SOURCEWEBZINE – After six albums, does the band feel like they still have something to prove with “Dark Adrenaline” ?
ANDREA FERRO (V) – There is always something to prove. With each album that we’ve released throughout the years, we’ve always wanted to try to go beyond what previously done. We’reconstantly evolving as people and musicians and every album portrays who we were at the time. “Dark Adrenaline” sure is no exception.
SOURCEWEBZINE – What kind of progression did you see the band make between “Dark Adrenaline” and “Shallow Life” ?
ANDREA FERRO (V) – With “Shallow Life” we decided to take a more direct approach to song writing. The songs that came out were more “streamlined” and straight to the point. We like that kind of approach and I think that “Shadow Life” was more like a transitional/experimental album that led to the final result that “Dark Adrenaline” is. We feel that “Dark Adrenaline” is the perfect combination between what Lacuna Coil has been and the future.
SOURCEWEBZINE – Nowadays in every album the person responsible for the sound production is strongly mentioned especially when he is a known one. How important do you think is the producer to the sound of a band?
ANDREA FERRO (V) – A producer can, in certain cases, completely change a band and its music. This isn’t the case with us, however. Don Gilmore immediately understood what this band is all about and just helped us in our journey to get to where we knew already we wanted to go. Most of the music and vocals was already done, on both “Shadow Life” and “Dark Adrenaline”, when he came into the picture and he sure helped us a lot in making the songs more fluent and with lyrics but he never forced us or told us to do anything we didn’t want.
His help was certainly invaluable but didn’t drastically change our music. That, I think, is what a great producer should do: understand a band and its music and help to polish it out to make it perfect (or at least, as close as possible).
SOURCEWEBZINE – A lot of attention is put on the music, but the lyrics themselves have a lot of depth to them, more so than most metal bands. How much time do you spend on the lyrics, compared to the music?
ANDREA FERRO (V) – I would say it’s a 50-50 situation. Music is very important, obviously, but so are the lyrics. We’ve always tried to find topics and words that we would like to hear from other bands. Especially in English speaking countries then lyrics are equally important and can totally change the vibe of a song. We totally understand this and if we have music that’s slow and depressive we’re not gonna write about rainbows and unicorns… They have to go hand in hand and that’s why we spend just as much time on lyrics as we do with music.
SOURCEWEBZINE – As musicians how do you feel about fans who download your music for free-instead of buying your CD?
ANDREA FERRO (V) – It’s really a delicate matter. I understand that some people don’t want to risk spending their hard earned money on something they don’t know if they’ll like of not. On the other hand this is really hurting music and especially bands at our level. We’re not Lady Gaga or Metallica who can do with selling 10 million copies instead of 15.
With bands like us we’re talking about much lower figures that suffer from illegal downloads. I can tell you that nowadays, if we had to reply just on record sales, we wouldn’t be here anymore. Most of our income comes from touring and merchandise sold at shows and, even then, we’re just barely able to make a living. When people download illegally they should realize that they’re not just hurting record labels who have millions of dollars anyway but, mostly, their favourite bands that really don’t have that much to live with.
SOURCEWEBZINE – To make any type of money nowadays, fans have to buy T-shirts and go to live shows to support the band. How important to you is perfecting the band’s live show?
ANDREA FERRO (V) – As I was saying, answering the previous question, a live show has become pretty much the only source of income for bands at a certain level. That’s why it’s very important to try and give our fans something that’s special every time we play. It’s very hard because putting up a decent show costs a lot of money and it’s sometimes very hard to compromise and get something that will make the tour profitable rather than breaking our finances. Luckily, so far we’ve been able to at least break even and deliver a (hopefully) great show that our fans will remember and love.
SOURCEWEBZINE – Do you think there will ever be a point in the band’s career where you can tour for longer periods of time?
ANDREA FERRO (V) – We spend most of our lives on the road and although it’s something we love doing (otherwise we wouldn’t do it anymore) we also have personal lives and families to take care of. Roughly, the time we spend on tour for an album cycle (2 years more or less) is 65% and most of the remaining time is spent writing music for the next album…
SOURCEWEBZINE – Any chance of a South American tour in 2012?
ANDREA FERRO (V) – As a matter of fact, yes! Keep an eye on our website for more information but I can tell you that we’ll be back very, very soon!
SOURCEWEBZINE – Have you adjusted well to life on the road?
ANDREA FERRO (V) – Yes, although, as I said before, it’s hard when you have a family or someone waiting for you at home. Luckily, this is something we love and we want to do for a very long time!
SOURCEWEBZINE – Anything else you’d like to mention or promote?
ANDREA FERRO (V) – I’d like to say that we’re all very excited about “Dark Adrenaline” ! The album’s been ready for a while and we just can’t wait to play new songs for all our fans out there! See ya on the road! Thanks Falber Teles !
