Though she began our conversation by apologizing for her bad English, I found Cristina to be very articulate, as well as quite charming and optimistic - rare traits in a metal singer, to be sure, but nothing about Lacuna Coil is commonplace.

I understand you recently did a tour with Skyclad.  How did that go?
Very good.  With Skyclad and then another month with Grip Inc. and Samael.  With Grip Inc., it was sort of a festival for a week.  The reaction of the audience was great and all the bands are really nice guys (laughs).  Also, with Skyclad, it was really good because they are really happy people.  They like to enjoy themselves - we drank a lot, we had a really good time with them.  Also, the audience of Skyclad is really open-minded.  We are two different bands, but the audience was really open-minded and they liked us.  Fortunately!  (laughs)

How about future shows?
Right now, we're going to play some festivals in Germany and we have to play in Naples, in Italy, with Aerosmith (?!-dh) on the 12th of July and some festivals around.  But we also have to write some new songs, new material for the new album because we want to record it in January of next year.  I only know that maybe we might play some festivals around the US next year, but I don't know when yet.

Speaking of writing a new album, what is the Lacuna Coil writing process like?
Mmm, it depends.  Right now, we want to change the way we write new songs, but usually, the main composer is the bass player, along with the guitar player, and they write the main structure and the guitar parts.  Then we try, with a drum machine, to find the good drum parts, they try it in the practice room, then we find the vocal lines and the lyrics.  But we want to change and to try to start the songs from the vocal line, for example.

How do you feel the new album differs from the EP?
The first thing is the line-up changed.  You can hear it from the music, because you can hear that it is more positive and more mature.  The compositions are changed, because we take a lot of care with the structure of the songs.  I think the main thing is it is more mature.  We wrote songs, instead of just music, some riffs put together.  Maybe the one is more natural, because it reflects what we were in that period, but right now In A Reverie can explain the condition of the band - very positive, very 'in a reverie,' in a dream.

How did you first get involved with Lacuna Coil?
In '96, because you know the band used to only play for a hobby, between friends in the practice room.  They only asked me to do some choruses for the demo tape that we recorded in '96, and I said 'yes.'  After that, they asked me to be another singer.  We said, 'Okay, let's try to have two singers, but not only a chorus and a main singer.  Let's try to sing together with a male and a female.'  That's about it.  They were friends of mine.

Do you write the lyrics?
Yeah, we wrote the lyrics, me and Andrea (Ferro, male vocalist), together, along with Valerie from Century Media.  She's Italian-American, so she can help us better.

Where do you get your inspiration from for the lyrics?
We used to talk about personal things, things that happen every day.  We don't want to talk about pessimistic things, because we're not into that.  But we really like to talk about our personal feelings or personal or experiences we've had:  love, hate, when you're sad - we want to try to talk about sensations maybe.  We try to suck inspiration from the music.  If the music is sad, I of course cannot write happy lyrics.  But we like to talk to about real things.

How did the actual recording of In A Reverie go and do you actually like working in the studio?
Yeah, a lot.  Maybe it is the worst experience for a musician (the studio), because you have to be prepared even if you are ill or something.  You have to be ready to do your best.  You're in the studio early in the morning and stay in the studio all day.  And maybe it is boring because you have to wait for all the parts to be finished before you record, but I think it is very good.  We recorded in the same studio, The Woodhouse, with the same producer, Waldemar Sorychta.  Waldemar right now is a very big friend of ours.  If, in the first album, we received a lot of advice from him in terms of the music, (this time) we wrote everything by ourselves and we received his help only in the studio, with the recording.

Was it difficult to get attention outside of Italy?
Not so much.  In Italy, there is not a very big scene in metal because people used to listen to more commercial stuff like your dance music from England, or MTV or something like that.  It's not so difficult when you become well known outside of Italy and then come back into Italy.  It is difficult for an Italian band, for example, to have a good record label in Italy or to play…. The people, it is really strange.  I don't know why, but they have more respect for the bands outside of Italy.  Maybe they think the bands outside Italy are better - I don't know why.  But right now, we are quite famous and we are really happy because now the trend in Italy is the power metal, the epic metal, and we are totally different.  We are the only band that you can find in the magazines that's a little important that play another kind of music, so we're proud of that.

Does it bother you when people comment more on how you look rather than the music?
Ah, it's normal.  Have you ever thought about the intelligence of Pamela Anderson?  (laughs)  No, I think it's normal because, in metal, it's not easy to find females in the bands.  You cannot find a lot of female personalities in the bands, so it is normal because a lot of fans of heavy metal are guys.  But I don't care, because they talk also a lot about the music.  It's not a problem.  Maybe it can only help us to be more in the magazines.  (laughs)

Where did you guys get the name for the band?
We chose it from…I don't know where exactly, maybe the Internet.  The old name of the band was Ethereal and we recorded the demo tape with that name, but there was another band in Greece with the same name.  We chose two words.  'Lacuna' is a Latin word that means 'when you have a lack of something,' like a lack of memory, for example.  And 'coil' is a spiral and it's like an ethereal name, like 'empty spiral' so nobody can have the same name.  I hope!  (laughs)

What did you do before joining the band?
I used to work in a shop, a clothes shop, and in an office also.  Right now, I cannot still live just by the music, so I work in a pub as a barmaid.  I work there when I'm in Milan.  I really like to do it.  Maybe one day, if I will not continue with the music, I can open a pub or something.  I really like to talk with people, so I think it is the best work.

When did you first get seriously interested in being a singer and who were some of your early inspirations?
Hmm..  I started in about 1991.  I've always been interested in music, but I started to sing in '91, though for a completely different kind of music.  I used to give my voice without my name for some products of dance, for some radio, but I didn't like it because I didn't like to be alone to sing.  I really like being in a band, because it is like having a second family to be with.  My inspiration…I don't know.  My favorite singers are like Aretha Franklin, soul singers, but they are completely different from me, so they can only be idols, not inspiration.

What kind of music do you like to listen to?
Everything.  Maybe my favorite band is Depeche Mode, because I think they are really modern, even with the old songs, I really like them.  But I like everything, from Extreme to Black Metal to everything really.  I only hate Italian music because it's really boring.

You should do a cover…
Oh yeah, but only in the practice room… (laughs)  We are thinking about doing a cover, but we are not able to find one that we really like.  We want to do one but not of a band from the metal scene.  We want to do something really strange, I don't know what.

What do you like doing outside of music?
It depends.  I really like to draw.  I really like to work in the pub, to see everyday your friends and at the same time you can make money.  I like to travel, to go shopping, to go out and meet people.  I love video games!  I'm a big fan of PlayStation and Resident Evil.  (laughs)

What are some of your favorite places you've traveled to, outside of Italy?
For holidays, I haven't been so far from Italy:  Spain, France, nothing more.  But for the music, we've been everywhere in Europe:  Norway, Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, Poland and Czech Republic.  I'd like to go to America at the end of this month, so only my parents are going.  (laughs)  I'm really, really sorry.

I heard you might do a video from this album…?
Mm, I'm not sure because it's not easy to get your video played.  For example, in Italy, we only have MTV and another channel called DMC2, but they only play commercial stuff.  I mean, the most heavy thing they play is Cranberries.  It's not easy for a metal band to do a video.  If you're not Metallica, you'll never see your video.  You have to have a very good video, too.  It's useless to do a video with a low budget.  Right now, we want to concentrate ourselves more on life and music.