Princess Goes' Michael C. Hall, Peter Yanowitz & Matt Katz-Bohen On "Come Of Age," Touring & More
[Music] about true cash now with their Bell draw Blitz get ready to listen to your favorite art artists [Music] Michael Peter Matt a pleasure to be speaking with all three of you we'll throw the first one at Peter we'll say how did this band come together because it's three people who have a lot of credits who are very busy and it's not every day that you have a band with three people who have a lot going on oh first of all thanks for having us um yeah we came together it was one of those weird accidents in the universe we we uh we're all a part of the Hedwig show on Broadway uh which a friend of ours wrote and uh Mike and I got to be in the band together um as drummer and singer in this fictional band and we have we're having a good time and we became friends and we shared a lot of rides back home back downtown from the theater and listened to a lot of music that we love Bob Dylan and and heavier stuff and we just maintained our friendship and Matt and I Matt was also part of the production and we went on the headweek tour together and we had such a good time just hanging out all over the country we got back to New York we started making music instrumental music and just for fun we were just having a good time and uh we really enjoyed hanging out and one night Mike heard a few of the jams we've been playing and he noticed we didn't have any vocals and just casually was like Hey if you guys ever need vocals on this and we were like yeah and he uh showed up and started singing on our jams and there was no even in the beginning there was no thought of what we were doing or what it was heading towards but we just kept doing that and and getting great results and that's kind of we were paying attention and we just were like holy [ __ ] there's something here and we just kept doing it and doing it and that's been going on now for about five years I mean it kind of happened to us more than we happened to it you know right now Michael the first question I have is I've I've just heard you called Mike a few times is it a graduation level that once you get to know Michael C Hall you become Mike to them um there's no formal ceremony and uh I never take issue with anybody calling me Mike even if it's right away it's sort of a dealer's choice but yeah you know my mom called me my mic called me Mike these guys call me Mike you can call me Mike okay well Mike as a follow-up to what I was just hearing from Peter among your credits was Lazarus which was famously Bowie's last situation his last major production I got to know Henry hay a bit who worked on that as well now did you have to hide all these years that you were a singer musician because obviously when you take the subway in New York City for years and years we just saw your face but we didn't know hey that guy is a singer um I mean I wasn't actively hiding it I just uh I I mean my first my first like big gig as an actor was uh playing the MC and Cabaret on Broadway and so you know I did use the singing uh as an actor in musicals and stuff like that but yeah as far as as far as a singing in a band or in anything in that Universe it just never kind of went that way um I think the first really legitimate band that I ever got in front was the band and Hedwig which um gave me a sense of what that felt like and uh sort of was like a boot camp in doing that um every night for for several months and um but yeah I mean it's something I I've always I've always uh I mean I've taken breaks from it but I've always done a good amount of singing um I just never uh never did it in this context you know and and and you know because I'm not really uh an instrumentalist or whatever I mean there are plenty of people who front bands who don't play an instrument but I just never I'd never uh thought it was in the cards you know I mean I I guess I or but it was in the cards it just didn't get dealt until later right well Matt not to leave you out of this uh your credits also oppressive because besides Hedwig besides princess goes they include Blondie Cindy Lauper Etc now are you primarily a keyboardist or did you default become the keyboardist um yeah I would say it felt like a default but now I'm not sure I just sort of exist in another regions really wherever those are um I started on keyboard and then uh I was like man I want to rock I want to play guitar man wow and um and then I gradually came back to keyboard and that's but you know I played bass and Princess a lot and guitar and guitar you know Peter was like just pick up that basement it's so it's so fun it was great when you said that you wanted to rock now where did that start because I find that if you're let's say you're over the age of 40 like myself it was Van Halen and kiss and then if you were under 40 but 32 to 40 was probably Nirvana and then 32 to this is Green Day where does the rocking start for you right exactly I I'm sort of in between I was like um you know the hair metal like head bangers ball MTV you know poison Guns and Roses Metallica all that stuff I saw Billy Idol last night in Brooklyn and that guy rocks yeah Steve Stevens on Victoria wow Steve Schneider on guitar Schneider exactly Steve Stevens Schneider yeah when when you're Jewish you're growing up um oh man I wish I were cool like these people and then you realize that everybody's secretly Jewish in hair metal but that's not the point uh the point is that your musical influences have that rock end but then also when we watch the videos of Princess go I hear coincidentally I'm wearing a Peter hook shirt not planned but I hear more of a new order kind of influence does that come more from Mike I don't know yeah we all we all have that love of that Manchester scene and um you know but that's cool that you hear that you know you're saying on the new videos that you've seen or just in general like between blur and really all the videos I hear a it's the kind of thing where I don't consider New Order dance music I consider it well produced layered poppy yet meaningful stuff that can be on in the background yet you can hear all the meaning in that if that description kind of makes any sense but I do hear the Manchester sound uh so that is also an influence besides hair metal absolutely yeah I think you know coming up in the late 90s in New York in the early 2000s there was the massive Resurgence of the Manchester South with Joy Division and yeah yeah DJing Joy Division and New Order clothes people would be dancing to those songs so I think that also affected certainly my my DNA I mean um because yeah like you said growing up listening to Joy Division is one thing but then going to a club and people are actually dancing to and it's like oh this is really you know this music inspired me to my life sure now throwing it back to Mike here looking at the upcoming tour dates there's a gig in Brooklyn next week then there's Manchester which we were just talking about in Germany the Netherlands and Belgium when did you realize hey I don't want this to just be a studio project but I want to take this on the road with Francisco's I mean it's it's like Peter's dead I mean I think we just keep showing up and and and hopefully uh people show up where we show up you know it's like we we played that first gig because we we found that we'd written some songs and um wanted to share them Beyond just that room that Peter and matter in and um yeah we've we've found people to help us out to book us some gigs we got uh hooked up with a with a with a booking agent over there who who's been able to line stuff up for us um this is the second time we've gone over there and um you know we we we're excited about the music we believe in it and um if if there are people that help us uh line up uh the chance to play we'll play anywhere you know and um and I do feel like you know fans fans over in the UK and in Europe more broadly are are really really great there's a real love of live music there um a lot of great you know small clubs and um and I mean it's a it's an amazing thing to go and share something that's so sort of personal and intimate with a room full of strangers and a totally strange place the it's a beautiful feeling and um but uh yeah I mean we I don't think we ever have sat down that um okay what next or what's our what's our uh what's our Target you know what's it's just um we've just sort of been able to continue to show up for it as it's evolved and um yeah yeah it's very impressive the venues that you're playing in the UK these are not just little tiny clubs these are respectable great venues so when you have a gig at the Manchester Academy or the globe or the O2 Institute that kind of a thing what should we expect and I don't know if this question goes to Peter but what should we expect because a lot of bands go well we just have one or two albums so you're going to hear most of those two albums in a cover in this case is it like a 60-minute show a 90-minute show any idea yeah this tour uh I think we're scheduled to do 90 minutes and uh yeah you know what to expect we we like to you know build on what we do in here live and and see where we can take it you know I I think a lot of uh you know we have different sides of the band we like to cross genres on our records and so I think our shows hopefully are curated where we can kind of pay respect to all the the styles that we like and uh you know I don't know our audience has been audiences all around here in the states and over there have been really lovely and just receptive so it's kind of a Love Fest Vibe you know I don't know it just it feels like I don't know we we seem to really take a lot of energy from it so yeah just that exchange of energy we hope it it's always there and we just hope we keep making new fans cool now follow-up question to you your credits include morning wood there was two morning Woods there was the one that was on Capitol Records and then there was the one we mentioned hair metal before there was one that TNT singer Tony harnell had which morning wood were you part of oh that was most definitely the Capitol Records one uh yeah never heard this other one I've never heard of it either but you know I know there were a couple morning Woods when we first started there was one in Austin Texas I think it was an all-girl and all girl Bandit you know we honestly had to reach out to them and pay them to change their name because once we got to Capital we we had to solve you know figure that out but uh yeah I mean it's you know it's a great name I mean it was kind of a double-edged name for us it was it fit what we felt like was our vision but it also sort of I think allowed people to not take us seriously all the time you know and maybe it also even steered the course of our music a little bit in what we what our songs were about in in a way that wasn't really necessary because we really just wanted to rock and but whatever it was a great time what did the other band change their name to oh yeah good one uh hey I'm boner I would imagine they do that in the USA you know that that UK band thing how they're the Charlotte ends everywhere in the world's UK in the states yeah morning with UK well it's Morning Glory over there right that's what they call morning wood it's morning glory and then yeah we found out all these other words for Morningwood all over the the world there is a different word in every language for it so Matt a random question for you here being that you've worked with blondie for so long I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Glenn Matlock is there a nicer person that you don't think would be a nice person than Glenn Matlock um he is yeah he he shocks he shocks your perceptions because you think he's gonna be this snotty lab Brash bratty Punk and then he shows up and he's got like you know his little T and he's sort of offering you you know some tea and dressed in a nice three-piece um Professor suit yeah we call him professor because that's his whole heart well uh I think that that reminds you of how in in movies wrestling MMA the people that come across as being the main people on screen are generally the most relaxed people because they've nothing to prove so Mike is it different for you your approach in singing where nobody's expecting you to be a certain way that you can finally express yourself and be yourself in Princess goes um yeah I guess you know as an actor you're you're um you're interpreting and doing your best to embody someone else's um words and uh in this case it it's my your words than our music and so yeah so it yeah it's very different um and there's the freedom in that and a there's something about the experience of Performing that that's more um immediate uh less filtered you know you know sort of like revealing yourself through something else you're just like there it is um though you know when we get to the point where we're playing our song live I mean sometimes in the midst of the song comes man I love this song who wrote this song oh it was we wrote this talk you know it it sort of once you start to give it away it doesn't belong to you in the same way you know you just kind of like allowing it to you're the yeah you're the thing it goes through right I guess I mean like ultimately you know it doesn't feel that different like if you really own the words you're saying as an actor or really oh I don't know I don't know no I do know what you're saying right there because the script is given to you unless you were a writer producer or director or or on a set where they let you improvise freely and change things up in this case this is your art these are your words but the second you hear people singing them back at you you go wait are these mine not necessarily they can sing it back that makes sense yeah my my last question is going to go to all three of you uh and one at a time we'll start with Peter on this come of age is the new record and it's out in a couple of weeks I assume there was no influence by Damn Yankees coming of age but come of age is the record when a lot of artists finish a new record they go I am done with writing I'm not going to write anything else and other artists go well no we have leftovers I write every day Etc so for you when do you think the next album will be will there be another album will there be an EP or are you just one album One release at a time good question yeah we're um I mean we're definitely hoping that there's another round of you know you never know what with anything you know unless it's right in front of you um so yeah we have high hopes to just keep making music and writing this wave of creativity together as long as we can you know as long as everyone feels like we have something to say um so yeah it'll be interesting you know we we have been writing non-stop you know for the last five years I think this last year we've kind of taken a little bit of a break to get this record together and finish it and get it all all the art and videos going so it'll be interesting when we pick back up that and we're we're more in like getting ready to perform mode so it's a different headspace and um but you know I think going into perform mode and playing these shows this year and maybe even for the next couple years like we'll probably learn something about where we want to go for the next record and and maybe we'll get some inspiration that we won't even realize on the road or just at these shows of what kind of music you know is in us for the next round whether it's like you know we have a very quiet side of the band where we can do you know really mellow acoustic-y stuff and we have a lot of ideas sitting in this computer here that that speak to that and we also have a heavy heavier side that we touch on on some of our records but you know we all love to rock and you know you know I was just saying we at the beginning of the pandemic we had uh booked some time at uh the ranch famous Rancho De La Luna in the Palm Desert with Dave catching the the desert rock group we were going to go do a week with him and we had to cancel it because of kovid and we would love to revisit that someday and that that would have been a whole different thing for us and I think I think we're not we've we've played a lot of our music in this room and recorded it and rehearsed in this room but I feel like we're look you know that's one of the reasons we shortened our name we want princess to be able to go anywhere musically physically we might make a studio album with a different producer next time rather than self-producing which we've done on our first three records I don't know that we we don't know but we're gonna go for it we're gonna see what what what is what is available before us you know and by the way I love that you're another owitz I gotta just shout out to the owitz's um that's really [ __ ] cool uh and well Gwyneth Paltrow was a Paltrow wits uh I think until the grandfather and then they took off the you know the it's and you know goop happens but anyway uh you've been to Rancho that's in El Paso right no that's uh Sonic Ranch Rancho De La Luna is in the Palm Desert I think so in California yeah well kind of like the desert rock scene you know you know hatching game catching yeah Queens of the Stone Age date catching but Eagles of death death metal yes all the Josh Comey adjacent kind of stuff and yes uh Matt does that answer from Peter reflect where your head is at as well that it's take it as it comes we're writing a lot we're inspired we'll see where it is it is all going and the princess goes short in version of the name was a smart move or did I create dissension where are you located Long Beach Long Island New York any of you ever been here uh yeah yeah yeah like this is one of those towns where all the bands hang out but no one tells one another that they're here so like when I'm talking to Albert Hammond Jr he's like oh yeah my my wife was an au pair there and you're like wait what everything happens here but no one wants to talk about it but uh yeah anyway as we were saying Matt this is the secret of fulcrum of the New York music scene it's Long Island's along Long Beach Long Island no no one tells anyone they're from Long Island they just say from New York City it happens oh yeah oh yeah yeah yeah it's like I went to school and bought and sort of not like that it's in the neighborhood Jason which is yeah um I think we have a lot of material and I'm excited to work on it and as Peter once said he feels happier when he's working on a new song or some new music or something and I think that's true for me too I feel really good when I'm feeling creative especially with this band because we're you know we we're not um yeah there's nothing really stifling going on so so it's pretty exciting you know to mine the material that's there and look toward the future all the game cool and the last word goes to you Mike because I graduated that I can call you Mike and not just Michael uh yeah more to come can I call you dare yeah um I think uh yeah I mean I definitely think there's more to come there's more there to be you know there there are already things in different different states of realization or completion and uh like Peter said there are different sort of aspects of what we've been up to that maybe would lend themselves to different releases but uh yeah I don't know exactly what form it'll take but but uh yeah and there's no yeah there's nothing better than than feeling like you're on the case of some new thing you know writing it's like a being in a flow State you know well congratulations on come of age I mean congratulations in advance because it's still out in a couple weeks but big tour ahead really looking forward to everything that's to come from all of you and thank you for your time today
2023-10-09 01:22
