Flamboyant American rockers Princess Goes To The Butterfly Museum, whose tour hits Swansea this weekend, are notable being fronted by Michael C. Hall – TV’s Dexter! But they come as a trio, as Carl Marsh found out.
Peter and Matt, how does it feel having Michael leading this band? You guys have been musicians for ages – Matt is also Blondie’s keyboardist, Peter was in The Wallflowers among other groups – whereas beforehand, Michael was just an actor…
Peter Yanowitz [drums]: Well, he’s very handsome.
He is!
Peter: He smells good. No, we’re blessed to have him in our lives. He’s weird and fun and creative. Matt and I were working on some instrumentals and Mike rode the subway over one day and wrote some lyrics on the spot! It just was like, oh shit, I didn’t know you also fucking write… This band is a cool playground for him to just flex and have fun.
Matt Katz-Bohen [guitar/keyboards]: His creativity and his lyrics sort of made the band larger than the sum of its parts. Many people seem to have been like, “what the hell was that?” That was weird and really cool and strange.
“Part of the fun of listening to music is imagining yourself in the band. So I’m living a dream”
Michael C. Hall
And how do you answer that, Mike?
Michael C Hall [vocals]: I don’t know! This has been one of the biggest blessings – serendipitous magical developments – in my career. My life! I think I speak for all of us when I say this band is something that happened to all of us as much as we got together and made a decision we were going to make something. We decided to keep showing up and take responsibility for whatever was emerging. I’m glad the fact that I’m a skin puppet by day didn’t disqualify me from a chance to collaborate with these guys.
Wasn’t it Hedwig And The Angry Inch on Broadway that brought you all together?
Michael: Yeah, I played Hedwig; Peter was a drummer in the band. Matt was around. Then Matt and Peter went on tour with Hedwig and reacquainted, then started making music and both came back to New York. And I wedged my way in there.
Peter: I got the chance to be in a band – a fake band! – with Mike. We were like, we should hang out when we get back to New York, which is what you say after every show – but we actually did.
How does the songwriting process work for this band? Because you must be moving all over the country. Do you just get together in New York and do the songwriting?
Matt: Technology is wonderful, so Mike is able to record vocals on his phone and then send them around. I can throw in some keyboards or guitar, or bang on a table or something, and add that. And then Peter is able to work his magic into it as well. But a lot of the time, we are in the same room together! It’s a process of flow we try not to place any limits on.
On the latest Princess Goes To The Butterfly Museum album, Thanks For Coming, I can hear the likes of Bowie in there. Did you all realise you had similar musical interests straight away or was it a case of over weeks of drinks?
Michael: I think it revealed itself as we started to put things together. I think there’s a place where all of our sensibilities and influences intersect – a pretty big space – but we’ve never really sat down and talked explicitly about our influences, or how we want to sound or anything like that.
Did you think you wanted to do a band like this before, or is the time just right now?
Michael: I sang from the time I was the first soprano in the boys’ choir, I just started to focus on acting in college and that’s where things took me. I was never kicking myself for not having embarked on a career as a singer in a band. But when you hear music, part of the fun of listening to it is imagining yourself in the band. So in that sense, I’m living a dream.
Princess Goes To The Butterfly Museum play Sin City, Swansea on Sat 4 Dec. Tickets: £20. Info: here
words CARL MARSH
