Michael C. Hall's band Princess Goes brings big synth sounds to District Live

When Golden Globe award-winning actor Michael C. Hall starred in the Broadway glam rock musical, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, followed by essentially portraying David Bowie in the musical Lazurus, he found a way to convert the experiences into becoming a full-fledged rock star in real life. Fortunately, his portrayal of a serial killer in the popular television series, Dexter, didn’t have the same effect.

Princess Goes (shortened from Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum) is a synth rock trio consisting of Hall on vocals, Peter Yanowitz on drums, and Matt Katz-Bohen on keyboards. The band's sophomore album, Come of Age, was released in October, and they are embarking on a US tour with a stop at District Live on Dec. 9.

Musical theater background gave Michael C. Hall confidence to front band

In 2018, Hall met Yanowitz while working on Hedwig. Yanowitz was the founding drummer of The Wallflowers, helped launch former 10,000 Maniacs singer Natalie Merchant’s solo career, and co-founded the alternative rock band Morningwood. Then when Hedwig closed on Broadway and went on the road, Yanowitz befriended keyboardist Katz-Bohen, a veteran musician who has been a member of New Wave icons Blondie since 2008.

“We got back to New York and started making music,” recalled Yanowitz of returning from the Hedwig tour. “One night after we had dinner, Mike [Hall] came over to the studio and heard some of the tracks. He noticed they were all instrumental, and casually offered to sing over some of the songs. Within a week or so he was in the studio, and we came up with ‘Love America Style’ and ‘Vicious,’ two songs from our EP.

“It was just that effortless. It just came out, and we were like, ‘What the hell is this?’ We kept doing it for a while without thinking about anything other than having some fun, being creative, and producing a dozen songs. We were like, ‘Whoa, this is definitely something beyond us, so maybe we should play a show or come up with a name.’ That’s when it occurred to us that maybe this is a band.”

Years of musical theater experience gave Hall the confidence to transition from actor to front man, a career change that probably surprised many of his Dexter and Six Feet Under fans.

“The trajectory that started with doing Hedwig and getting a feel for fronting a band, along with everything else that went into doing that, it was really that show that led to me being invited to do the Bowie musical,” explained Hall. “The experience of fronting a band and the experience of executing a dearly held part of David Bowie’s final flourish of creativity, I think those things emboldened me in a way that I wouldn’t have otherwise been emboldened enough to feel like I had any business just simply saying, when I heard those instrumental tracks, to Peter, ‘Hey, do you want somebody to try singing on these?’ which is what got the ball rolling. I think whatever turn that was in my ‘career’ led to this, for sure.”

From Hall’s perspective the experience of embodying a character in a play or television show doesn’t differ that much performing in a rock band. Hall is a charismatic performer with a dynamic, arresting voice reminiscent of David Bowie, but ultimately all his own.

“All you have to bring to anything you do is yourself,” said Hall. “If I’m playing a character, I’m not insane; I don’t completely lose my sense of what is actually happening. I think the three of us probably have some sort of character that emerges. That’s a part of playing live.

“I am just as much myself as ever. Once you’re on the stage the material is the material, the material that is moving through you, whether it is somebody else’s words or a song that you wrote with other people. By that point, you’re just hoping you can get out of the way enough that it can just move through.”

New album recalls big synth sounds of New Wave and early '80s

Princess Goes’ new album, Come of Age, was recorded in Yanowitz’s Manhattan ‘clubhouse,’ a 10^th-floor residential apartment above Union Square. The trio call it Siren Studio because street noise always carries up to the apartment and subtlety finds its way into the recordings.

“If I solo out Mike’s vocals there’s almost always a siren on every song buried somewhere in there,” said Yanowitz.

Come of Age is a massive sounding record that draws from the electronic pulse of '80s synth pop like Depeche Mode and Eurythmics, as well as the infectious arena filling dance beats of modern electronic groups like Justice and Future Islands. There are also goth and psychedelic elements that Katz-Bohen took away from his experience playing bass on tour with Genesis P-Orridge’s Psychic TV.

“I think we were just working so hard not trying to think about things too much,” Yanowitz said of producing the new album. “That’s been the ethos of our writing from the beginning. We’ve been a band now for five years, so I think we were more confident knowing what would make a great second full-length. We went with our gut and started writing really big, anthemic songs at the beginning of this writing process. Once you have a few of those you’re just striving for big songs. It’s a horrible mindset to get into as a writer, because there is no way we can sustain this, but somehow, we pulled off something that I hadn’t been able to do on any record that I’ve made—not have any filler on it.”

Lyrically, Come of Age is full of post-pandemic angst about our increasingly strange and declining world. The song, “Jetpack,” for example, examines how different our future looks now compared to how we envisioned it when we were young. “Swapped our blood for metal/ We were waiting for the mechanism/ We were waiting for the flying car/ We were promised on TV. Blinking back the signal/ Our reflections pulled a fast one/ Hearts switched out/ For batteries”

“I think there is a general preoccupation with the fact that we’re all ensnared in this increasingly pervasive machine, and how to wrestle with at, work around it, hold on to some sense of human vitality,” said Hall. “That seems to be something that works its way into a lot of the lyrics.”

Although Hall, Yanowitz, and Katz-Bohen have other projects—music, television, or otherwise—Princess Goes is a band that holds a special place for them.

“It feels like society pushes older musicians out onto the wings, and sure enough, you always want to make room for the new, but to have a band fall in our laps at this point in our lives for all three of us has been such a blessing,” said Yanowitz. “To stay creative and engaged and have two writing partners and collaborators like Mike and Matt seems like such a weird gift from the universe, especially in the last five years where the Earth feels like it’s spinning off its axis. It will be one band I treasure no matter long we last or how many records we make. Every time we get to make a new song is like a rebirth of that initial spark that brought us together.”

As far as their growing fanbase, Princess Goes has a special fan that any band would die for.

“Debbie [Harry of Blondie] is a big Princess fan and she’s driven us around in her Jeep and helped us lug the gear in and out of the clubs, as well,” said Katz-Bohen. “Sometimes it’s a little embarrassing because people are like, ‘Why are you making this beautiful woman lug your stuff around?’ She insists.”

If You Go >>

What: Princess Goes w/Turbo Goth

When: 8 p.m., Dec. 9

Where: District Live, 400 W. River St.

Cost: $30-35

Info: plantriverside.com/district-live/

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Michael C. Hall's Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum at District Live