Lacuna Coil’s Andrea Ferro Talks ‘Broken Crown Halo,’ Vocal Progression + More

Italian metal act Lacuna Coil released their latest album, 'Broken Crown Halo' earlier this year, and we recently had a chance to catch up with the band's co-vocalist Andrea Ferro.

In addition to talking about the album, Ferro also discussed how movies inspired bassist Marco Coti Zelati to create demos for ‘Broken Crown Halo,’ as well as his own fondness for both Italian and American horror films. Furthermore, Ferro talked about his evolution as a vocalist from the band’s early  EP’s compared to their latest album. Check out our interview with Andrea Ferro of Lacuna Coil below:

When seeing Lacuna Coil live, it’s evident with each album (in press photos and when touring) has a specific look onstage. How do you decide on the stage clothes for the album cycles?

We try to have an image that combines the artwork of the CD and the mood of the album. In our video for one of the new songs, we used the new clothes so we try to have something that goes all together in a unit, in a package. We’re promoting the band as much as the music in the same way.

What does the title ‘Broken Crown Halo’ mean to you personally?

Personally we were looking for a title that could represent a kingdom and crown, something to separate real and fake. Some things that you try to perfect and make perfect usually aren’t as perfect as it seems. The main concept was to portray the reality of today, which is very shallow and fake. We don’t want to live in a fabricated illusion; we want to accept existence even if it’s sometimes in darkness. It’s not always easy but we’re going to keep going and following our dreams no matter what.

How was it diving into new material for ‘Broken Crown Halo’?

Marco [Coti Zelati] the bass player for the band who is a main song writer, was forced to be home for a while and not tour with us because he injured his arm. He couldn’t really be on the road for a while, almost a year and a half so he was collecting a lot of ideas. By the time we finished touring last year, he had a lot of demos so we just dove into new songs and collected a lot of ideas separately and meet together and go over the songs. By the end of the summer we were already full of songs, we called up the producer and entered the studio. It was quite fluent.

It has been described as a cinematic album. Was Marco at home watching a lot of films?

Yes, he was. He would actually put the TV on, like a war documentary or a horror movie or an action movie and take out the sound and then play over the images, over the visuals. When he writes the riffs, it’s almost like he’s writing a soundtrack to the images that he’s seeing. That’s a very strong source of inspiration for him -- to watch and play while he is watching those films and create music that works with those images.

Are you personally influenced or a fan of the horror film genre, as well? Have films influenced lyrics you’ve written?

Yes, absolutely. We all grew up with all of the classic Italian horror movies from the late '70s, early '80s. There wasn’t much censorship at the time so we would watch all of those movies as well as the classic American horror movies like ‘Halloween’ or ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre,’ ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ and all of that. It was natural to for us to use that imagery in some of the lyrics.

As a singer how have you evolved from the first EPs in the late '90s to what we hear on 'Broken Crown Halo'?

Not only did I grow as a single singer but also to work together [with Cristina Scabbia] and have a balance, it’s something you learn every record and every tour. You understand more, you know yourself better, we’re more natural singers and we like to learn about our body, about our voice.

It’s really important to understand how the voice moves and works, you try to be as expressive as possible and adaptable to different kinds of songs. It’s cool to learn and it’s such an inspiration to be able to sing with such a talented singer as Cristina because it’s always challenging to be her counterpart. It helps me to improve and motivates me a lot to learn more every time and in every record.

Lacuna Coil's Cristina Scabbia and Andrea Ferro Discuss Their Influences