Perfume Genius: 2025

This  FUV Live session is also available as a podcast, "FUV Live Sessions." We're elevating WFUV's long history of live sessions and interviews via a podcast that you can find on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts. New episodes drop every Monday.

The tag "#generationaltalent" is one that I've seen thrown around a lot online this summer, often attached to festival clips of Chappell Roan, Doechii, Kneecap and others that command enormous crowds, conjuring at peak power.

These artists have made great records that define the current moment and deserve all the praise and stardom that lay ahead. It will take time though (past the industry hype machine and social media hashtags) to truly understand their place in the greater history of pop music, whether or not they are in fact generational talents.

Would it not be reductive and shortsighted to define a generation by only the big moments and bookends? Case in point is Mike Hadreas's visionary work with and as Perfume Genius.

Over the last fifteen or so years (sounds about like a generation, no?), Hadreas has steadily developed an artistic identity that is both adaptive to and aware of the world, while also seemingly immune to hype and music industry fads. He is a gay artist, but that is almost just matter-of-fact; the politics of his identity are clear and genuine across his entire body of work, but never used as a means of capital, social or otherwise. He is a heart-forward and curious songwriter who cannot be easily defined by the wilting constructs of commercial genres.

Jeff Buckley seems like a clear analogue here, but without the perspective of longevity, since we never got to see Buckley past Grace. Maybe Arthur Russell is a better touchstone? Though I don't think Russell ever toured the world across 3000+ cap rooms. Anyway, point being, Perfume Genius is the real deal, an artist operating with steadiness and integrity — despite fame —  for over more than a decade. The proof is simply in the work.

I had the privilege of catching Mike and his band live at the Brooklyn Steel back in June, supporting the most recent album, Glory (his seventh full-length overall and his third with Blake Mills at the controls, a triumphant deep-dive into the guitar), and was honestly left speechless. The staging and lighting plot was simple (just a steel chair and an exercise ball as props!) showcasing the songs, the band, his voice. Honestly stunning.

I was equally as stunned to see so many homies at the show from all different NYC subcultures: the ravers, the writers, the cabaret queers, the community gardeners, the punx, the pop girlies, etc.

The morning after the show, Mike, his dog, and the band — Meg Duffy of Hand Habits on guitar,  keyboardist Alan Wyffels, bassist Pat Kelly and drummer Tim Carr — came up to the Bronx for a session in Studio A. And yes, there was a Fordham fire drill in the middle of Mike's performance of "It's a Mirror" — which added a little drama to the day!

[Recorded: 6/11/25; Engineered by Jim O'Hara with Erin Merriman, Holden Buckley, Sage Rochetti, and Thomas Lapus. Produced by Meghan Suma. Videographer Therese Burgo, Alena Godas, and Adithi Vimalanathan.]