The duo of William Faith and Monica Richards has been creating a sense of rapture on both sides of the Atlantic with their world-infused, ethereal rock for more than a decade. Faith and the Muse has always been a band to challenge their own musicla vision, which has kept them exciting, while helping them attract scores of devoted fans across the globe. Watch for them on their festival tour of Europe as well as some hand-picked shows in the States this fall.

Evidence came out almost 4 years ago. Did The Burning Season actually take four years to complete?

William: No, not hardly. In the interim, I did a lot of production work for other bands, and I spent some time working on myself as a person -- a bit of personal space that was needed in order for us to arrive at this present state of mind/being; we had to live a little; life had to show us a few things, and a few pages had to turn for us personally before we would have anything new, different and challenging to say, creatively.

Monica: We had some exploring to do as artists before we began writing The Burning Season, not to mention the world very much changed within that period. I think our new album is a reaction first to freeing ourselves from others' expectations, as well as to the state of things overall, the strange new conformity that is on the horizon, the desperate need for technology, the lack of tools for dealing with basic human emotions as the world races on.

Did you approach the recording of The Burning Season differently from any of the other FATM releases?

Monica: Definitely! The Burning Season comes from every style and type of music we've worked with, our earlier influences as well, even back to our hardcore punk beginnings. We have come to a place where we are open to whatever is in our hearts, and that includes any and all expression. We experimented with organic and electronic sounds, as well trance and tribal rhythms, our early punk roots and orchestral atmospheres. We have had so much more drive and enthusiasm for The Burning Season than any album before. We've always had the full spectrum of musical interest, but I think now it is more a question of simply being an Artist, not a Dark Artist or Goth Artist.

William: It also stemmed from a desire to burn down all preconceived notions of who we were; to destroy all definitions – even our own – and start over. We reached the end of a cycle with Evidence of Heaven, and Vera Causa was very much a closing of the book on that era. The Burning Season is the end of something old; the birth of something new.

Your latest CD goes back to your roots, so to speak, with some of the punk leanings of your early musical careers coming to the surface, along with some jazz and cabaret influences. What promoted this subtle transition to earlier ways?

Monica: By giving ourselves permission to write and express any music we wish, we have opened all boundaries and allowed any and all types of music to be at our fingertips. It's all still very much in our style of theatrical expression, though different in mood and approach. "Gone to Ground" - I actually LOVE this age of music, it was one of my favorites growing up. We set this as a true torch song to a classic 1940's jazz piece, with true instrumentation, framed by the sounds of a forgotten smokey club atmosphere. If you listen really hard, you can hear people talking, clinking glasses, as if the people there do not care about the band or the singer. The lyrics deal with severe depression, and I wanted to capture that wretched pain you may hear in the songs of Billie Holiday. As far as songs like "Relic Song" - this one comes directly from our punk rock roots - our answer to the "NüPunk" scene that's recently emerged, and we're laughing about it. I think we can speak for other punks from our generation. To be a punk in the early 80's - it was a new experience that cannot be relived, only those who were there know. It was a strange new time then, and we looked like nothing anyone had seen before, and we were free to express ourselves however we wanted. I will let you know some of the lyrics at the end: "Black hair, blue hair, pink hair, white hair and boots!"

William: A lot of people are calling this a "roots revival" for us, saying that we're going back to our beginnings, etc., but it's really just where we're at right now. All we did was remove the "genre" aspect from our work; we just allowed ourselves to create whatever we wanted -- no idea was thrown out simply because it didn't fit this or that lifestyle category. We wanted to shake everything up a bit -- rattle the cage and see what happens. The effect may be subtle, but it came from a fairly radical state of mind.

Monica was recently featured in the book "Dance of Days", a non-fictional account of the early punk days in DC. Time becomes its own editor, how accurately would you say the book recounts those times?

Monica: Imagine going to a party with all your friends, and then twenty years later reading in a book about the Historical Party where the Important Young People came and did very Important Things. In your eyes, you remember this person got drunk, that person was being rude, so-and-so cut her hair all wrong - it was just another evening, but from the writer's view, there's much more significance when viewed in relation to historical episodes in counter-cultures. I think the book reads well to people who weren't there and want to know about that time, but it's hard to remember it any other way than from the way I do: from my own memory, I was just trying to find myself, be something different, be my own unique personality... I do hope that someone plans to release a book on this era from the female perspective; I was one of two girls fronting bands at that time, not only dealing with society's idea of what I should be wearing and doing as a girl, but also fighting the male-dominated teenaged punk scene's view of girls.

Music continues to change year by year, how does Faith and the Muse see their music today compared with yesterday?

William: Change is always welcome in our world; it’s the only constant, thus it is wise to make an ally of change. Artists or people who do not embrace change become relics in their own time; the road to self-parody being a short one. We remain proud of our older work, as it has brought us to this time and place, documenting each step in the journey.

Monica: We've always had the full spectrum of musical interest, but I think now it is more a question of simply being an Artist, not a Dark Artist or Goth Artist. Each album we've done speaks for where we were at that time, and it's exactly the same for this one.

Faith and the Muse has been touring Europe more than the States in recent years. I see that you'll be going back there for a tour and to do festivals in the fall. Why is that?

William: That is not driven by intent -- merely interest and economy. It's no secret that we are more popular in Europe than we are here in our home country; mind you, we do quite well stateside, but there is a larger demand for us overseas, and thus touring is much more manageable. We usually lose money on our stateside tours, as there is so much ground to cover -- whereas Germany is the size of Texas, and you can do 10 different shows there. That said, we do plan to put more time into the U.S. this round -- we haven't forgotten our fans here at home.

You have recently played the Leipzig festival in Germany, how was that experience this time around?

Monica: As we get older, we're much more appreciative of where we've been and where we are - and our enthusiasm definitely showed. We seemed to be seen as "changed" and "aggressive" on stage, but we were simply letting ourselves breathe again. I was incredibly happy to be back up on stage, and that was evident to the audience.

This year Faith and the Muse was asked to play SXSW for the first time, did you enjoy playing Austin for the event?

Monica: The SXSW was itself an eye-opening experience on what's happening in music. To walk down the street and hear band after band performing in every club - all sorts of new, but Retro style music exploding from all around the globe! We were actually there because I part of the "Rawk Show" - the Women In Rock art show that ran in conjunction with the SXSW convention that featured my artwork, as well as pieces from Nina Hagen, Exene Cervenka and members of L7 and Hole, and more. Our performance was just acoustic, a simple, fun evening - we met some great folks there, had a blast overall.

What other bands are Faith and the Muse listening to at the moment?

William: More recent stuff would include Placebo, Curve, Bowie, Massive Attack, Juno Reactor, The Damned, Peter Gabriel...

What is next for the band?

William: Beyond the 6-week European tour we've got lined-up for September/October, we've got a DVD in the works; we've been compiling tapes from our live gigs all over North America and Europe, and are shooting videos for some of the new material as well; we're also compiling some pieces from our individual pasts, as well as interview footage and miscellaneous odd bits. It's been quite a task thus far, and we have yet to edit it all down... it should be something quite grand once we're finished though. We hope to release it early next year.