The singer talks to Thrillist about growing up gay and the next queer generation.
When I mouth with Perfume Genius over Zoom , real name Mike Hadreas , he ’s at home plate in Los Angeles . He will soon fell to New Zealand to execute , before playing some display in Australia too . As we chit-chat , he alternates between irreverence and serious-mindedness , which feel typical of someone whose entire career has been spent being Very Online . There ’s also a distinctly gay swishyness about him — I can say that , because I ’m also very festal and swishy . When he tell me about his rough puerility , and how much he yearned to be free to be able to be himself , it ’s impossible not to witness him endearing .
The screen of Hadreas ’s new album , Ugly Season , depicts an obscured and supernatural - looking figure . Two piercing low eyes , presumably his , are its only evidently human qualities . The artwork contrasts with his visuals from his last album , Set My Heart On Fire , which conjured familiar caricature of hyper - maleness , borrowed from iconic careen imagination . He tells me both records were made back - to - back . " We actually made this one first , " he enjoin , telling me that record has " a very physical flavor attached to it . "
In response to a world that was often unforgiving toward him , Hadreas has created an escapist , ambition - similar space in his euphony , where anything is potential . His songs make masses finger protect , nourished , sexy , joyful , and heartbroken — at the same time , and one after the other .
Design by Maggie Rossetti for Thrillist
Hadreas has an phylogenetic relation for social media too . He first made it big on MySpace in 2008 , when he started upload music under his professional nickname after moving back home to Seattle to get clean from drugs and intoxicant . His Twitter presence mirrors his demeanor in - person , with recent post ranging froma rat hide under a mushroom-shaped cloud , Queen Latifah eating red-hot wings"like a panderer , " and threats about " pivot " to being unbent . " I read the news , but when I go on the internet , I just want to express mirth , " he say .
When we let the cat out of the bag , our conversation oftentimes amount back to our identity as gay men — and how we are expect to look , do , and move through the populace . As he organise to dropUgly Season , Hadreas talks to Thrillist about about creating his own world , feel inspired by Lil Nas X , and being kind to himself — and do n’t concern , fellow pouf , he ’s not " pivoting to straight " quite yet .
Representing queer people in his music
I feel a responsibility , because at one point I was acquire up and I was desperately looking for and seeking out things to make me sense a piddling less solitary . My experience really did n’t have a mirror anywhere else in my casual life . So I wanted music , movies or anything I could find online to make me feel more agnize , or less lonely in the feelings I was having . And I palpate a sense of responsibility to think about that idea , and about queer people specifically , when I ’m writing . You know , if I see two men snog on television receiver , I start crying . It does n’t matter how low the product note value is , it does n’t matter if I hate them . Just seeing them , I ’m crying .
Knowing he was queer from a young age
I remember being like , 3 years sure-enough and just moving through the world and thinking about things the path that I think and move . I did n’t have to be censored , or even lie with to be subconscious at all . But then that apace turned into being aware of every campaign and the direction that I speak and speak . I con that could potentially get me into problem in all kinds of unlike ways . A luck of my terpsichore and making music feel like I ’m a little kid again , because it feel like I ’m render to get to a plaza where I ’m just strictly following instinct , being nice to myself , and being warm about my ideas .
Stanning today’s trailblazers
I love Lil Nas X. I get laid everything about him . I love how he ’s go about everything . I sleep together how funny he is , how smart he is , and howhothe is . It just feels like he ’s following his ideas . And if he ’s met with any sort of resistance , he ’s utilizing that as a way to fuck with everybody . That ’s really inspiring to me .
Serving looks
If I was n’t packaging my study and yield it to mass , I do n’t think I ’d think about the visual side as much . I have to machinate everything and go through a cluster of channels , so I ’m reckon about it more critically while I ’m doing it . I thought a plenty about that specific idea of reappropriating masculine descriptor a lot while making this album , because that was such a part of my experience : thinking about myself as a man , or whatever that meant to me . Weirdly , people think I ’m guess about gender all the clip , but I ’m not really . I think about it as a lived experience much more than an idea . Like , what is it like for me in the world right now ? And just things like getting older and my intimate currentness kind of shifting .
Deciding to be hot
Even if I ’m not sense [ sexy ] , I ensure I can , even for an hour on level . It ’s therapeutical . And sometimes I justamfeeling that way , and I ’m like , " Do you have sex what ? I am feeling like this and I do n’t make love why I get it into my chief that I should n’t ? " I have so many idea that I ’ve made up and so many that have been tell to me , but there ’s no genuine ruler for being hot . It ’s just a decision you make .
Finding inspiration in today’s queer youth
When I see all these young people crowdsourcing mental wellness stuff on TikTok , it can be really heartwarming . Like , they should n’t be having to do that , and modernise all of this [ alone ] and their own language . There should be systems in place ! But they ’re still doing it . They ’re trying to figure out how to make it work and how to subsist . There ’s so many fucked up thing , but thinking about how crazed and silly and smart and uncanny the unseasoned the great unwashed are — how other than they think than my generation does , even now , or used to when they were that eld — it really get me sense good . All these old world are going to die , you know ? It arrive at me finger really promising .
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