The latest album from Italian veterans Lacuna Coil is Sleepless Empire. I spoke with vocalist Andrea Ferro on a variety of topics ranging from the new album to videos to the album promotion process.
Chad Bowar: How did you find guitarist Daniele Salomone?
Andrea Ferro: He has not joined as a proper official guitar player because we want to give it some time, we’re not in a rush. He is a friend, we’ve known him for little bit of time already. He doesn’t live in Milan, he lives a little bit outside in the mountains, and he has a little studio where he does a lot of studio work, and he has his own band where he plays guitar. We knew he’s very good at technical stuff, he can help us out in the studio a lot, so we just asked him to be in the studio with us, help with recording certain riffs, or just do some work on the mixing, on the EQing, and the sound work. So he’s been really helpful, and he worked in the studio with Marco, and then he also recorded some parts in the record.
For now he’s a good collaborator of the band, and obviously he’s going to be with us on the tours as well, but we’re going to give it some time and work with him for one year or something like that, and see how he does, how he handles the touring. He’s not a super expert in touring, because he’s done just mostly local shows. He’s done now one tour in the UK with us for a couple of weeks, so he has to learn a little bit the life on the road, and see also if he likes it or not. And so far so good, he’s a very good candidate. Obviously we’re trying to see if he can handle all the things besides just playing music, a lot of the touring to be away, to find a way to to fit in with the band, with everybody. But so far so good.
It’s been a few years since an album of new material, so when there’s that kind of a break in between, does that make things easier to write because you have so many ideas from over the five years, or it is difficult because you are rusty?
More rusty, because during the pandemic we haven’t really been able to focus on music, and so we were not in the mindframe that we normally have when we approach a new record. Normally when we do the new record we have collected a certain number of experiences by touring, by traveling the world, by meeting people, by seeing places. While this time staying at home for two years on one hand has been good, because we had time to do stuff we haven’t done for many years, and we never spent so much time with our families, and being home and doing different stuff; on the other hand it was kind of stale and not very creative for us.
We started first with Comalies XX, which was the rework of the classic album. So in that way we could not only offer a sort of a tribute to the original Comalies for the 20th anniversary, but also start again working together, rework something without the pressure of a full new record. And then after that we started working on Sleepless Empire, but it has been a long process. It took a long time before we found the right inspiration, the right focus, the right influences. So it’s been a long work, and it took a long time to do everything, finding the right title, the artwork, the lyrics, everything. It took quite a long time recording, mixing, mastering, but we’re very happy with the result. So on one hand it’s been tough, but on the other hand I think also when you are a band that has been around for a certain number of years, it’s also good to take some time in between records and don’t force it if you’re not ready.
Do you record all the songs you bring to the studio, or are some left on the cutting room floor?
Maybe we have one extra song that is not that’s not making into the album. I think we only recorded drums for that one, but we still want to work on it, and we have some ideas here and there, but mostly what we have is it’s all we have basically. So yeah, it’s going to be a little bit extra, but not much.
Your sound shifts from album to album when it comes to the heaviness, the emotion. How would you characterize that for this album?
I think we started this process of getting a little heavier on Delirium, the first record where we kind of shifted. Maybe because we had different band members back then, and Marco, the bass player, who is the main songwriter, started to feel more free to go somewhere else with the music, especially drums. And obviously you have different musicians, they have different influences, different techniques, and so we tried some different stuff. And I think overall also music has been going heavier in general, rock and metal music has been going a little bit towards that direction.
But we just basically followed what Marco’s feeling were on the new influences, and it came out this way. I think on this record we have quite a balance. It is definitely heavy, but it’s also darker. I think this could be described for a quick understanding, maybe a mix between Black Anima and Comalies. There’s a little bit of heaviness, there’s a bit of darker vibe from the past, so that’s the direction. But to be fair, as you say, we’re always a band that changes a little bit every record. That’s what we like. There are some bands that are made to repeat the same formula and make it perfect, and some other bands are more trying to go somewhere else, try to innovate, try to be contemporary. And that’s us, that’s the way we are as people, and that reflects, I think, the songwriting as well.
Randy Blythe (Lamb Of God), a long-time friend of yours, appears on the album. Did he record his vocal parts remotely?
I think he recorded the vocals at home, actually. He sent us pictures of him recording. As you say, he’s a long-time friend. We’ve known each other since 2004, when we did Ozzfest together, and we’ve been friends all the way. He’s been a huge fan of our band. We obviously love Lamb of God as well, and it was a natural choice if we wanted to have a guest on this record to ask him first. Sometimes when he finishes a European tour, he comes to Milan and we hang out for a couple of days. We go to restaurants, we go to see a photo exhibit or something like that. So it’s a friendship, it’s not only music related. And so he was a natural person to ask, he’s like a family member for us.
And then on the opposite side, you did not know Ash Costello (New Year’s Day) beforehand, right?
I think we briefly met at an award ceremony somewhere, but just like, hello, how are you doing? That’s it. And so we were looking for a female voice that wasn’t too clean or too operatic, because the song was more towards a rock direction. And so we were thinking of a voice that could be a bit more raspy, dirty. And so she was one of the names that came up, and so we sent her the song. She loved the idea and did the parts immediately, and she’s added some more American style of arrangements in her part, which fits really well on that song. And so we were really happy about the result. And then we had the opportunity to hang out on the tour, and we did some shows together, we performed the song together, so we became friends in real life.
You’ve already shot videos for this album, you have other ones coming up. How important are videos in 2025 for promoting albums?
I don’t think they’re as important as they used to be, because when we did, for example, the video for “Heaven’s A Lie,” it was the first time we ever did a professional video, and it was the third record. So back then, videos were only for big bands, or only if you really have a need for a video. Nowadays, there’s a lot more outlets, but maybe not as big as TV was, obviously, back then, but it’s still important, I think. And the budgets are a little bit more reasonable now, because the technology helps you out, and so what you used to spend for a big video production, now you can do maybe three videos with the same budget. So I think they’re still important, but they definitely have a different use than it was.
When it comes to promoting an album, do you like the old days where there was much more mystique around a new release, or do you like today’s social media driven promotion with a lot of interaction and transparency?
Probably the old days were better, because there was more mystery around the band, around the characters in the band, and you could only find out through interviews, or very rarely through video interviews. So it wasn’t as open as it is right now. On the other hand, we just get used to the changes, and we just go with the flow. And there’s also some good stuff that you can do today. So there’s no point in regretting too much. But definitely, the mystery was a good thing, I think.
You have all kinds of touring coming up: South America, North America, Europe. After all these years, is there any place left to go that you still would like to get to?
Yeah, there’s a lot of places, but for sure Africa, because it’s the only, beside Antarctica of course, continent where we have never played. It would be cool to do at least one show in Africa, to just put it in the map. There’s a lot more smaller places that we haven’t been, like Thailand or Korea. But Africa for sure, because it’s the only one we have never done, so it’s time to go.
And at this point in your career, if you wanted to, you could play 100 percent headlining shows, but you still do some opening acts, some headlining. Is that something you map out in advance, or does it depend on the offers that come in?
Both. We always had this mechanism when we were a smaller band, to first open for somebody, spread the word that the record was coming, or was just coming out in those days, and then do your own headlining based on the return of what you’ve done in building with supporting other bigger acts. Now that we can headline, we do a little bit of both, it depends on the chance. Now we have this chance with Machine Head and In Flames for North America, and we took it not only because those bands are friends, bands that we grew up with, but also a good opportunity to start playing in front of some other different crowds.
Even if you’ve been around and people know your name, there’s always somebody that never heard you, that maybe heard the name, but never really took the chance to listen to the music. Like for example, right before the pandemic, we played a big festival here in Italy, supporting Slipknot and some other bands, and after that we played our own headline shows in the same cities a few months later, and we got a lot of young people like 16, 17, 18 years old, that are Italian, so you would think they know us, but they thought we were not Italian, they thought we were an American band. And so there’s always some people that have never been exposed to your music, even if you’ve been around 20 or more years, there’s always somebody that never heard you, or they thought you were playing a different kind of music, so it’s important to expose the band to different crowds.
The business model of music has changed so much where you can’t make a ton of money anymore on the albums, it’s almost all on the touring. So how frustrating is it to have seen the increase in venues taking a chunk of your merchandise sales?
I think it’s too much. I understand that everybody wants to make money, and I’m not against making money, but I think there needs to be a fair deal, because we design those shirts, we produce the shirt, they have our name on it, and the people buy it because they come to see us, and the legacy we’ve built with them over the years. So it’s okay for venues to take some costs out, and I am not against it, but it has to be reasonable, not in terms of 15 or 20 percent, that’s not fair. If it’s a lower rate I can deal with it, I’m not completely against it, but also because we always carry a merch person with us, so we also have paid a person that is supposed to sell the stuff, because not everybody has sellers, so it’s really becoming too much. Sometimes you see the chunk of money they get, and it’s maybe the same money that we make at the end, after all the costs and the expenses, so it’s not fair.
Are you seeing this all over the world?
It depends, but more or less it’s getting everywhere. We had it in Japan, we had it in South America. But at least in South America it’s a completely different deal, where they produce the merch, they sell it, and you get a cut. You give them the design, so at least you don’t have to front the cost, you don’t have to pay a merchandiser, so it’s a different deal type. But it is what it is. In the end we still make good money from merch.
What is your take on the rise of artificial intelligence, whether it be designing album covers, or helping with the music, or in some cases there are entire albums that are these created AI bands?
I’m not against the technology, because I think that technology always depends how you use it. If it’s an extra tool to give you some extra possibility, that’s great. If it’s a tool that has to substitute you or be there for your laziness, or if you’re not willing to spend money on an artist, that is not fair, and it’s not even interesting. For our album we’ve used an Italian designer that draws everything handmade, and we have one design for every song, and we’re gonna make the merchandise with his design. He made the cover, we had a lot of back and forth with him, he’s a musician, he’s a metalhead, he is a great designer, so we love to work with real people, we love the fact that sometimes they make a mistake, or you make a mistake, and from the mistake something greater is born.
Very often the best idea comes from a mistake, comes from you’ve done something wrong, but it sounds good, so then you try to elaborate it, and it becomes something unique, because I think that what makes us human is also the fact that we make mistakes, which is something that the machines normally don’t tend to make, so that’s one difference with the AI. So it all depends at the end of the day how you want to use it, you see with nuclear energy you can use it for many good things, or you can use it to destroy a place, it depends on how you want to use it. It’s not nuclear that’s the problem, it’s the way you use it, and same for every technology, I think.
I know you’re a big fan of The Cure, and so what’s your response to them finally releasing a new album?
I went to see them last year in Milan, and it was actually my first time seeing them live. I never had the opportunity to see them, and I really enjoyed the show. It was great, and they have so many classic songs that obviously the show was very long, because they have so many songs to play, and I think they are still in great shape. I heard the two singles, which I really like, but I haven’t paid too much attention to the full album, because I didn’t have enough time to focus on that. I want to take my time, maybe on tour I’ll have more chances to listen to the full thing, but it’s great that they still have the will to make music, and to go touring, and we feel the same.
Obviously we don’t have that many years of experience as they have, but we still feel the same passion. Me, Marco and Cristina, we’ve been working all the way from the beginning of the band to now, and we still have the same will to go out there and play shows with the same excitement of letting people listen to the new songs. So we still have the same passion, and until you don’t feel that, you should keep going. If you start to release a record just because you have to, or you have to tour, or you have to make some money, then people are going to realize it.
(interview published February 12, 2025)
