Led by the multi-talented Joe Cassidy (the only constant member), a native of Belfast, North Ireland, Butterfly Child burst on to the music scene in 1991 with two well-received EPs on A.R. Kane's Hark label. Signing to Rough Trade in 1993, Butterfly Child released both the brilliant Ghetto Speak EP and the equally wonderful Onomatopoeia album. It was obvious upon release that Butterfly Child would be hard to classify. Their visionary sound was not unlike Brian Wilson trapped inside a Cocteau Twins recording session while John Cage battled with John Cale over production. Lost in a world of fads and short-lived music scenes (Madchester, shoegazing, and grunge), Butterfly Child received kudos from the press but failed to set the world on fire sales-wise.

Signing with Dedicated Records, Butterfly Child released their second album, The Honeymoon Suite, in 1995. More kudos followed ("the record the term 'perfect pop' should have been invented for" said Melody Maker) but Butterfly Child still remained just outside the mainstream, adored by their fan base (which was growing bigger with each release). By the time the second album had been released, Chicago's Hit It! Records had put out their first album in the U.S., followed by a release of the second album in 1996. Joe Cassidy relocated to Chicago in 1997, and with a new set of collaborators began work on Butterfly Child's third album and masterpiece, Soft Explosives, which was released on Hit It! in late 1998.

Following the release of the record, Cassidy retired the band's name, though he kept writing and recording songs. No further Butterfly Child releases surfaced until 2012's "No Longer Living in Your Shadow" single was issued by the Dell'Orso label. Cassidy had been working on a Butterfly Child retrospective compilation when he was contacted by Dell'Orso's Guy Sirman and asked to do the single. That led to Cassidy recording the album Futures, which came out in late 2015. Joe Cassidy died on July 17, 2021. ~ Steve Schnee, Rovi