Cristiano Mozzati of Lacuna Coil

Cristiano Mozzati of Lacuna Coil

By Laura Nixon
Mar 31, 2004

Lacuna Coil have spent the last year touring with their 4th album, Comalies. Over six months of that was spent in the USA, promoting the band’s unique style of music. I was lucky enough to interview their guitarist Cristiano Mozzati at the band’s one off gig in London, UK during their Christmas tour with label mates Moonspell, Passenger and Poisonblack.

To set the scene:
It’s the 27th December 2003 and we’re sitting in a rather skeggy dressing room at the London Astoria. Beside me is Lacuna Coil guitarist, Cristiano Mozzati but also in the room are Marco and Criz from Lacuna Coil and Moonspell’s singer, Fernando Ribiero.

Laura Nixon: There have been many different descriptions of Lacuna Coil’s music. Can you describe it into your own words for me?
Cristiano Mozzati: It’s quite hard to explain; it’s a mix between atmospheric and powerful music. I really wouldn’t know how to describe it exactly as we have a lot of different influences because of all the different kinds of music we listen to but I think it’s a good atmospheric rock.
LN:
Considering 2003 has been pretty busy for you touring, do you think it’s been one of your most successful years as well?
CM:
Yeah, since Comalies came out we really did a lot of gigs. This year we started touring the US a lot, we almost spent 6 months there, on different tours of course, not all in a row, so it’s been a pretty busy year. We started off with the Sentenced tour last year in November, and then we did all of the summer festivals and a lot of gigs in Italy. Then all of this American tour, so we’ve been on the road a long time. It’s been a really busy year.
LN:
How have you felt spending that much time in the States?
CM:
It was great; it was the first time for us. (The Moonspell bassist walks in with a plastic police mans helmet on his head and everyone starts to laugh. Marco (LC’s bassist) decides to put it on and starts to headbang with his hand in the air.) It was definitely great. I mean it was the first time for us to be there on tour and we toured with great bands like Opeth, Anthrax, and Type O Negative. We even did our first headliner tour there. It worked out very well. We increased the sales of the album a lot. It was defiantly worth it. We had airplay on almost 70 radio stations, which is quite amazing for a band like us who are not with a major record company. It’s great.
LN:
How did you about feel playing in London?
CM:
I don’t know. Can I ask my friends? (In steps the Moonspell singer with a little book of quotes from Oscar Wilde) “London is full of women who trust their husbands; one can always recognise them because they look so thoroughly happy”.
LN:
Will you be taking a break after this tour and if so, what will you be doing?
CM:
We are definitely planning on relaxing for a while. We need to work on the new album. We have some songs ready but we need to take a break. Besides, we’ve been on the road for so long, we want to relax for a while.
LN:
Was there any change in writing style between Unleashed Memories and Comalies and if so, is there going to be a similar change with the new album?
CM:
I think we keep evolving all the time as we change our music tastes constantly. We listen to so many different bands and kinds of music that it’s natural for us to evolve and to try to do something new. We have some really powerful songs and we’re going to try and put in some slow songs as usual but it’s for sure different from Comalies.
LN:
The band’s got a bit of a history recording at Woodhouse studios with producer Waldemar Sorchya. Is this going to continue?
CM:
Well we’d like to work with him (Waldemar) again because we think that he is really able to help us when we need some ideas from the outside. When you’ve worked on your stuff for a long time, you don’t have any great ideas. After a while, you need somebody from the outside who gives you some fresh ideas for the songs. We’re probably going to change studios and work with a another sound engineer just to have a different sound but Waldemar is probably going to be there to give us an artistic view of the whole thing.
LN:
Are you looking forward to recording some new material for the album?
CM:
Yeah, sure. We have played stuff from Comalies for over a year now so we need to play some new stuff. After a while, it gets real boring playing the same songs every night.
LN:
How do you feel the new album is going to differ from the previous three?
CM:
It’s going to be different for sure but until we start I can’t really say how.
LN:
Does the audience’s reaction affect your performance at a gig?
CM:
Yeah, definitely, a lot. After all this touring you go on stage and you act almost as a robot because you know exactly what you do, the way you move and everything so if the crowd doesn’t really react, then for us, it’s just like a repeat but if the crowd is really into it then it changes completely the whole atmosphere; it helps you to get into it a lot more. It’s very important for us.
LN:
What five things could you not live without on tour?
CM:
Five things? My guitar (I never touch it at home), my computer and this cool thing we bought from a skate shop in Kansas City; it’s a weed grinder (only for tobacco of course). I can’t live without those.
LN:
Where have you most enjoyed touring and why?
CM:
Right now for us it’s pretty exciting to be in the States because everything is so new. We’ve been touring Europe for five or six years so we know pretty much everything around here so to be touring the US is something new that we never did before. Everything is so much bigger, the people are different, and it’s a combination of different things that make it more interesting. Even though I must say that this tour has been great so far, we’re touring with three other bands (Poison Black, Passenger and Moonspell) that are really good friends and we’re having a lot of fun. Except for Moonspell, they’re assholes *everybody laughs*
LN:
Is there any bands that you’d really like to tour with?
CM:
Moonspell: we hate them but we love them at the same time. We’re all lazy so it’s good to be touring together. *More Laughs* (Marco shouts over “Type O” and Criz (LC drummer) shouts “Metallica”)
LN:
You’ve previously covered another band’s song. Does the band have any future plans to cover any other song?
CM:
I think that you can do covers for fun but if it has to be recorded on the album then it doesn’t make sense because I don’t really want to put another band’s song on our album; we want to do our own stuff. ‘Stars’ turned out pretty cool but it’s not one of our songs and I don’t think we will do that anymore. If you have to do it live, that’s something else because it’s just for fun; people will know the song.
LN:
If you were going to perform one live what would it be?
CM:
We were thinking about ‘Temple of love’ by Sisters of Mercy. It’s fun to play and fits with the music, or maybe something by Alice in Chains.
LN:
Finally have you got anymore plans for touring in the UK?
CM:
Not at the moment but I’m sure we will.

For information about Lacuna Coil, visit their website Enter The Coil
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