Slouched in the foyer of a London hotel, at the end of a long day of press, Mike Hadreas describes himself as “delirious”. Eight hours discussing domesticity and grief, the body’s decay and the wild disparity between one’s inner and outer worlds will do that to a person. But then, Hadreas put all those topics on the table when he shared his seventh studio album as Perfume Genius.
Released at the end of March, Glory is the Seattle singer’s first true “band record”, co-written and recorded with a six-piece band featuring husband Alan Wyffels, plus long-time producer Blake Mills (Fiona Apple, Bob Dylan). Vivid third-person narratives abound, with fictitious figures like Jason and Dion acting as conduits for some of Hadreas’ most startlingly raw – and blackly humorous – reflections yet.
The disorienting video for second single No Front Teeth serves as an ideal introduction to the world of Glory, combining figure skating with wilfully absurd subtitles, a mountain of waffles and a weirdly unsettling sex scene between a shaven-chested Wyffels and Kiwi folk surrealist Aldous Harding. Happily, this balance of brutal intensity and barbed wit also make Hadreas the ideal candidate for a 50 Questions interview, ricocheting between conspiracy theories, childhood kidnap fantasies and the long-term emotional impact of being babysat by Laura Palmer’s ill-fated friend Ronette Pulaski.
1. What’s your go-to spot in London? Well, we went to a petting zoo in the middle of the city once with goats and stuff. That seasoned my whole view of London forever.
2. So everything’s been downhill ever since? Honestly, yeah.
3. Do you have a favourite European city? Barcelona, because everybody’s really hot. They’re doing a good job over there.
4. Your new album is your most collaborative so far. How did you find it ceding some of that control? What’s strange is that [the album] became a clearer version of what I was originally trying to say. I had to make it really translatable, telling all these people what a song means to me. And if they we’re like, ’Oh, we don’t really hear that,’ it makes you think about how to communicate that message.
5. Are you a natural collaborator? No. I think it’s very easy for me if someone gives me something and then I add my part to it, or vice versa. But generating ideas together from nothing is really hard for me, just because it requires feeling safe enough to share your process. And I’m very protective of it.
6. So why do it now? I think because a lot of the songs on this album are about trying to engage more with people; to be more present, more available and not so stuck in my own internal spiral all the time.
7. What do you need to create? To be really isolated, with no pressure on me at all somehow. Plus I like to be really obsessive and dramatic about it.
8. What is the best thing about getting older? When you stop trying to figure everything out, more shows up. Like, when I stopped obsessing over my identity – or rebelling against other people’s opinion of it – more showed up.
9. You’re recently married, right? Yeah, I think last spring? I mean, we’ve been together for 16 years, and engaged for eight or something. But because we anticipated Trump getting elected, Alan got paranoid and booked an appointment at the courthouse.
10. How has being married changed your relationship? I wasn’t expecting how much it would change other people’s opinion of our relationship. Like, not just the bank, but family. We’ve essentially felt like we’re married since the week we got together.
11. What’s your biggest vice? Diet Coke, for sure.
12. How many cans are you on a day? I’m unwilling to share, but it’s insane. I’m not too shy to drink one at six in the morning if that’s what I have to do to get up.
13. The video for No Front Teeth is a trip. How did you and [director] Cody Critcheloe arrive at that concept? All the references I sent [Cody] were film scenes of dynamics between people, and absurd or disturbing moments. It’s hard to make something really heartfelt and emotional, but also over the top and funny. Usually, I’ve done one or the other, but this time I wanted this to have everything.
14. What were the scene references? There The Piano Teacher, where Isabelle Huppert smells the rag in the porn theatre. There was this scene in Cries and Whispers [1972] where she’s cycling through every stage of grief really rapidly, in bed. There’s a movie called Humanité (1999) where a man is consoling his friend who’s confessed to killing a little girl, and suddenly just starts making out with him completely out of leftfield. Like, The Piano Teacher is devastating, but if you go into it with a certain mindset, it could also be hysterical. I wanted that.
15. Were you surprised that Hannah [Topp, AKA Aldous Harding] was game? I’ve known her for a long time, so I knew mentally she’d be down, and that she was fully capable, but it’s a lot to ask. But she was a kindred spirit so it was pretty easy to go there together.
16. What’s your favourite subtitle in the video? And is it ’Christina Aguilera? Not vaccinated!’? I’m proud of that one, yeah. [Laughs].
17. What’s your current favorite meme? Man, it’s been rough out there for me lately. I feel like my algorithm is jacked up with creepy shit. But I like when things go full circle, when things don’t make sense, when something is just inappropriate in a situation.
18. What’s the last photo you took on your phone? Oh, I zoomed in outside of my hotel window because there was a woman serving on a photo shoot. [Laughs].
19. What do people assume about you that is incorrect? That I’m really serious. Maybe they don’t assume that anymore, but when I used to do interviews, people would write about how I looked like I was gonna cry, and the language was like I was a little bird or something. I didn’t feel like that.
20. Do you believe in God? Yeah, I do.
You’re recently married, right? “Because we anticipated Trump getting elected, Alan got paranoid and booked an appointment at the courthouse“ – Perfume Genius
21. Do you believe in astrology? When it suits me.
22. Glory utilises a cast of different characters, from Dion and Angel to Tate and Jason. What did that third-person framework bring to your songwriting? I think making a scene allows there to be more nuance and for multiple things to be happening at once, which actually feels closer to the truth.
23. The protagonist in ’In A Row’ is being held hostage but seems at peace with it. What inspired that idea? My life. When I was like eight, I saw on the news that these two kids got kidnapped in a white van with painted-out windows, and I thought I saw a van like that in my neighbourhood. So I went outside and was just hanging around, trying to act kidnappable ... [Laughs].
24. Why did you want to be kidnapped? I think because I wanted the attention when I survived. Or maybe I wanted some real intensity to match how intense I was feeling? And that translated into me purposely going towards crazy shit when I was older, to have a story to make myself seem more impressive. So I think I’m kind of making fun of myself.
25. Out of interest, how do you act kidnappable? Back then? Just trying to look kinda soft and alluring. [Laughs.] It’s so crazy to think about me trying to be sexy when I was eight. I used to fantasise that Ben Affleck would see me and go, “That is so beautiful. We need to take him to Hollywood.” Like, why did I choose the most depressingly straight guy? [Laughs].
26. As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up? An artist. I don’t know if I was specific.
27. Did you have a nickname growing up? When people tried to describe me, they were like ’Little Mike’, or ’Little Crazy Mike’.
28. Is it really true that your babysitter played Ronette Pulaski in Twin Peaks? Yeah. It was weird, because you would think it would make me less scared because I knew it was fake, but it almost did the opposite. When you’re little, fantasy and reality are so blended together, and so that show was almost proof that there’s this undercurrent to everything that is terrifying and nasty and weird. I think that’s still the biggest inspiration of my life.
29. What pop culture moment scarred you as a child? I saw this Dateline episode when I was seven, about a woman that was having a real life exorcism. I was just completely convinced that was gonna happen to me for about the next seven years. I’d cry when we drove past churches.
30. What’s your favourite conspiracy theory? Avril Lavigne being a reptilian. Like, they freeze frame on her teeth and they look a little sharp, like a lizard.
31. What’s the closest you’ve come to death? Honestly, the last time I did drugs. I had a very clear feeling that if I kept going I would die, and I kept going anyway.
32. What’s Elon Musk’s problem? I think most men’s problem is that they literally cannot look inward for half a second. They just kill everybody instead of processing anything. They’re like, ’I’m sad: I’ll just kill my wife.’ I think he has some of that.
33. Will you leave Twitter? I mean, I’ll probably hold out longer than I should, but yeah. There’s so much TERF-y shit on my timeline and it’s making me feel like the whole world is like that. And even if it is, I’d rather not have a constant reminder. I can do enough research just walking around.
34. Would you be interested in writing a full film soundtrack? When I’m older, it’s my dream to have that be a big part of what I do. I’m obsessed with how you can have a really sweet domestic scene, but then you put drone metal on top and it’s really disturbed and unhinged. Like, play the Twin Peaks score anywhere and everything immediately feels demented. I love that.
35. Who would play you in a film of your life? Jodie Foster.
36. Who would direct? Bertrand Bonello.
37. Who or what is your current musical obsession? I really like the new Okay Kaya record and the new one she did with Baba Stiltz.
38. What’s your karaoke song? I did the Macklemore gay marriage song once and that went over really well. And System of a Down’s Toxicity.
39. Is there such a thing as a guilty pleasure? No, I think that there isn’t. But then, every once in a while I’ll swap to a private listening session of the Anne Hathaway versions of the Les Mis songs.
40. What’s a trend that you’d like to see come back? Ugly people. [Laughs]. I feel like everybody’s gnarly looking in The Exorcist, but if they made that film now everybody would be hot and hairless.
Is there such a thing as a guilty pleasure? “No ... But then, every once in a while I’ll swap to a private listening session of the Anne Hathaway versions of the Les Mis songs“ – Perfume Genius
41. What’s the most overrated thing in the world? I hate prideful people and stoicism.
42. What’s your current favourite TV show? Well, I just finished Suits. It was a rough last season, but I thought that was a pretty perfect sleep show. Like, you can just have one headphone in and close your eyes, and they’ll literally tell you everything that’s happening on screen.
43. What do you collect? Cosy stuff. I have a problem in HomeGoods or Target where I always come out with a blanket or a pillow or sheets or something.
44. What makes you cry? Small kindnesses. Like, when people are genuinely sweet to each other, I think that makes me cry the most.
45. Who is an artist, dead or alive, that you admire most? Maybe Sade. She has a stillness and a grace that is really aspirational to me.
46. Which song do you wish you’d written? Song To The Siren, the Tim Buckley song.
47. What’s your most controversial opinion? I think nice clothes are overrated. I’d rather someone have really horrible clothes but amazing style.
48. What’s your life motto? For better or for worse, I think it’s ’Who cares?’
49. What outstanding goals do you have? Well, the only time I’ve consistently eaten well and exercised simply to take care of myself is when I noticed that I felt better. But usually the motivation is self-hatred and vanity. So I want to remember that I’m trying to create good habits, rather than trying to punish myself because I’m bad and I need to be better.
50. What are you doing after this interview? Having dinner. I’m delirious though. I’m probably gonna talk at them about Trump and anxiety, like I have the rest of the day.
Glory by Perfume Genius is out now.
