Why Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabbia Decided to Perform Dangerous Underwater Stunts for ‘Oxygen’ Video

Never let it be said that Lacuna Coil‘s Cristina Scabbia won’t suffer for her art. In fact, she tells Full Metal Jackie that it was her idea to actually perform the underwater suffocation scenes in the band’s recent “Oxygen” video.

The Lacuna Coil co-vocalist confirmed to Full Metal Jackie on her weekend radio that there was initially plans to have a stunt actress step in, but Scabbia explains, “I thought that it would have been much better for whoever was watching, especially our fans, to see that it was me going through the whole process because it would have been easier to get in my shoes and try to understand the sense of suffocation, being trapped in a toxic relationship that could be a love relationship, a work relationship, even a friendship went wrong.”

The singer was on hand to speak with Jackie about the band’s upcoming Sleepless Empire album, which includes a guest turn by longtime friend Randy Blythe of Lamb of God. They also delve into how the album came about, what is expected of an artist on social media and what it’s like to put together a setlist this far into their career. Plus, Cristina gives us the lowdown on Lacuna Coil’s newest band member.

Check out more of the chat below.

It’s Full Metal Jackie, and I’m so excited. We’ve got the one and only Cristina Scabbia from Lacuna Coil on the show this week. So lovely to have you back and super excited to talk about the band’s new album, Sleepless Empire. Cristina, the seeds of this album came while you were working on your Comalies XX record. What sparked the idea for the new album, and what is the experience like of being in one headspace for work, but knowing you have this idea in the back pocket?

While we were working on Comalies XX we had in mind the 20th anniversary of that record that was so important for us. That still is one of the most important records in our career. And we wanted to have something special that could celebrate this anniversary that wouldn’t be the usual remaster or repackaging. We wanted to go deeper than that.

So we rewrote the record from scratch as it was written in 2020. So that was the mindset. And I would say that it was also a way to go back to songwriting because I must say that the pandemic wasn’t really inspiring for us.

We didn’t want to write music that could connect us to that period. And Comalies was crucial to renew the love that we have for songwriting. So when we started to go out again and really live life, we got that desire to turn all the new experiences into a new record for us.

It’s so important. We always talk about real life. We get inspired by real life. As a traveling musician, you meet so many people, so many cultures, you hear so many stories that it’s much better to live and experience life before you turn everything into your music. At least that’s how we do it.

Lacuna Coil Featuring Randy Blythe, “Hosting the Shadow”

First of all, Cristina, congrats on winning the Social Media Hero Award at the Metal Hammer Awards. Understandably, social media has become part of promoting a band today. It’s somewhat expected that you’re giving part of yourself in how you interact online. But given the album’s idea of trying to reclaim oneself in a digital world, how do you make sure that you’re good and not getting too caught up in the trappings of social media?

I think that it really helps that I was born in a period in history where nothing like this was present. So I know how it was before I saw the transition into a digital world. I saw the difference of speed in which relationships are working online.

Back in the days, it was completely different. And I am not stuck in the past. I’m always curious, I’m genuinely curious in everything new as well, because I always want to know what’s going on. I want to keep up to date with what’s happening. So I think this is what makes it easy to not to get caught up too much, to take advantage of the digital world, to take advantage about the fact that things can be easier and faster, but at the same time to never forget that real life is the one that you leave when you’re getting out of that door, when you’re meeting someone at a concert, at a pub and you have a great conversation one to one.

I accept both parts of it. It’s not a reaction of things back then were so much better. They were just different. You just have to accept evolution. You just don’t have to get stuck in just one world.

Cristina, it looks as though you went above and beyond for the video for “Oxygen.” How challenging was the underwater shooting for the video? And are you happy with how it all turned out?

I am very, very happy. We’re getting a lot of great feedback from it. I’m getting a lot of compliments, people complimenting me for my acting, which is kind of funny because I don’t consider myself an actress or anything like this. And I have the utmost respect for real actors that are studying and have a lot of work behind it.

Initially the idea was to have an actress doing the parts underwater and all the parts that I am working on the video. But I thought that it would have been much better for whoever was watching, especially our fans, to see that it was me going through the whole process because it would have been easier to get in my shoes and try to understand the sense of suffocation, being trapped in a toxic relationship that could be a love relationship, a work relationship, even a friendship went wrong.

I thought that it was very, very important that I would be there doing this thing instead of the actress. And it was challenging because I basically spent four or five hours in the water from, like, I don’t know. It was the evening before we actually shot the rest in a swimming pool at a hotel in Latina, which is not too far from Rome.

It was not easy because I had this dress that kept on entangling my legs. And it’s not easy to try to act underwater because you have to fake the suffocation. But in order to fake it, sometimes you really risk drowning for real. So it wasn’t easy, but it was a lot of fun.

Now that I look at it, I’m very happy I did it because I think it adds a lot to it. And the whole video was so much fun. The guys had a great time. The crew was amazing. We spent a couple of days that were really, really cool.

Lacuna Coil, “Oxygen”

One other key track on the album is “Hosting the Shadow” with a guest turn from Randy Blythe of Lamb of God. Great song. By the way, I understand this is the culmination of a 20 year friendship with Randy. Why was now the right time for this collaboration to happen after years of discussing the possibility of doing something?

You know how it is. You meet a lot of friends that are extremely good in what they’re doing. So I would love to collaborate with many of them, but Randy is not only a great vocalist, a great performer, but I would say, one of our best friends.

We’ve known him for so many years. We tour together. Whenever he has the chance to come to Milano, he calls us immediately and we go out for a walk and for dinner. We spend time together and it’s the same when we are in his area or when we’re crossing paths at festivals.

So when we wrote “Hosting the Shadow,” we thought that it would have been amazing to have a guest and we immediately thought about him. But knowing as busy as he is, we were a little bit not worried, but we were like, “Oh my God. We’re gonna be asking so much out of him because he’s always so busy and do another thing in his very busy schedule.”

We sent him a message and we said, “Listen, Randy, we love you so much and you know that. But we have this song that we think you could be perfect for it. What do you think? Just to give the voice for a little cameo.”

And he was like, “Yeah, love to do that. I’ve been wanting to work with you guys for so long.” We were so happy to hear this and he recorded from the States. And when he sent us the material that he recorded, we just melted because it was absolutely perfect.

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So I can’t wait until we meet somewhere and I hope that we can perform the song together as soon as possible because I’m sure that we will melt everyone’s face.

With touring in support of the album coming up, I was curious what factors go into creating a setlist. I came across a Reddit thread of Lacuna Coil, lesser known songs that deserve more attention and wondered if fan input or other tools are taken into consideration.

Sometimes I just wished that every single gig could be made deciding the songs in a sort of a raffle because it’s getting more and more difficult to pick the songs. We are at our 10th record and we also have other songs that we did out of these records and it’s getting very, very hard because there are some songs that you have the tendency to keep because they are the so called singles that everyone knows, that everyone wants to hear because they are classic into our discography.

But there are a lot of other songs that we would love to play but sometimes they are left out because of the time that we might not have for our setlist. Because it also depends if it’s a setlist for our tour, if it’s a setlist for a festival, if it’s for a slot in which you’re opening for other bands so you have less time.

Sometimes it could happen that you’re going on tour with a heavier band, so maybe you try to pick up the heavier songs that maybe the crowd of this band might like the best in order to make them closer to your music.

So it’s definitely not easy to decide the setlist. But I would say that there are some classics that we can’t cut out. And also of course you have to take the chance to promote your new record. So you just like put in like one, two or three of the new songs off the new record.

Cristina, the band has undergone another lineup change of late. Daniele Salomone has come on board to help out the group. How did you come across Daniele and how did he land the gig?

We’ve known Daniele for a few years now. He came on board actually a few years ago because he actually helped us during other recordings as well. Just like helping us setting the guitar tones or just like taking care of some equipment.

So we asked him to help us out for the cycle as soon as he knew the songs. We had this lineup change. We immediately thought about him because he’s a person that we know personally so we know that we can get along well. We know that he’s an incredible, great guitar player.

He knows everything about the equipment because he has a studio himself. He produces other bands as well. So he knows how to handle things. And it was the first person that came to our mind when we were searching for a person that would play guitar.

He’s not like the new guitar player of Lacuna Coil. Because we always need some time. We need some time in order to be part of the family. You just have to tour with Lacuna Coil to see if that’s your thing. You don’t know if it’s something that you can actually take because the lifestyle of a musician is not easy.

Well, wishing you the best of luck again. We’ve got the new Lacuna Coil record, Sleepless Empire, coming out 2025. Looking forward to seeing you back here in the States, Cristina, and always such a pleasure. You’re lovely.

Thanks to Lacuna Coil’s Cristina Scabbia for the interview. Sleepless Empire is available Feb. 14 and currently available to pre-order through their website. You can also keep up with the band through their Facebook, X, Instagram and Spotify accounts. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show here