We caught up with Andrea Ferro from Lacuna Coil back stage at London, Koko to talk about their hectic year and plans for the future.

We last interviewed you back in November 2011 when you was on a lengthy tour across the UK, what have you been up to since then?
That was the tour before the release of the ‘Dark Adrenaline’ album where we only had the single ‘Trip The Darkness’ out, the album then came out in January and then we started on the Gigantour with Megadeth, Motorhead and Volbeat which was a massive tour across America.

How did you find the tour?
It was great because we were with such big monsters of rock and we have a really good relationship with Megadeth, they were really cool and got us a bottle of champagne the day we arrived and a letter of welcome to the tour and sometimes after the shows they would come into our dressing room and tell us little ideas of how we play and suggestions on what we could do so we actually learnt things from Megadeth. Motorhead was also amazing as Mikkey Dee was hanging out every day and also Phil and Lemmy a couple of nights so it was good to be with rock gods that you only saw in a picture when you were growing up. Volbeat were also very nice guys so the whole tour had a good mood and it was good promotion for the new record which made the top twenty in America and happens to be the second record that has made the top twenty in America after ‘Shallow Life’. It is pretty big for a band from Italy to do a couple of top twenty albums in America even after fifteen years together as a band.

After the Gigantour we did a mini festival across South America with Lamb Of God and Hatebreed, we then started ‘The Dark Legacy’ headline tour in America which is the same tour we are doing now with the classic songs and acoustic set, we also played some other shows with Megadeth and Rob Zombie together as the opening act, we have done some festivals in America since March and then we went to the European festivals, we also played in London with Marilyn Manson we played Istanbul, Romania, Czech Republic, France and Spain.

I bet you are all travelled out now?
Yeah we have been flying a lot but for this tour we have been home for a little bit, the tour started in Finland and went on to Estonia, Ukraine, Russia then we went home for three days and shot a video and then we played metal female voices festival in Belgium and now we are here in England with Norwich being the first date back on the 22nd October, and tonight in London is the last of the UK dates and then we head off around Europe for the next four weeks.

You released your sixth studio album ‘Dark Adrenaline’ back in January are you happy with how the album has gone down with your fans and the press?
The longer you are together as a band the more difficult it becomes to release an album as in the beginning you are a new band and people forgive you if you are not super original as it is a new band and then you develop your style and we did it through ‘Comalies’, ‘Karmacode’, ‘Shallow Life’ and that is where we found our style as a more mature band who were hitting our 30’s, so when you release an album now there is a lot of expectation as you have experience and your own style so you can either repeat yourself or you can try and do something else but it is always risky, we did it with ‘Shallow Life’ we took some chances and recorded and produced the album in America and it was a little different sounding and it was hard for some of the fans to except that but it was the necessary step for us a band to understand where we should or shouldn’t go as a band and I feel ‘Shallow Life’ was the album that brought us to a new level especially in America where there has been much more radio airplay and chartings, whilst in Europe we have a whole new generation of fans through ‘Shallow Life’ and now with ‘Dark Adrenaline’ we have managed to step back a little bit, it’s still a little fresh but you can recognise some of the atmospheres from the previous records and I feel that it is a good mix.

How did you find the whole writing and recording process for ‘Dark Adrenaline’ compared to your previous albums?
It was different because we recorded all the music in Milan in our home town in a big vintage studio, so the producer came down to Milan from LA and we worked for a good month, and then we pre-produced in Marco Biazzi’s basement studio and we stayed there and listened to the songs and gathered ideas and worked them together, and then we went to the practise room and then the studio, being in Milan was good for the atmosphere as we didn’t have the money of being away where we could of wasted time and money so it was cheaper and better for the musicians to record and then me Cristina and Marco flew to LA to the producers studio as he had to be back in LA and we finished all the vocals and the keyboards which is always the last process for us and then we mixed it in Milan and mastered in back in LA.

What would you say your favourite tracks from ‘Dark Adrenaline’ are and why?
I like a lot of the tracks for different reasons like ‘I Don’t Believe In Tomorrow’ because it is a very anthemic obscoure kind of song, as well as ‘Trip The Darkness’ because it is more powerful and epic in the chorus, I like ‘My Spirit’ because it is a very deep song for us as Marco wrote all the music the night we heard that Peter from Type O Negative died, he was a good friend of ours we toured together and they were the main inspiration when we started as a band so we dedicated the song to him and all the people that we have lost along the way. There are different reasons on why you like certain songs some are because you like to play them live or some just because they are deeper to you.

You feature a cover of R.E.M’s ‘Losing My Religion’ on ‘Dark Adrenaline’ who’s idea was this and how did it come about?
The song was already in the loop when we did ‘Enjoy The Silence’ on ‘Karmacode’, we had ‘Losing My Religion’ in mind but when Marco came with the keyboards for ‘Enjoy The Silence’ it sounded immediately like one of our songs so we didn’t even try and do ‘Losing My Religion’ we knew it was a candidate but ‘Enjoy The Silence’ was the right choice for us and it worked. So this time around we said we should put a cover in as it helps on the live shows especially at festivals where not everyone is familiar with your band and you know you can get people going with cover songs, we don’t like to do covers of metal songs as we are already a metal band, for some bands it works really well but for us we like to take a rock song and make it into a heavier song instead of taking a heavier song to see how much more heavy we can make it, another reason on why we chose ‘Losing My Religion’ is because the lyrics fit in well with the lyrics of the album, it was a risky choice as Depeche Mode is more in line with what we do, but R.E.M is a lot different and we tried and did a very dark version of the song and I like it, I don’t think it’s going to be a hit single like ‘Enjoy The Silence’ and maybe in the future we will do some more covers.

You are currently at the end of your headline UK tour, how has it been?
Really good as the UK and Europe is kind of like our home and is one of the best places for us to play along with a couple of other countries, all the shows so far have been sold out or close to selling out, I can never complain about the UK as whenever we come here we have a good time and we always like to walk around and today we went to an old cemetery in London called Highgate cemetery, we have been to London many times but don’t always have time to travel and see stuff as tourists so that was good.

You have ‘This Is She’ supporting you on the tour, how have you found touring with them?
Since our drummer is not on the tour as he has just got a baby girl a week before the tour started we asked a guy called this young amazing drummer called Ryan who is the drummer from This Is She and also used to be our drum tech in America and Europe for the last tour cycle for ‘Shallow Life’ and we said we could combine the two things and can help get them some exposure in Europe, they have a female vocalist so they kind of appeal to our crowd and he is a good drummer who could play both sets, so it was great to bring a new band out for people to discover , and the tour was mainly about Lacuna Coil as it is The Dark Legacy tour which is our 15th anniversary where all our material is in there it’s a long show with a few different sets, and with it not being a co-headline tour it was the ideal opportunity to bring a new band out.

As this is your anniversary tour you have put two electric sets and one acoustic set in how has this been for you and how have the fans reacted to it?
We tried it first in America on the first part of the tour and it worked really well, to start with we weren’t sure as putting an acoustic set in the middle could break the mood of the concert but in the end it turned out pretty well and we have created the set list in the way that the first part is full of the old songs with a bit of the new so it is powerful but not to powerful and then we go into the acoustic set which is more intimate and quiet setting and the final part is the heaviest part so we finish on a high, it is easily one of the best set lists we have ever had in the way that it is forever going up and down and just feels complete.

Now you have six albums to your name do you find it tough when picking set lists for your tours?
Yeah even now when we are playing 24 songs we still get people coming up to us saying you didn’t play that one even though we played 24 other songs over a two hour period, but I do feel there is a good balance there is 4 songs from each release plus 2 from the very early EP so there is always a variety and the songs from the old EP we have not played for ages and they are 12 years old and some of our fans only know us from the last few records so when we play the material from the old EP some of the fans look at us thinking it’s a new song when it’s not but it’s cool as not everyone has been with the band from day one and it just makes getting the set list balance that little bit more tricky, but one day I think we can do as tour where we only play say the first two albums for the hardcore fans in smaller venues.

A lot of bands do that these days and it works well.
Yeah it makes sense, to do something different as these days everyone’s coming out with weird new ideas just because the market is so saturated as bands don’t sell albums anymore because of the downloading so the world is changing and kids discover music through You Tube and they don’t always buy mp3’s and the albums so bands have to go out and sell everything possible to make a living, which is a reality of this period of time.

After tonight’s show you are heading out around mainland Europe are you looking forward to certain shows more than others?
I am looking forward to Amsterdam because it is Halloween so it will be a special show with a nice atmosphere and it is my favourite holiday.

Are you going to get dressed up for the show?
Yeah for sure, last year we did a very nice show in Italy in Turine and it was a Halloween party where the show was the first part and then there was all night dancing so we were full of makeup and the stage was full of stuff everywhere with spider webs and crazy lights so this year we are hoping for the same atmosphere.

I’m quite jealous I love Halloween
Yeah it’s my favourite holiday aswell.

In January you are playing 70,000 Tons Of Metal in Miami which is a festival on a cruise ship, have you done anything like this before and what can you tell us about the event?
It’s a totally new experience for us, I know it is 4 days in total and there is 1 day off in a tropical island in the Caribbean which is not bad, the cruise is 2000 fans and 40 bands and we play twice, once on the way going and once on the way back, it’s going to be a whole new experience for us which is either going to be great or horrible but I believe it is going to be great, we have other activities we are going to do with the fans like bikini contest, drunk contest, karaoke and that kind of activities, I know the guys from In Flames and Dragonforce are playing and they are great friends of ours so I know we are with friends and after that we are going to go straight into a north and south America tour as headliners as we haven’t done south America as headliners yet as we just went with Hatebreed and Lamb Of God so that is what we are going to be doing for the next couple of months after 70,000 Tons Of Metal.

Do you have anything planned after the American shows?
Probably come back to play some of the European festivals but we also have to write the new album, and with Marco not being on the current tour because of his injuries he is already writing for the album as he is the main writer for the band, so when we are home December and January we are going to do some writing and go through ideas.

What would you say your biggest highs and lows as a band have been so far?
Many because it’s been 15 years and when we started we never thought we could achieve half of what we have actually achieved because being a metal band from Italy there was no history of other bands that have gone down the same path and had the same success, we thought we could sign a deal and do a couple of tours but that was it we never thought we could become professional musicians or an international band who cracks the top 20 in America, we thought we were going to be the new Moonspell which is great but we never thought we could go further than that, it has been a great journey full of surprises and there are always ups and downs and there are certain years that are more underrated but we have managed to develop a hard fan base over the years before the internet generation took off as today it is more difficult you could be the new You Tube sensation today and then next month it’s something else but you don’t really have time to build as an artist these days unless you make in on a huge level like Lady Ga Ga and Linkin Park, but for a mid range band it is really hard to make it these days as they don’t have time to build their following or a generation of fans like we have, at our shows you can see a 50 year old man with his son, his nephew and it’s good to see three generations of people at our shows, so we are greatfull for everything .

One last random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a zebra or Giraffe which one would you be and why?
I would be a Giraffe as it is more weird looking and you can see things from upstairs.

Giraffes seem to be a favourite.
Yeah the zebra is kind of like a horse is a cool jersey so apart from that it really is a horse, it’s not like a cool unicorn so a giraffe for sure. I actually saw a giraffe when we went to the zoo in Sydney when we toured Australia and it was amazing because I had never seen a giraffe live before so I was really impressed.

Thanks for your time is there a message for your fans reading this?
Thanks to everyone that has been supportive of us over the years and also to the new people that came on board with the latest album and we hope to see everyone on the road soon and we hope to be back in the UK again soon for a festival.

Interview by Trigger and Charlotte