Jonathan Bree Returns with Goth-Noir ‘Live To Dance’ ft. Princess Chelsea

After two and a half years of silence, New Zealand’s masked auteur Jonathan Bree resurfaces with ‘Live To Dance’, a goth-noir seduction co-sung with his longtime partner in crime, Princess Chelsea. The track arrives wrapped in a video that bows deeply to one of the greatest music clips of the 20th century, reframing pop nostalgia through Bree’s signature eerie elegance.

Best known for sculpting cinematic, orchestral pop, Bree has long treated music like a fever dream in slow motion. His velvety baritone drifts through arrangements of sliding strings and chamber-music curios, celeste, harp, timpani, recalling Lee Hazlewood or Serge Gainsbourg, but filtered through his own peculiar twilight. Over the years, he’s grown a devoted cult following through globe-spanning tours that function less like concerts and more like ritual theatre: masked performers, bespoke video projections, and dancers moving as if they’ve stepped out of some parallel, more glamorous universe.

The world Bree built on his 2023 album “Pre-Code Hollywood” marked a deeper descent into this cinematic realm. Its celestial intro notes open the door to a lush, retro-future universe, part classic pop reverie, part avant-garde experiment, with the bittersweet glow of a lost John Hughes soundtrack. While sketching early demos, Bree felt an unmistakable 1980s pulse and took a risk by writing to Nile Rodgers, the legendary architect of Bowie’s “Let’s Dance” era. Luck, fate, or cosmic alignment intervened: Rodgers joined the project, producing the title track and the standout single ‘Miss You,’ his unmistakable guitar turning both songs into scorched disco confessionals.

‘Miss You,’ another aching, slow-burn duet with Princess Chelsea, became the emotional spine of the album, a story of longing, fracture, and the fragile path toward reconnection.

Of course, Bree’s mystique has always thrived on what stays hidden. He and his band remain masked at all times, a visual mythos crystallized in the video for his 2017 breakthrough ‘You’re So Cool,’ which racked up more than 38 million views and earned Time Out New York’s vote for Video of the Year. Before that, he etched his name into internet folklore with Princess Chelsea’s viral classic ‘Cigarette Duet,’ which he both sang on and directed.

With ‘Live To Dance,’ Bree once again slips into the shadows, inviting listeners to follow. It’s a return, a reinvention, and a reminder: some artists don’t just release music. They release worlds.