A Few Minutes With Perfume Genius (Interview)

Mike Hadreas, aka Perfume Genius, has been causing quite a stir with his third album, Too Bright. Influential indie music site Pitchfork.com refers to Hardeas’ music, “less like songs and more like treasures, ones that fill you with power and wisdom”. Perfume Genius has been touring Australia and will be in New Zealand for two shows this weekend…at Auckland’s Kings Arms on Friday night and at Bodega in Wellington on Saturday. The 13th Floor’s Marty Duda spoke with Mike Hadreas yesterday about Perfume Genius’ revealing songs and why folks like Michael Stipe and The National are singing them.

Click here to listen to the interview with Mike Hadreas of Perfume Genius:

Or, read a transcription of the interview here:

MD: So how’s it been going in Australia, so far, the tour?

PG: The shows have been really good, I think. I’ve been proud of them. I thought they went really good.

MD: I was hoping to talk to you a little bit about your album, Too Bright, before you come over here, but one thing I noticed is that, before we even get into that, is that a lot of other acts have been covering your songs lately, like The National and Michael Stipe. What do you think of that? Why is that happening do you think?

PG: I don’t know. I guess, usually the songs they are covering are pretty simple in nature and already pretty minimal so I think the message is really clear in the song and also leaves it open to interpretation very easily if you want it to. You can have you mown experience with it because there’s not so many elements in the songs that are being covered that are being thrown at you. You don’t really have to pick and choose…the melody’s pretty straightforward.

I don’t know, it’s pretty awesome. To be honest, I just made that up just now. (laughs). It’s pretty awesome, whatever reason it is.

MD: You tend to do a few covers on your own, what do you look for in a song when you decide you want to sing it?

PG: I guess if the song lasts. I enjoy a lot of music and I listen to a lot but it’s kind of rare that a song sticks with you. And not in an ear worm, poppy way but in subject matter or the very specific mood that it has. Usually I can tell…it’s just this instinctive thing where I can tell I can cover something and make it my own and not do a karaoke version of it. I think mainly, if anything, it’s the lyrics is usually why I cover a song.

MD: Whenever I tend to read reviews of your show or your albums, the word “cathartic” seems to come up a lot. I was wondering if there was, indeed, an element of catharsis for you when you’re performing.

PG: Yes, especially now more than there ever was.

MD: Why is that?

PG: In the beginning, you know, my first album was the first music I had ever written and my first shows for that album were my first shows ever. So, I was just very nervous, very uncomfortable. So I didn’t even pay attention to what was going on, I would just power through it. Now that I’ve had some practice and the music’s changed and when I’m talking about is a little different sometimes…the performances are much more of an actual and less of a…you know, me going through something and people watching.

So, I’m sure that was cathartic but I wasn’t paying attention. Now it’s cathartic but it’s intentional and deliberate and I can feel it and it feels more like a shared thing.

MD: Do you feel more in control of what you’re doing?

PG: Yeah, for sure.

MD: And that’s a good thing?

PG: Yeah, it’s controlled, but also the ultimate goal is to lose my mind essentially. I guess I’m just kind of setting  myself up to do that where before I really didn’t have any idea what was going on.  Now I can just ease myself into a situation where, if I want to go all the way, and completely get into a fever, it’s more likely to happen because I’m less self-conscious.

MD: Are there certain elements that happen that make that easier to occur? Is the audience important, their reaction, the venue, anything like that?

PG: There’s tons of things, you know. We played some really beautiful festival shows that are outdoors but, sometimes when it’s such an open space the music…there’s such a disconnect between the audience…usually they’re farther away. It can be harder to communicate. In smaller club shows you can feel the vibes for sure and you can feel the circular energy and all that good hippie stuff.

So many things go into it. Even what I eat before I go on stage. Like if I have a big steak or something, I feel kind of heavy. Also, I quit smoking a couple of weeks ago and it’s been easier for me to sing and that’s been one less obstacle on my way of preparing and sharing the music exactly how I want to.

MD: Well, you’re going to be playing at a fairly intimate place in Auckland here, at a place called The Kings Arms, so hopefully that’ll all happen with you. I get the feeling that there is a very strong connection between you and your music and your audience…your music means a lot to your audience. Is there a sense of responsibility that goes along with that? Do you feel responsible for what you’re putting out there?

PG: Yeah, in a really great way. I mean, it can be hard to navigate sometimes, just because you get letters and things and I feel very smart when I’m writing but I don’t know if I’m always the best prepared person to give advice, so that can be kind of complicated. But I write very much thinking about…if what I’m writing can be helpful. I think that’s a lot of the reason that I start in a personal way. For some reason if I’m hyper-specific to myself, kinda therapeutically for me, it ends up being more relatable.

I’ve always grown up very obsessed with music and very much think music helped me through parts of my life and so I tried to write music that would do the same thing.

MD: So what was the music that got you through the rough times when you were growing up?

PG: Oh, there’s tons. I think the very first album that, in a cheesy way, changed my life, was the Liz Phair album, Exile In Guyville.  PJ Harvey, for sure, Sleater-Kinney who I saw like 13 times live, I think and then towards the end of my adolescence I needed to be a lot more solitary like Cat Power and Elliott Smith. Not so empowered…you know, they’re empowering in their own ways, they’re more just like a companion to sadness. (laughs).

MD: You’ve mentioned that your most recent album, Too Bright, is quite a bit different from the first two. Is it just because you’ve been doing it longer or is there a specific change in attitude about your music that is evident on there? [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2Oqi8Ddqw4]

PG: I think both. I think I realized when I started writing the material for this album that I was locked into a very specific way of writing that was very minimal and spare and patient which…I like to write that way and I’m not dismissing the stuff I already made but I wanted to shake off what my limits were. I thought I was only capable of making music like that, I was only capable of singing in a certain range or certain way or talking about specific things and so tried to scream sometimes when I would have cooed, or whatever. You know, just distorting my piano to not sound like a piano anymore and from those experiments they just ended up feeling more and more worthwhile and exactly what I needed to do instead of exercises.

MD: You employed Adrian Utley to produce the record and you’ve got John Parish on there, what did they contribute to the record?

PG: I had like, pretty fleshed-out demos for all the songs and a lot of the intentions and moods were on the demos but I’m not technically capable of pushing them as far as I wanted to go, especially when I wanted them to be really dark or kind of twisted, I could only do so much on my laptop. Adrian and Ali (Chant) both knew what machine and what instrument or who to call that could help. And beyond just their technical capabilities they understood the subject matter and I knew they’s be equally kind to the darker, louder, more wild parts. And unafraid to be as dark and wild as I wanted. And also be kind of tender and kind to the quieter moments.

MD: The Grammys were on recently, you being in the music business did you watch? Do you pay much attention to things like that? If you did watch, what was your take on it?

PG: We weren’t at home, I think we were in Australia already but you know, I always try and watch those shows. They’re just so freakin’ long. But its such a twisted thing, I mean, it’s not completely merit-based and it involves so many other things than the actual music but there’s a place for that kind of show too. I wish there were more of differing kinds, for different reasons people are getting awards than just that one. But, you know, I’m still gonna watch it. I’m still gonna want to see what everybody wears and stuff like that. And I’m a big fan of top 40 pop music too.

MD: Right, depending on your age, I mean, I’m much older than you are and I’m still a huge fan of the top 40 pop music that was really popular when I was like 14, 15 years old and I think that kind of follows through. Do you ever try to think about writing the perfect pop song when you’re writing music? Does that ever come into play?

PG: Kind of…and I tried to do that first when I was writing this album, mainly just as an attempt to make more money and be more successful.

MD: Yeah, that doesn’t hurt!

PG: But it just ended up being not what I…if it was really inspired and I felt like a lot of myself was still in those pop songs, I would’ve put them out but it just didn’t feel that way. I think more I would have to write for other people maybe, if I wanted to do that. I do think about it.

MD: If you were to write for somebody else, who, ideally, would you like to write for?

PG:  Mmmm, that’s hard. I think I could write songs for Adele. I could definitely write some Lana del Rey songs for sure.

MD: I could hear that.

PG: Probably sort of a moody, soulful, chanteuse-y sort of deal.

MD: You could always do a little collaboration with Lorde. She’s from New Zealand…

PG: Hell yeah! I don’t think she needs any help. I’d be happy to help if they asked me.

Click here for more information about Perfume Genius in New Zealand.