of working and it reflects in the sound, probably, but not in the style of the band. The fact that there are more rock songs is just because we wrote songs like that; there are some metal songs and some heavier rock songs too.