Banned By YouTube And 'Really Pissed Off'

In 2012, Mike Hadreas aka Perfume Genius released second album Put Your Back N 2 It.

It carried all the subtle panache of his 2010 debut, Learning, with Hadreas’ vocals and accompanying choral piano covering everything in a torch song sophistication. But Put Your Back N 2 It had a little something else going on, an unmistakeable attitude, even an anger. With last year’s Too Bright, Hadreas has let that attitude come spectacularly to the fore. From the swirling power of Queen to the freakout rhythm of Grid, this is Hadreas making a statement. According to Hadreas himself, the record is based on “An underlying rage that has slowly been growing since age ten and has just begun to bubble up.”

“It’s been great, but I really just need to decompress,” Hadreas admits in a rare gap between festival, club and, poor guy, Late Night performances. “The last six months have been overwhelming, really, but it hasn’t meant that I haven’t taken it all on; it’s just I need to digest it all. I mean, it’s a weird feeling to go from doing so much to not doing anything. But I’ve been going to the dentist, and I guess just normal people stuff,” he laughs.

The last six months for Hadreas has been the usual breakthrough record craziness, sure, but there’s an extra layer of identity that he’s had to take on in the same time. When Put Your Back N 2 It was released, Hadreas promoted it with a short YouTube clip: Hadreas and porno actor Arpad Miklas embracing in their underwear. There’s really nothing more to it, but it was enough to get pulled on the basis of obscenity. Hadreas has since been fairly outspoken on his desire for artistic freedom and, whether he meant to or not, gender equality, his clips seeing him playing various male and female characters.

"The last six months have been overwhelming."

“I guess it was when I was ten or eleven that I started to notice that I was on the outside a little bit. It wasn’t just me; everyone else did as well. All my eccentricities and feminine qualities manifested themselves, and people started paying attention to that. And as I grew older, I started to gravitate towards people like me, like everyone does. All through that time, there’s constantly been people that range from being uncomfortable with it – which, you know, I’m like, whatever – to people who get really angry about it. I didn’t realise it at first, but I was really pissed off about it. As much as I moped around in my teenage years, I was pissed at the same time at the fact there’s this split. I felt angry at everyone for putting me in this situation: it was really victim-y and pitiful. And that shit’s constantly been a part of me, so this record was a lot of trying to channel that pity and victimisation into something that was actually productive.

I don’t know, I didn’t really think that that would resonate with so many people, but I’m sure as hell glad it did.”