Welcome to IMM Cristina..
Cristina: Thank you so much! The pleasure is all mine!
- What have you been up to lately?
Cristina: With Lacuna coil we are almost at the end on an extensive and successful 15 weeks tour in the United States. We are tired and happy to go back home but we had a blast on the road and loved every second of this run.
- Tell us a bit about your musical upbringing. Who were your inspirations growing up?
Cristina: I have 2 brothers and a sister, older than me, that have been surrounding me with different musical genres when I was a little girl. So I grew up listening to many different bands and artists: from Pink Floyd to Led Zeppelin, from The Cure to The Beatles, from Morrissey to the first hip hop bands, from AC/DC to pop music. I grew up with a very open mind in music and I still am. Music was and it is my life and there is always something good in every musical genre, even if of course rock and metal occupy the biggest space in my heart.
- How did Lacuna Coil happen?
Cristina: We met a long time ago in a metal pub in our hometown Milano, Italy.
Andrea and Marco were in a local band already and they wanted to produce a promo tape to send around to some labels, to try get a deal.
They knew that I loved to sing so we decided to incorporate some female vocals in the songs. Back then it was not so common to have a woman in a metal band. Once we recorded the songs in milanese studio we sent the tape to the labels we were interested in and after a while we signed for Century media and started to tour internationally.
- You also write an advice column in Revolver …..Tell us a bit about it.
Cristina: I actually stopped doing that column 4 years ago, but I loved doing it It was fun to read fans letters and give them advices on a more personal level. I am a good listener and I have a very strong relationship with my fans. If I know that only one of my words can help them to feel better, I’ll happily try to help.
- What advice would you give to young female singers who are trying to make a name in the scene?
Cristina: Even if it sounds cheesy I would tell them to be… who they really are. Is it ok to be inspired by other artists you admire and try to follow their path… but in the end every human being in the world is different and unique and that is the special thing that will make you stand out. Work on yourself, be confident in yourself and RESPECT yourself and whoever you are working with.
Being in a band with a male vocalist too how do you and the band work things out…How are the ideas put forth?
Cristina: It is very easy for me to work with Andrea on vocal lines because we have very clear in mind what we want to do for Lacuna coil. We like to use our voices as two additional instruments that we can freely add to the songs.
It feels good to know we can play with them as much as they want and we can DO whatever we want: be more aggressive or melodic, according to our taste.
- What is your take on the current music scene?
Cristina: I don’t really listen to a lot of new music but I feel that now everything is more focus around music “singles” of bands (or artists) instead of a whole album, which in a way it’s a pity.
I am still old school on that: I like bands that give a sense to a group on songs and make a whole album enjoyable.
- How do you prepare yourself for shows and how important is it for a singer to connect and interact with an audience?
Cristina: I feel different on stage, very. Even if it’s still Cristina, up there on stage, it is like… being under a spell. 
For lack of a better phrase I would say it feels like making love with my music.
I love singing so much that is so difficult to describe how happy I feel when I can use my voice.
Minutes before the show I start to deeply focus on what is going to happen… people often tells me that the look in my eyes is totally different. It is a mixture of adrenaline, excitement and anticipation. In other words: awesomeness!
- What is your daily regime that you follow to keep your vocals tight and in great condition?
Cristina: I don’t follow any regime in particular and I’ve never took vocal lessons but I try to sleep a lot and I drink lot of water.
I do warm up a bit before I go onstage but I don’t get too crazy about taking care of my voice, to be honest.
Plus I talk too much, which is not good… but hey! I am italian, it could not be different than that, ahaha!
Any plans for touring India? Have you heard any Indian bands/artists?
Cristina: Not at the moment, unfortunately… But we are constantly updating our schedule so it can happen that one day I will wake up to a mail from our management (I surely do hope so!) telling me that we’ll play India again.
Our fans should check our social networks pretty often because lots of things are happening really, really fast, especially now that a new album has been freshly released!
- What does Cristina Scabbia do in her spare time?
Cristina: I try to spend and share all my spare time in between family, boyfriend and friends. I don’t really do clubs ‘cause I live in venues pretty much every day of the years… I surely love to have a good time but more in… private places like friend’s homes (or my house where I like to cook for my friends).
- Give us a sneak peak into your future projects?
Cristina: We just released a new record titled “Broken Crown halo”, so our energies are and will be focused on the promotion for it and that means a lot of touring and festivals for this year.
In the meantime we’ll also write new songs but at the moment BCH is our absolute priority.
- Thank you Cristina…..This is your space…Leave a message for your fans…
Cristina: I want to thank all the Lacuna coil indian fans for supporting us throughout the years, we really hope we can come back to India as soon as possible. We’ve been there once and I all I can say is that I can’t wait to see you all again!
For anyone that has never heard of us… give it a listen, we won’t let you down. Rock on!
