Get the latest gossip

Perfume Genius: ‘I want to feel extremes – but I’m not as self-destructive now’

With a new album next month, the singer-songwriter opens up about accepting life, anticipating grief and grieving when a snake killed his beloved dog

In a Row, a highlight from Glory, Hadreas’s new album as Perfume Genius, makes fun of that impulse, slyly skewering the idea that you have to suffer for your art: “Think of all the poems I’ll get out,” his narrator sings, trapped in the boot of a car. It received the best reviews of his career, and in interviews he spoke about feeling confident and present (in large part thanks to his experience working on The Sun Still Burns Here, a dance piece with the choreographer Kate Wallich). Living in lockdown, without the constant hamster wheel of writing, performing and promoting music, dredged up emotions he hadn’t had to contend with in a long time, eventually translating to Glory’s haunted ballads and gnashing, 90s-y indie rock songs.

Get the Android app