Michael C. Hall Gets Playful With Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum Bandmates in 'Tomorrow's Screams' Video

By Tania Hussain

Ahead of their European headline tour this fall, avant-indie supergroup Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum has released the official music video for the single "Tomorrow's Screams" off their debut album, Thanks for Coming. The New York-based trio led by versatile lyricist and vocalist Michael C. Hall with renowned instrumentalists Peter Yanowitz and Matt Katz-Bohen are about to head out on a 16-city tour across the United Kingdom, Ireland, Germany and Ukraine. But before they do, they are dropping a trippy treat for fans with the inventive music video.

In a press release for the band, Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum's newest music video illuminating their ambient electronica and alt-rock track finds the three trapped in a mental maze of clashing feelings as they move through prosaic acts that the camera exposes as some rather enthralling moments. Directed by Lexie Moreland, Hall, Yanowitz and Katz-Bohen are each occupied in their own world and slowly begin to move toward a collective, which is somewhat more settled with a sense of calm, comfort and togetherness. Moreland reveals the vision for the track filled with smooth, stripped-down synthesizers, drums and delicate vocals came to her after listening to the song on loop for hours until she fell asleep, letting her "subconscious work it out, jotting down feelings, impressions and visuals as they come."

"The toothpaste and silly string moments were ones that occurred to me in that way, via a kind of dream state, and I felt they would work with my vision of each of the guys being on a solo, as well as a collective, journey," Moreland said in the press release. "Then the apple became the unifying symbol, an image that would connect an overall feeling of disconnection, which is really the emotional tone that I felt being communicated by the song. I chose the apple because it's visually lovely, and it's also an homage to Magritte's famous self-portrait 'The Son of Man.' I like that as a somewhat subliminal reference since the song, like all songs, is also, of course, a self-portrait."

Dabbling with eclectic sounds reminiscent of moody, old school art-rock and proto-electro punk like Joy Division or David Bowie circa the Berlin period, the three with their very diverse backgrounds in music amplify the indie scene with their refreshingly unique and energetic identity. With a spirit from the lively, glam '70s bands utilizing imaginative synthesizers with forceful percussions and falsetto vocals, Hall told American Songwriter he hopes listeners and fans will go for a ride with Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum's 14-track debut, Thanks for Coming. "We would hope people [would] sort of take a ride and go to all these different imaginative places; [have] an experience that feels like it's facilitated only by listening to the record," he said of the collection that veers more toward The Twilight Zone than a whimsical journey as the band's name could assumingly allude to. "Like it takes you to a place that you discover for having listened to it—a place you didn't quite know about until you took the ride."

More interesting than the average band, Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum's song structure is an indescribable journey that plays well to mood and novel existentialism. Yanowitz tells the magazine that their take on music is one outside usual musical convention, while artfully mindful of tech sounds. "[The music] just feels unique to this project. It's like chasing a lead; it's got its own buzz," he said. "We're not [sticking] to the traditional song structure, and that's actually incredibly liberating." 

Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum, with all its experimental, stripped-down glam, electro-music is made up of multitalented artist Michael C. Hall, best known for his role on Showtime's Dexter as the band's lead vocalist and lyricist; drummer Peter Yanowitz from The Wallflowers and Morningwood, and keyboardist Matt Katz-Bohen of Blondie. Having met several years ago during the Broadway production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch where Hall starred in the lead role, the three have since released a self-titled EP in 2020, but Thanks for Coming is their first full offering for fans.

Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum will play one live show in New York just before Thanksgiving. Hitting up The Sultan Room in Bushwick, New York on Wednesday, Nov. 24, the band will play the sole show in their home city before heading out to the United Kingdom. For more information and how you can see them live, click here for tickets and dates. For more on the band, head to their official site for music, merchandise and lots more!

Princess Goes To The Butterfly Museum Fall European Tour Dates

  • Nov. 27 – Bristol, UK – Thekla
  • Nov. 28 – Nottingham, UK – Rescue Rooms
  • Nov. 29 – Manchester, UK – Night & Day *SOLD OUT*
  • Nov. 30 – London, UK – Bush Hall
  • Dec. 2 – Bedford, UK – Esquires
  • Dec. 3 – Birmingham, UK – The Castle & Falcon
  • Dec. 4 – Swansea, UK – Sin City
  • Dec. 5 – Glasgow, UK – Mono
  • Dec. 7 – Belfast, UK – Ulster Sports Club
  • Dec. 8 – Dublin, IE – The Workman's Club
  • Dec. 9 – Liverpool, UK – 24 Kitchen Street
  • Dec. 11 – Kyiv, UKR – Beletage
  • Dec. 13 – Hamburg, GER – Knust
  • Dec. 14 – Berlin, GER – Hole 44
  • Dec. 15 – Munich, GER – Backstage Halle
  • Dec. 16 – Cologne, GER – Kantine
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