What are you working with for the new album, and what might we expect from it?

Monica: Our next album is a live acoustic CD. We'll be inviting friends and family to our studios for that, and we'll be playing everything from "Heal" and "Vervain" to "Importune Me No More" and "Boudiccea". Hopefully we'll release it by the end of this year. We also have a DVD in the works, with a live show in its entirety filmed in Santiago, Chile, as well as unreleased video footage from 1994 - 2004. Also, I am currently working on a solo project: InfraWarrior, which is total tribal music, with primal drums and orchestral elements -- like our songs 'Cantus', 'The Burning Season', and 'Arianrhod'... It's really powerful goddess, evocative music, but it may fit into a harder edge of the New Age scene, as well as the Punk and Dark/Alternative scene.

Your music has a deeply magical quality. What are your thoughts about the idea of music as a magical act?

Monica: Music, poetry, and art were all a means of magic in the beginning. With the discovery of a 50,000 year old Neanderthal bone flute, it's clear that music most likely started through imitation of animal sounds - almost all original song was for attracting the opposite sex and for display of strength, virility, and power, and later, as a means of tribal magic for a good hunt, a strong crop, and to evoke ancestors in song - a means of memorization of tribe history. To have the gift to create music, one finds the talent was seen as sacred by those who didn't have it - really great music touches a primal place deep within... It can indeed be magical.

Do you have any magical intentions when you record or perform? And what sorts of things do you do to prepare for either activity?

Monica: It is merely a connection beyond words - more than anything a sense of understanding, healing the spirit, calming the beast as it were. I speak the truth from my own heart, and people can feel that. We live and breathe it all - for stage, I enjoy the larger-than-life aspect, the transformation with theatrical costume...

William: There is no intent beyond our own personal catharsis and the wordless connection that occurs between ourselves and those in the audience that Monica spoke of; this is something beyond definition.

You're both quite openly Pagan. Aside from the obvious romance and passion it evokes, what does that Paganism mean to you?

Monica: Living in balance with Nature does not simply involve costume, amulet, and dagger/chalice ritual, and I see many self-styled Pagans who will play with the glamorous aspect of it all, and then go eat at McDonalds... The fact is, we are not "Hunters and Gatherers" anymore, we are not tribes that starve for days and need to hunt for our food, we have the luxury to have choose in life. My beliefs and understandings go to the source, through ancestral ideals, the truths found in Nature, and what is and what is not Natural Law. And in this Modern Age, one's actions must truly go hand-in-hand with one's philosophy. This planet is aching under the strain of billions of humans, and now is the time for each of us to really think about our personal actions. William and I are Vegan, we plant trees, we rescue animals - but it goes much deeper than that. If the Goddess emerged to walk the earth, she'd want us all to be more active in true connections with Nature... There are many destructive things going on, and through your actions and positive energy, you can help change things for the better. Take the time to research those companies that test on animals, that have factory farms, that destroy rain forests and pollute landscapes - and do your best to not give them your money, as that is the root of their power. Don't buy fur, don't buy new leather - these are not "Pagan" things to wear, they come from multi-million dollar industries where animals are tortured in their short-lived existence. Support grass roots artists and manufacturers who are trying to work towards a better world. This isn't silly "Hippie" talk, you'd be surprised how many punks, counter-culture hipsters, artists and 'normal' people, as well as Pagans, are waking up. We will be starting a Farm Animal Sanctuary in the next few years to save animals from the hell of factory farming - for us, that's what it's all about now.

William: The "pagan" tag is one that has been placed on us -- we do not choose to be so easily defined.

One of my favorite moments in Annwyn is when Cernunnos declares his disgust with the modern human race. His final "Bless-Ed Be!" sounds more like "Fuck you all!" William, what were you working through with that one?

William: This song was a response to the state of the world and man's hand in its steady decline; it is a slightly different expression of the same idea that is behind "The Hand Of Man" (the song immediately after "Cernunnos" on Annwyn...) Since the Industrial Revolution we have been annihilating the earth and each other at an ever-increasing pace, and I used the model of the Old God returning, after aeons of slumber, to the surface; seeing what we've done to the planet, he is infuriated, disgusted, just devastated. I think your assessment of the "Blessed Be" line is not entirely off base; it's more of a washing of hands, really.

Where do you see things going with the current rivival of militant fundamentalism?

Monica: I was a punk during the Reagan administration, and it's best not to give energy towards this current cycle of rehashed "End Times" bunk. All this newfound "Faith" is serious fallout from 9/11, and those in power are using this for their own corporate greed and to keep the 'little people' in fear and believing their propaganda blindly. My Christian friends are pretty pissed off about it. The true message of Christ was to love one another, to care for the earth they inherited, to accept and treat others as you would have them treat you, and to help those in need - we don't see this evident in those self-righteous 'moral' politicians and fundamentalist leaders who use Christianity to promote hatred, intolerance, and the condemnation of those who don't agree with them... In truth, their words mean nothing; Yellowstone has enough Armageddon power alone! The wheel will turn again, but while we wait, all sorts of amazing art, music, and poetry is being created, and the Underground is always a great place to be!

William: As Monica has pointed out, it's all reactionary, and cyclical in nature, but this does not make it any less dangerous. We've hit a point now where it is increasingly difficult to tell religious leaders apart from political leaders; the line between church and state has never been more blurred, and it is clearly the goal of the christian right to erase it entirely -- and I don't see much if any resistance coming from the government. A wholesale rejection of church and state in theory and practice is in order, as it all rides on our backs to begin with.

Do you have any advice or wishes to pass on to your Pagans - or young folks in general?

Monica: Live your life the best way possible, with love and respect for all creatures and peoples. Follow your dreams, no matter what those around you say, and by all means, be true to yourself!
William: Dream irresponsibly. Live dangerously. Color outside the lines. Create your own world.