The Violet Dawning is comprised of myself [Christiane Knight] and Tank Talbott, and we have been playing together since the summer of 1998. I am the vocalist, and Tank handles all the keyboards, programming, and such. We reside in Charlottesville, Virginia ... I am originally from Baltimore, MD, and moved here about 10 years ago. Tank has lived in various places in VA and a short while in Savannah GA also. Charlottesville is an awesome place to start a goth band, though, so we're glad we are here. There's a really strong scene here.

The words "violet dawning" to me conjure up that quiet time, right before sunrise, when the sky is full of the promise of the imminent day... it is that time where you are possibly the only person around who is awake, and the world belongs to you at that moment. Some of the best times of my life occurred right before daybreak... to me it symbolizes wonder, possibilities, and a faerytale sort of magic.  I would love to think that our music expresses that, as well.

That's it exactly though - the feeling of making it through the entire night, to get the reward of the purply skies and a feeling of expectancy shot with the wired feeling you get when you stay awake all night - the irony is that so much of my writing comes from dreams, heh.  I haven't stayed up all night in a while. I should do it again :)

Tank and I have several ways of writing a song. Usually he will have a melody in mind, and when he plays the bare bones of it, I will pick up on his mood and start conjuring the words that match the music. Occasionally, I will already have something written, and when I show him the words or sing a snippet of what I hear in my head of how it should go, he will take off from there... then he and I will polish the song together. There have been one or two songs - Sound and Fury in particular - that happened pretty much simultaneously on both our parts. For that song, Tank was in one room writing a melody, and I was in another writing the Macbeth-influenced lyrics. I walked into the room where he was, and we just put the two together, and it was perfect. Fall From Grace is the only song that Tank has written the lyrics for; everything else has found words through me.

I am heavily inspired by Dead Can Dance, Faith and the Muse, Siddal, and a lot of Early music and traditional folk. [Ironically, the Dead Can Dance song that we've been covering recently is a Brendan Perry centered one, not a Lisa Gerrard one, In Power We Entrust The Love Advocated. We make it much perkier and upbeat than the original!] I try to hold my musical idols close for inspiration rather than direct influence, simply because I don't want to end up sounding just like them, you know? Traditional music has given me a lot of lyrical inspiration - bands like Fairport Convention and Steeleye Span have been long time favorites of both Tank and myself. Tank has also been known to bring a wide variety of synth-based music to me to listen to how different keyboardists approach their music. He listens to a lot of 80's music, everything from Devo to Lisa Lisa and Cult Jam. Seriously. That's where he gets his love of deep, heavy bass - which we are known for at live shows. *grin*

You and Tank would probably get along famously. He loves total pop music, especially 80's pop... look through his CDs and you'll see everything from techno, Celtic and goth/industrial to comps with bands like Nucleus and Miami Sound Machine. He's a total pop junkie. It helps us write catchy songs, I hope *grin*

Absolutely. The Internet is an incredible tool for us, and we use it as much as possible. We're lucky enough to be from a town with a decent scene and fan base, but with the exposure we have gotten from being on websites like perkigoth.com and mp3.com, we have gone further in 2 years than could ever have been possible just a few years ago. There are people in Russia who know who we are... to me, that are just incredible. We are completely supportive of people trading mp3s of our songs - hey, if someone likes what we are doing enough to give our song to a friend, we want them to be able to do it guilt free!

Well, here's the catch. I totally support *US* giving away free music... we can afford to do that, we're not in this to make a living. But in reality, bootlegging is bootlegging, be it via burned CDs or Napster-traded mp3s. If the artist isn't offering it for free, we should respect that. Royalties are paid when someone performs a play, or airs a movie... why shouldn't musicians get the same benefit for their art? I don't think there's really any argument that can be given that makes it okay to steal someone's work [steal implying that the artist says they don't want it reproduced, of course]

There's nothing firm scheduled for the immediate future, but once we get our upcoming CD out, we will *definitely* be touring. Look for us to hit the East Coast and perhaps as far as Chicago... locally, we play quite often here in the VA area, and list all our dates on our webpage.

I actually don't watch TV - I never have time! When I was watching it a bit, Farscape was a favorite, and The History Channel. I do go to the movies quite a lot; I'm a sci-fi and fantasy junkie. Anything with lots of period costumes always appeals. Tank just plays video games and watches history documentaries. :)