Perfume Genius on His New Album ‘Glory’ and His ‘Sense Of Duty’ to Queer Community

variety.com:

Matt Minton mminton@variety.com When singer-songwriter Mike Hadreas sits down with his therapist, he admits that he often doesn’t know where to begin with his feelings — which might not be surprising for an artist who, over the course of six albums and 15 years, has worked primarily by himself.

But for his latest effort, “Glory,” Hadreas — known in the music world as Perfume Genius — opened up his voice and emotions, as well as his recording process, in what has been described as his first “band” album, featuring artists like Aldous Harding alongside his longtime collaborators Blake Mills and Alan Wyffels. “I don’t know if I consciously did it, but it made sense that building the songs felt more collaborative in ways they hadn’t been in the last few records,” Hadreas tells Variety.

However, the album directly tackles emotions surrounding isolation, so Hadreas needed to start off completely alone when his partner, Wyffels, was out of town.

That was the only way to meaningfully engage with the work — and what he was really feeling inside. “I was just home, didn’t turn on the lights and had the curtains drawn.