“Ketamine” by Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum
"Ketamine" is Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum's first official single. It is the fourth track of Princess Goes to the Butterfly Museum's self-titled EP.
Background
The lyrics for "Ketamine" were written by vocalist Michael C. Hall based off an experience he had with his now-wife, Morgan Hall, and inspired by an instance of taking ketamine in a psychiatric setting. He states the song is about "the phenomenon of being on your own trip in life, [but] also taking a trip alongside someone else, and the struggle of honoring the times when those trips are very different." [1] In creating the instrumentals of the song, Matt Katz-Bohen used a 60s upright piano, which he then recorded and flipped the audio backward to create a hallucinogenic, "ghost choir" sound.
Music Video
The music video for "Ketamine" was shot in Tarrytown, New York, at the direction of David MacNutt. It features two major characters: the daughter and the laborer, alongside roles played by the band members themselves. [2] The cast included Remi Ford as the daughter and Joey Rippo as the laborer.
During the video, the father (Michael C. Hall) is ashamed of the daughter, so he has her covered up with makeup and wigs. Outside and to the father's disgust, the laborer approaches the house with an apple. Once the daughter has the wig and makeup on, she and the father are shown at their table. A server delivers a boiled egg, water, and milk to each of the two, and they use their spoons to crack the eggs' shells. While they eat, it is clear that the father eats in a far more refined manner than the daughter. The father kisses her head and leaves.
As the song progresses, the daughter is sitting in a chair and being examined by a doctor (Peter Yanowitz). A man (Matt Katz-Bohen) is in the room playing the cello. The daughter attempts to get up from the chair but is strapped in once more. Meanwhile, the laborer is shown outside, happily brushing a large, long-haired dog, but the laborer later sneaks into the room where the daughter is held and cuts down the daughter's restraints. The two are then shown outside, where they eat an apple together and enjoy themselves among the trees.
On shooting the music video with David MacNutt, Hall stated, "It felt like we were shooting a little horror movie the day that we did it. It was kind of fun to show up and be relatively like supporting characters in this drama about these two kids with a sort of twisted but ultimately kind of sweet relationship in the midst of all this sinister stuff.” [3]