Rob caught up with Cristiano 'Pizza' Migliore from Lacuna Coil to talk about how they came together as a band, their current UK tour, the re-release of their latest album and much more.

Hello and thanks for taking time out to do this interview

First of all can you give us a brief history about the band such as how you came together as a band and came up with the name Lacuna Coil?
We were all friends before the band started, I’ve known the guys 15 years, I knew the guys in the different line up as well, in 96 an 97 they recorded a demo tape, and got singed by Century media and recorded an Ep, which I didn’t record because it was still the old line up, they then went on tour with Moonspell then the band split, and Chris (drummer) and me joined the band and recorded the first full album In Reverie!

You are from Milan in Italy, how would you describe the Italian rock music scene?
The rock music scene in Italy is complicated argument to discuss, there are a lot of good bands, the problem is record companies don’t want to risk money in signing rock bands, because rock is not very popular in Italy, the bands that are popular are the ones from other countries, Record companies don’t care about rock it’s all about Italian melodic music, which sucks! There are a lot of good bands that we’ve played with like Labyrinth and nord, there are a lot of good bands, the underground scene is very active!

Your latest album ‘Shallow Life’ was released back in April 2009, are you happy with the response the album has got from your fans and the press?
Absolutely, we knew we were doing something different when we were recording it, we knew we were taking some chances, but we were surprised by the reactions of the fans and press, to give an example, when it was released in the US, it debuted at number 16 in the billboard album chart, which was unheard of from a band like us. We’ve heard our fans telling us that they love the new album, we did something that’s still Lacuna Coil, but it’s also something new, which people seem to like.

If you had to choose a favourite song from the album what would it be and why? Are there songs that you like listening to and songs that you like playing live?
Songs that we like playing and listening to are to two different things, because when you play its common that you like songs that are heavier and more groovy, But on this album, we had a lot of material, like 20 songs, which was crazy for us, as we normally need to get ideas for like 3 more songs, we ended up recording 15 songs, 12 on the album and 3 bonus songs, which are on the new deluxe version. Buts it’s really hard for me to pick a favourite out of the 15 because the songs that we picked, were the best out of the 20 ideas, If I really had to choose though, I won’t tell you, is one of my favourites, wide awake, also one of the bonus tracks, Leaving alone is pretty good too. Were happy, with how all the songs turned out really.

I understand ‘Shallow Life’ has just been released a special edition, what extras are packaged with this version of the album?
Well we collected a few things throughout the years, the second disc has, there’s two live songs from two live shows we recorded. There’s older stuff, and there’s the bonus tracks too. I think its cool when people hear how we sound in the studio and how we sound live, people are surprised when they see us for the first time and say we sound a lot more powerful than on the album, a lot of people have asked for live stuff, there’s a few acoustic songs on there as well.

Would you ever play a full stripped down acoustic set?
We did that a few years ago, here in the UK, we did a short tour, where we opened for ourselves, the opening part was the acoustic set and the other was the full electric show, fans were saying we should do more live acoustic stuff, but it’s not easy for us to transform from the original electric version as that’s how its conceived in its original idea, of course acoustic stuff sounds great, but doing a whole show, I don’t know if we would ever do it, we could do 5 or 6 songs, but we would want to keep it special, we wouldn’t want it to be the rule rather than the exception which makes it special

What was is your current single ‘I Won’t Tell You’ about?
Well I didn’t write the lyrics, Christina and Andrea did but from what they told me the song is about a relationship between two people, is about keeping things from the other person, your an asshole but I won’t tell you. The album is about the shallow life these days, the 15 minutes of fame, get rich at any costs, I won’t tell you is just one of those aspects, you’re afraid of being honest with other people!

You are currently back in England on your headline tour, how much do you like playing in England and how have the shows been so far?
So far the shows have been really good, it’s good to be back, the UK has been one of main markets in Europe, when we play here a lot of people come to the shows, I know it seems we neglect Europe, but unfortunately the US is our main market now, so we need to be there, it’s a big place and it take a huge amount of time to tour it properly, So when we come back here, we want to give the full production!

You have brought Dirty Little Rabbits and Dommin out on tour with you this time, how are you finding them to tour with?
We’ve toured with Dommin before, in July they were one of the opening bands, I think there great, they sound like a mix between type o negative and a rock a Billy band. There really good, they really fit the package of this show. Dirty Little Rabbits there crazy, clown from slipknot is the drummer, so we know each other, we’ve played many shows before, I think that each band fits really well into the shows package, it’s very diverse.

Do you prefer playing small club shows, big arena shows or outside shows at festivals?
That’s a tough question because every time you play a specific type of venue it can be great or it can be bad, it depends on the crowd, if there lame then its gonna be a bad show, but I enjoy playing all sorts of places, if it’s at a festival, then you get the adrenalin, because there’s thousands of people in front of you, and some of them won’t know who you are, so you have to give it 150 percent, to convince everyone your doing a good job, it usually goes well because people are there to have fun. In Venues, is also cool, because technical conditions are better, you get to do a sound check, if the stage is cool, then you can put up a good show, and then there’s the small, its more intimate, the people are right there, where they can actually touch you while you’re playing. It’s difficult to pick one because of these conditions, but if you’re a musician you love to play no matter where it is, be in your bed room or out on a festival stage, you just love playing.

I understand you are planning on changing your set lists around each night, has this been the case so far on the tour?
Yeah we have, this is the first tour where we decided that every night were gonna try and play different songs, I think it makes it more interesting for the crowd because they don’t know what to expect, but it’s interesting for us as well, because we’re not playing the same set as the night before. So far we've heard positive things from the fans, because if they go to 2 or there’s shows, they’re gonna hear songs that they’ve maybe never heard live before or in a long time. We’ve tried to include old songs because that’s what some fans want to hear.

Have you ever thought about doing Album anniversary shows, where you play and album in its entirety?
I don’t know, that would be hard to-do because there are songs that we never ever play live, we've never even thought about it, I can’t tell you for sure if it would happen, because its never been discussed, I know that a lot of time would be spent learning songs. The problem with that is there’s never been a classic album, maybe comalies was the break through, but which album would we pick? I think it would be for the real diehard fans because some newer fans wouldn’t know the old stuff too well. It all depends on how badly people would want it.

It’s obviously very hard to pick set lists now you have 5 studio albums under your belts but are there certain songs that will always been in your set no matter what?
Yeah, there are songs for sure that we'll always play live, like Heavens a Lie, Our Truth, Spellbound, somehow these songs became classics, and that people really wanna here them. In Dublin we didn’t play Swamped, and people were saying woah why didn’t you play it? we just wanted to change the set list, but didn’t realise that’s one of them songs that are untouchable, that has to be played no matter what. If we didn’t play heavens a lie at one of our shows, it would be like RIOT right away!

Once your UK tour is over you are heading out to mainland Europe are there any shows that you are looking forward to playing more than others?
We are looking to playing every show over there, we haven’t played most of these counties in a long time, we played a few festivals in Europe but it was only a few. But our last headliner tour was in 2007, so there was a lot of people asking when were coming back, so coming back with our own show, is something our fans have been asking for a long time. We haven’t played Italy in a real long time, and that’s our own country! It’s not a long tour so it won’t become too heavy on us.

You played a stunning set at Download Festival 2009; can we expect to see you back at the festival this year?
I don’t know, it’s rare to play two years in a row, it’s normally every other year, maybe playing another UK festival, but it’s too early to say yet. Maybe reading and Leeds or possibly Sonisphere.

One random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a Zebra and a Giraffe which one would you be and why?
A Giraffe, it’s not that I like to stand out, I just don’t like running with the pack like zebras do. A being a Giraffe, you can see higher and see where your path is!

Thanks for your time do you have a message for your fans reading this?
I really hope were gonna see a lot of people on this tour, it’s been along time since we last played over here and seeing how the last couple of shows have gone, it’s been great so far, I think everyone will enjoy the show, and we'll enjoy going to other places that we haven’t been before.

Interview By Robert Lawrence