The Burning Season represents undoubtedly a stylistic changing of direction towards your previous albums. What's the inner reason of this turning point, if we can obviously talk of a substantial turning point?

William: It all boils down to expression, really; a matter of choosing what you want to say with a particular work. We had different ideas and different inspirations, and we let ourselves run free with them, instead of shutting them down in favour of doing a re-tread of our older work. A lot had happened in our lives between Evidence... and this album reflects a great deal of that.

Your new album comes out after two years of recording silence and a double CD-album, Vera Causa, which I personally regard as the conceptual and artistic apogee of your career. By the light of your expressive development, could it be interpreted as an ideal synthesis of your past production?

Monica: Exactly. It spoke for that era, and closed the door to open a new one on the future.

The Burning Season is not only a musically innovative album, but also for what concerns the lyrics, it seems to me that you may explicitly refer to the relevant problems which afflict the present society. I think in particularly of Sredni Vashtar.

Monica: My themes always run around a mythological or historical sense of the current view of the world; the more things seem to change, it all reflects on the fact that things never change. For The Burning Season, I brought this idea to a much more personal level. As opposed to singing about a character's feelings, or a myth or story, I spoke of my own feelings and pain from the changes in the world, and in our own lives, yet always brought out the fact that it is all part of a much bigger cycle.

I remained puzzled when I have heard Gone To Ground for the first time. It reminds the jazz atmosphere of the 40s, how was this song born?

Monica: It was something I worked on about deep depression, and the style simply came in accordance to the energy of the pain in the lyrics. I felt I could not sing such lyrics in any other kind of style or format - it became its own entity!

In Vera Causa the electronic variations have already played an important role, even because in the Night CD there are many cult songs in a remixed version. In The Burning Season this tendency is more emphasized, with elegant trip hop, ambient and acoustic sonorities. What did you lead to an interest in this line of composition?

Monica: We've been dabbling in electronic styles since '98, when we released "In Dreams of Mine." on the "Cat-Shaped Hole" Projekt comp. These styles and elements are now a part of music. It would be strange for us to ignore it if it helps the mood of the piece we write. It would be similar to refusing to use a cell phone or a computer in life due to staying "pure". We'd like to use any and all sources for music these days, thus with the new album, we experimented with organic and electronic sounds, as well trance and tribal rhythms, our early punk roots and orchestral atmospheres. There may be an idea for us in the future to release an all organic, non-electronic kind of album, but the purpose would be for that alone, you know?

William: Furthermore, as has always been the case, we listen to lots of different kinds of music, and let ourselves be inspired by all that moves us; we had been listening to a lot of trance and goa in the last few years, and some of the influence clearly found its way into our work, hence the manifestation of which you speak. However, as Monica said, we've been using elements of electronic music since the early days...

Relic Song is perhaps my favourite song and I must admit I smiled while listening to it. "Corporate 'punk' stars manufactured screaming Miming our lyrics stripped of all their meaning" mirrors in a clear way your opinion towards the so-called 'new generation'. You contributed to origin the contemporary gothic scene, how do you feel towards the death rock phenomenon, which is standardized by now?

Monica: That seems to be a European thing, it doesn't hit us the way it seems to in Europe. There are revivals everywhere, they spring up and go back down, such as Rockabilly, New Wave, Disco, it all moves along... I see it as fleeting. I have no anger towards Underground revivals; Death Rock bands have not hit the corporate media. You do not see Death Rockers on MTV, buying big houses, and hanging out with the Hilton sisters, but you do with the "New" punk bands. My anger stems towards these bands signed to major labels and living the Suburban American Dream, something real punks would never have done.
Meanwhile, we are good friends with original death rockers, like Dinah Cancer from Penis Fly Trap. She was a death rocker back in '81 - and she never changed. I'm glad the scene may recognize her again.

William: Ah, the deathrock thing. It IS a revival, and there's no future in revivals. I was already there when it happened the first time, y'know?

"When I was a child I knew I'd never die like an unknown God was watching through my eyes." How much is it important for you to know you've been the spokesmen of an entire movement, to know that through your music many people are able to utter their feelings?

Monica: Wow, I thank you for that. One of my closest friends is kaRIN from Collide, and after she listened to our new album, she told me I spoke so much truth, it hurt to hear it. That for me, is the ultimate path of the artist, and what it all means to have the ability to express the many emotions we all have in life, that is pretty much why I feel I'm here.

How did you chose a title such as "The Burning Season", and why does this period of your life is 'burning'?

William: It stemmed from a desire to burn down all preconceived notions of who we were; to destroy all definitions – even our own – and start over.

Monica: The Burning Season is also something real that we live through in our area of the world - in Los Angeles the dry Summers cause full fires to come and burn down forests (I'm sure you watched the news just in October while we were on tour!). Eventually with rain, new growth can overtake the charred ruins. It means that much to us: the need to make way for new growth. The world had changed so drastically in the last few years, and we felt the need for growth, for healing, for strength, for fire - in ourselves to keep our hearts renewed, and to remind people what is truly important in life. With the new album, we really expanded our horizons and we want to share this inspiration: to do whatever you wish in life, to reach for your dreams, and do what you want no matter what others tell you.

You're incredibly appreciated by the European scene. According to your experience, how much does the European public change from the American one?

Monica: It's exactly that - they appreciate us, most likely because they know we come a long way to perform for them! They have taken artists more seriously for a great deal longer, though America seems to be changing towards a bit more acceptance to an artist's personal expression.

William: Europeans are generally more open-minded, better educated, a little more worldly.

You've just recorded your album, but have you got any other projects for the future? Are you going to follow this progressive development?

Monica: We're working on our DVD for next year, which will have videos and live footage, interviews, all sorts of things. After that, I may do a tribal/spoken word album based around my poetry and female deities. And stay tuned for the next part of our journey as Faith and the Muse!