Lacuna Coil Explain ‘Shallow Life’

Italian rockers Lacuna Coil had one goal in mind when creating their just released record, "Shallow Life."

"We just wanted to have fun," singer Cristina Scabbia said during a backstage interview with Noisecreep at the Glendale, Ariz.., Music as a Weapon tour stop. "We wanted to present what we really were and not just like, 'This album is gonna be this.' We wanted to see what comes out, see the colors of the song and put everything together."

Dressed down in jeans and a hoodie, Scabbia explained that the band, which also includes vocalist Andrea Ferro, has grown since its 2006 release "Karmacode."

"We can definitely feel the change after three years," Scabbia said. "After 'Karmacode,' we can definitely feel we've grown up so much and things have changed. More than changed-evolved."

Ferro interjected, "Some songs you can totally recognize the place where we're coming from. Some are more rock oriented, more straight in your face. Some are a bit more experimental. There's some electronic stuff to make a different kind of atmosphere. It's more various, compared to the previous stuff. It flows into the different moods that we have."

At the same time, Scabbia said, the band was able to strike a balance between its early sound and "something completely new."

"On the album are songs that are completely different from what we used to do in the past but still you can recognize it's Lacuna Coil so that's the best thing," she said. "Then we improved a lot, even on the vocal parts. Because me and Andrea are talking right now, we improved a lot in the songwriting, the way we wrote the lyrics, the way we are (pronouncing) these lyrics that are more clear and dark. There is a clearer message. In the past, sometimes we were more poetic but in a way we were a little bit more vague. So it's cool because people can give his own interpretation but then the message was like not 100 percent clear. Now it's like 'this is it.'"

"Shallow Life," which hit stores Tuesday, April 21, is the band's first with an American producer. Lacuna Coil chose to work with knob-turner Don Gilmore after meeting him in Milan, Italy, where the members reside. He helped the two vocalists with word pronunciation.

"He also said to be very specific in the message that you want to give, focus on the words and what you want to mean, and say what you want to say," said Ferro, who was donning all black clothing. "That was the biggest difference in terms of the focus also the balance. It's appealing better to the flowing of every song. Instead of singing together all the time, sometimes we split the parts more clearly. I think it's more mature in the way that everything is more up front."