Perfume Genius

Singer-songwriter born in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 25, 1981, Mike Hadreas aka Perfume Genius grew up in the suburbs of Seattle and attended art school, when a street attack on account of his homosexuality led to hospitalization and the abandonment of his studies. Troubled by this event, he takes refuge in Brooklyn and works in a bar. His addiction to alcohol led him to undergo detoxification and then to return to the family cocoon, where he took up the piano again, having abandoned it as a teenager, and began composing and recording his first songs. Discovered via the Internet, he was signed by Turnstile Records, before Matador Records released his debut album Learning (2010). Accompanied on stage by his friend Alan Wyffels, a classically trained pianist he met during his therapy, Perfume Genius evokes his personal experiences and subjects linked to homosexuality or domestic violence in the following albums Put Your Bac N 2 It (2012) and Too Bright (2014), oscillating between sophisticated pop and no-frills rock. Following his collaboration with producers Adrian Utley (Portishead) and John Parish (PJ Harvey), and a Grateful Dead cover recorded as a duet with Sharon Van Etten, Perfume Genius worked on his fourth album No Shape (2017), nominated for a Grammy Award and followed by the remix EP Reshaped (2018). In 2019, the artist collaborated with choreographer Kate Wallich on the music for the ballet The Sun Still Burns Here, before setting about recording his fifth album Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, released the following year. This was remixed and released under the title Immediately Remixes (2021), while its author worked on a more experimental and richly arranged opus, Ugly Season (2022), produced by multi-instrumentalist Blake Mills, officiating on some fifteen instruments. After this magnum opus, Perfume Genius began composing for the screen with Nick Uruta, for the soundtrack to the film National Anthem (2024). The musician then turned his attention to Glory, a resolutely rock soundtrack featuring a collaboration with Aldous Harding.