The sole unchanging presence within Butterfly Child was Belfast native Joe Cassidy. The group first surfaced in 1991 via a pair of favorably received EPs issued on A.R. Kane’s Hark imprint. After inking a deal with Rough Trade in 1993, the band delivered the Ghetto Speak EP alongside the full-length Onomatopoeia. Classification proved elusive from the outset; the group’s imaginative approach suggested Brian Wilson confined within a Cocteau Twins session while John Cage contended with John Cale for control of the controls. Amid the swirl of transient trends such as Madchester, shoegazing, and grunge, the act earned critical acclaim yet never achieved substantial commercial traction.
A move to Dedicated Records preceded the 1995 appearance of the second album, The Honeymoon Suite. Additional praise followed, including Melody Maker’s declaration that the record was one “the term ‘perfect pop’ should have been invented for,” yet Butterfly Child lingered beyond the commercial mainstream while steadily enlarging a devoted audience. Chicago’s Hit It! Records subsequently introduced the debut album stateside, then issued the follow-up domestically in 1996. Cassidy relocated to Chicago the following year and, collaborating with fresh musicians, completed the third album Soft Explosives, issued on Hit It! in late 1998.
After that release Cassidy discontinued use of the Butterfly Child moniker, although he continued to compose and track material. No further Butterfly Child output appeared until the Dell’Orso label issued the 2012 single “No Longer Living in Your Shadow.” While assembling a retrospective compilation, Cassidy was approached by Dell’Orso’s Guy Sirman about recording the single; the exchange ultimately resulted in the album Futures, which surfaced in late 2015. Joe Cassidy died on July 17, 2021.
