Chad Bowar: You’ve been on a lot of different package tours. How does Music As A Weapon compare to other ones you’ve been a part of?
Cristina Scabbia: The tour is amazing. Everyone plays a different kind of music. It’s interesting for people coming to the shows, because you won’t get bored listening to the same style of music over and over. The festival is growing, and places are packed.
After this tour ends are you going back to Europe for the summer festivals?
Cristina: Yes, we’re going home. We’ll be at Wacken, we’ll be in the UK for Download, we’ll play Graspop in Belgium, a lot of big festivals. It’s fun. We’ve done most of them in the past years, and it’s awesome. The atmosphere at festivals is great, because people just want to have fun. They don’t come to create problems or be negative about it. It’s the perfect place for both the artist and the crowd.
The past few years you’ve spent a lot of time in the United States. Are you starting to feel like it’s your second home?
Cristina: Definitely, 100 percent. I love the U.S.
What can fans expect from your new CD Shallow Life?
Cristina: I believe the fans will have to listen to this album. I think it’s an album that will create a lot of questions, and I like that. It’s not an album you listen to and don’t pay any attention to it. You might like it, you might hate it, but it’s definitely hitting the spot. It’s a more direct album. The lyrics are most straight to the point compared to the ones we wrote in the past. A lot of people will recognize themselves in what we’re saying, because we’re talking about real life. It was our way to evolve. We didn’t want to get stuck in the same formula over and over. We wanted to have something that would be the sum of what we’ve done so far; new influences, but a lot of old stuff as well.
Was your songwriting process any different for this album?
Cristina: It was different, because compared to the past we wrote a lot of stuff in the practice room. Before, it was a lot of working at home, sharing files. This is the first time we’ve been testing the songs in sort of a live setting.
The melodies on Shallow Life are very catchy. Was that something you focused on?
Cristina: We have learned to be intense, but simple at the same time. They are catchier probably because they’re easier to remember. We learned to focus on things instead of squeezing everything you could possibly imagine into a song.
How did you decide on having Don Gilmore produce the CD?
Cristina: He was the most passionate about the album. We sent some songs out, because the songs were already written before we started to meet producers. He was telling us how he loved the songs and how cool the album was and how he wanted to work with us. We decided to meet him, and he came to Milan (Italy) where we live and we had dinner together. Afterward he came to the practice room to listen to the songs. He was very good at giving us his opinion on the songs, and we agreed with him. We just clicked immediately, so we decided to work with him.
What’s his style like in the studio?
Cristina: He’s really good about being absolutely anal about anything you record. It has to be 100 percent perfect. He squeezes you like a lemon to get the best out of you. I think it’s amazing. That’s what a producer should do for every band. At the same time, he’s a funny guy who relieved the tension when everybody was tired. He would put a smile on our face and bring us back to focus. That’s what I love about him. Definitely working in a different studio makes a difference as well. The weather in Los Angeles was perfect, especially for us singers. It was amazing not to get sick.
Andrea Ferro: It was the first time we didn’t get sick while recording. Usually we do it in Germany or Italy in the winter. So we always get sick. That was the first time we were able to sing without getting sick.
How was Gilmore to work with from a vocalist’s perspective?
Cristina: He taught us a lot of things about the writing of lyrics. In the past we tended to be more poetic, which can be nice in some ways. But in other ways it can be a problem because you are less understandable to whoever may be listening. So you don’t really create a connection with the listener. This time we learned, with his help, to be focused on one story, one message we wanted to give, and be clear about what we were singing about.
What inspired the album title Shallow Life?
Cristina: It was one of the songs on the album, and we thought that it was the perfect representation of what was surrounding us right now. Everything has to be perfect and beautiful, and everyone has to be good looking and in shape. So we wanted to take it ironically and analyze that. Sometimes a shallow life isn’t always bad. There are shallow things in life that aren’t necessarily negative. You can go out for an afternoon of shopping with your friends. It might be fun and help you forget your problems for a few hours. But at the same time, you have to be focused when important stuff happens.
