Princess Goes return with ‘Stranger,’ a new single and video that opens the next chapter for the New York City trio.

The band features Michael C. Hall on vocals, Matt Katz-Bohen on keys, synth, bass and guitar, and Peter Yanowitz on vocals, drums, percussion, bass, guitar and synth.

The three first met more than a decade ago while performing in the award winning rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. What began as a stage connection soon turned into a real band, built on friendship, instinct and a shared appetite for strange, cinematic pop.

“I think for each of us Princess came out of nowhere in our lives,” says drummer Peter Yanowitz. “We weren’t necessarily looking to start a band, We were just 3 friends being creative together. We had a space downtown in NYC where we all would meet up and make stuff. Eventually we made enough stuff to share with the world, and we haven’t looked back since.

We’ve also had the luxury of growing sort of under the radar. It’s been a slow burn to this process and we like that people stumble into discovering us and then stick with us. We have very dedicated fans. We’ve been able to do the work and develop our sound on our own terms without anyone trying to make us into something that we’re not. This new record feels like the culmination of every hour we’ve spent together working on Princess, almost like we needed to make all that other stuff just to be fortunate enough to be in a position to fully blossom and make this new record, which we feel is our most definitive work to date.”

Since then, Princess Goes have released a debut EP and two full length albums, and their third full length record is due later this year. The band has also played more than one hundred shows worldwide, while keeping a sense of mystery around their sound and identity.

‘Stranger’ is described by the band as a song about meeting others with kindness and curiosity. It moves from a grunge tinted bass opening into a Britpop inspired rush, before building toward a wide, soaring finale about connection and transformation.

Watch the official lyric video for ‘Stranger’ and look out for more music from the band, with a new album coming this fall.

Interview with drummer Peter Yanowitz of Princess Goes, The Wallflowers, and Morningwood

‘Stranger’ feels like it starts in one room and ends in another. That bass line has this heavy ’90s shadow, but by the end the song feels wide open, almost like everyone has found each other. As the drummer, how did you feel your way through that shift? Did you try to steer it, or stay out of its way and let it grow?

Peter Yanowitz: Love yr question… and the starting in one room etc. We fell in love w the “build-up” on this album, mostly because we left the comfort zone of our own studio and worked in Greenpoint w producer Brandon Bost. And I played real drums throughout the whole album.

On our older albums, we found beats wherever we could… under the rug, in the fridge. We were feverishly writing all the time, self-producing in our Union Square loft studio. It’s a residential building, so we couldn’t play real drums, hence using loops and samples.

I was like an animal who had never seen the outdoors. I was running free. We played live and wrote/recorded a lot of these songs on this new album in the studio, so that energy hopefully comes across in the dynamics.

You’ve said Princess Goes began as three friends making things together. At what point did it stop feeling like a side experiment and start feeling like its own world? Could you share a few more words about its origins?

I think after our 2nd full-length album was done, we were like, “whoa, we are a real band.” It helped us beat back the “imposter syndrome” that all artists feel.

In the beginning, we wanted to lead w the music, not w who our singer is. We grew into ourselves w each song. There was a moment in the beginning when Mike came into the studio singing a melody, in what would turn out to be ‘Sweet & Low’ on our first EP, where the song came together in about 15 minutes. We recorded it, and then Matt overdubbed the end synth part, and we 3 looked at each other and were blown away at what was happening. That was a good moment.

The way you’ve talked about the new record makes it sound like it could only have happened after all those years in the room together. Looking back at the EP and the first two albums, what did you learn to leave behind so this version of Princess Goes could come through more fully?

I think we left behind more of that imposter syndrome. We still feel it sometimes, but we’ve put in thousands of hours since we started, and we worked with an incredible producer, Brandon, who ended up writing on some songs with us.

FINALLY the sonics matched the songwriting. We’re proud of the 3 releases we put out, but this feels like the ultimate album. We went all in and the creative gods smiled… or that’s what we think. Hopefully y’all agree.

There is nothing more fun and rewarding than being in a band/art project with your two best friends.

“Real drums make a world of difference.”

Princess Goes can sound very electronic and unreal, but it never feels cold. When you’re playing drums in a band with so much atmosphere and strange color around it, how do you keep the songs feeling human?

Real drums make a world of difference. Plus I’m old af, so u kind of get your groove worn in like an old baseball glove. Fuck AI… it’s ruining the world. Give me a drummer who rushes or drags, who fucks up sometimes. But it’s also easy when u have a good song to play to.

‘Stranger’ is about meeting people with kindness and curiosity, instead of assuming you already understand them. Does that idea also describe how the three of you work in the studio, leaving room for each other to be surprising?

Yeah, we let each other breathe and be ourselves, and we’re patient w our process. We let each of us lead when needed. It’s a love fest tbh.

You’ve played in very different musical worlds, from The Wallflowers to Morningwood to Princess Goes. What has Princess Goes allowed you to do creatively that those earlier bands didn’t ask of you?

Well, on this record I sing lead or co-lead on a couple songs. Mike asked me if I could write lyrics and sing a couple of these songs cuz he was pretty busy with his other job. I’m glad he did cuz it allowed me to express myself in ways those other bands didn’t. I was free in those other bands, but not as a lead singer.

Princess Goes came out of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, where the three of you first met. Do you think there is still a little theater in the way Princess Goes builds songs, or has the band moved beyond that origin completely?

Oh, there’s def some jazz hands in our group. We’re proud to love the theater, and I hope we never lose that theatrical vibe.

What are some records that have inspired you the most lately, and why?

Justice, Aldous Harding, Grumpy, Andre 3000 flute record.

Cuz they make music that sounds fresh af.

What are some future plans now that the single is out?

We release a single a month for 6 months, then the album drops sometime this fall. Hope y’all love it as much as we do. This is us going for gold. We want to make the fkn podium this time around.

Klemen Breznikar

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