GOING FOR ‘GLORY’

Known for his ‘Madonna-like gift for transformation,’ the singer and songwriter enters his GLORY era wrapped in extension cords, face down on the carpet with a heavy spray tan. That might all sound like cause for concern, but for longtime listeners this next metamorphosis probably makes a lot of sense. Over time his oeuvre has grown more complex and cinematic, a Diet-Coke-can-strewn world of dirt, grime and bodily fluids in which total ecstasy can turn to dream dissolved as quick as a lungful of fresh air can become bad breath. But the deeper the pit goes, the more spectacular the hidden treasure starts to feel — especially if it always stays just out of reach. But the deeper the pit goes, the more spectacular the hidden treasure starts to feel — especially if it always stays just out of reach.

To develop the visual sensibilities of GLORY, Mike worked with longtime collaborators photographer/director Cody Critcheloe and art director/graphic designer Andrew J.S. (of Éditions) to shape the newest iteration of Perfume Genius for the screen, CDs, LPs, streaming platforms and more. Because we always seem to hear more about the outcome than the process behind it, we dug deep into how we think about making imagery for music, and the way the the world of GLORY came to be.

ÉDITIONS [ANDREW J.S.]: Now more than ever you hear a lot of talk about world building — I’ve even noticed that people have adopted ‘World Builder’ as a job title in certain coastal cities. And so I think the term feels increasingly slippery, hard to define. But it’s still something you have to do as an artist.

With that, the world of GLORY feels incredibly distinct, even if so many things about it are also hard to pin down. How did you two set about bringing that world to life?

CODY CRITCHELOE: Mike had a bunch of references, a bunch of photos, a bunch of video clips, and I guess that was the launching point. You had a bunch of stuff that you were into, and I guess it was kind of all abstract. There was a lot of intention behind it, but it does feel a bit accidental in a way. It's just kind of rolling off of instincts.

MIKE HADREAS [PERFUME GENIUS]: It's almost like building a framework for things to happen inside of, you know what I mean? It's like the framework is intentional, but what happens when we get there is we find it through instinct. But the framework is instinctual too. But also Cody, I remember I sent you all this stuff. I was like, ‘I don't want it to be HD.’ And then you were like, ‘What if it was all HD?’

CODY CRITCHELOE: Yeah, at first I was like, ‘This is definitely not going to be in HD.’ But then I was like… ‘I think it should all just be in HD.’

MIKE HADREAS: I like that because it’s more uncomfortable for me at first, but then it ends up being more what I'm looking for.

CODY CRITCHELOE: I think that's also my natural instinct too, if someone is like, ‘I don't want that.’ I’m like, ‘What if we did that? Maybe we should.’

ÉDITIONS [J.S.] It definitely feels more complex that way — there’s a very strong visual point of view. High-Def or HDR, for example, feels very hard, but there's also still a kind of softness in the images that probably helps to let people in. There’s a real sense of duality in the world; a sense of humor and lightness, but also profound darkness, desperation, even genuine terror. How do you make all of those things register in a single image?

MIKE HADREAS: I think people have a tendency to just take one thing away, and it can be really frustrating because it does feel more complex than that. Like, if I make something serious, then it can't also be funny. You know what I mean? They can't both exist at the same time.

That's what I like about the things that Cody does — it contains all of those things. Cody helped me think about how to bring more to it, so that it would be unavoidable for people to take just one thing away from it, so that they would have to hold more things at once somehow.

ÉDITIONS [J.S.] When the album cover came out somebody texted me and was like, ‘What is happening here?!’ And somebody else was like, ‘Did he really fall? Is he OK?’ To be fair, in the scene it looks like you fell, but it also like you might want to be there, maybe it was on purpose… or maybe it really was an accident. No one can really tell, and that’s hilarious in a way, but it's also dead serious.

CODY CRITCHELOE: But I think a big part of that is Mike. It's like, he did that pose. He found that pose when we were looking through the imagery afterward. That wasn't the first one I would've picked, but it was Mike seeing something and knowing it was the vibe.

I have to say, sometimes when I'm working with another artist and trying to build a world, it isn't always successful. You know what I'm saying? It's like if you put another person in that environment, I don't know if it would be as cool. I feel like Mike can hold it.

I also think even the way that we went about treating the photos, they all look fried. I think it's cool that I don't think most people would allow that to happen because it's actually incorrect. But Mike did.

ÉDITIONS [J.S.]: Yeah, they're cooked.

CODY CRITCHELOE: But it's cool. People are like,’What the fuck did you shoot this on? It looks crazy.’ And it's just like, well, it’s really just wrong. Any proper photographer isn't going to do that.

But at the end of the day, it looks like me and Mike together — all those photos, the videos, and that’s the reason I love it so much.

MIKE HADREAS: That's why I trust Cody so much — I know that he's going to leave the things intact that I love being intact. And sometimes when I'm working, especially if I want to do something that's a bit off or traditionally wrong, there's a lot of pushback and it's harder to keep it. Not with Cody though haha.

ÉDITIONS [J.S.]: So about the cover, it wasn’t like you set out to make that specific image. It was more like you inhabited a world for a few days, shot 7,000 images and then saw what emerged after in review. Then of course we eventually tested options out, made mockups and texted it back and forth. Mike, how do you know when an image is supposed to be an album cover?

MIKE HADREAS: I mean, there's always one shot that just really looks like the album cover, and then I don't pick that one. I pick the one where my back to the camera or something, and this one felt like that.

For GLORY, I don't know how to explain it — it felt like not the right one, but also the right one at the same time. I think also it just felt like the album. It had all the things I was talking about and thinking about while I was making the album, and what the songs ended up being about. And I felt like it had all the Easter eggs and the stuff that me and Cody liked. It just kind of had everything all in one.

ÉDITIONS [J.S.]: The location is kind of a character in itself, not just in the album cover, but the videos and then all the other images. It's such a presence. What's the story with the house?

CODY CRITCHELOE: It was something that Megan found. Megan's a producer that I work with on almost everything I do video wise and on this photo shoot. And we knew we wanted to shoot it in Kansas City because we could get a bigger bang for our buck.

Mike and I knew we were going to shoot a house, but it was a tricky thing because we didn't want it to feel sad or depressing, but we also didn't want it to feel super bougie — it was hard to explain. I was trying to give Megan a description of what we wanted, and she was so frustrated because we couldn't give her anything to actually sink her teeth into. It was like, ‘Well, it has to be like this, but it can't be like that.’ We didn't have a reference for it. But then she found it and we knew it was the place, and it was like we didn’t need to keep describing what things should be anymore. There's a lot of incorrectness to the house. There's modern things in it, but there's also really outdated things, the patchwork carpet in the living room and the giant window, the staircase to the basement — everything about it was just strange, it felt like it was collaged together.

Then there was all this stuff in there we used in the scenes, little toys and knickknacks all around. And of course Mike and I both love extension cords…

MIKE HADREAS: The house had a warmth to it, too. I think the family lives there, and there's just this life in it. And you know I grew up in a house… with a family… [laughs a lot]… so there's that personal connection to that. So when I first tried to tell Cody what I wanted it to feel like, I think it was hard to describe, but this house just naturally felt the way that we wanted it feel.

ÉDITIONS [J.S.]: Tell me more about these totemic objects that are just kind of everywhere, they actually mean something now — the tarps, the extension cords, the Diet Coke, the Italian flag tape.

CODY CRITCHELOE: Even the truck that appears in a lot of photos, that was just the truck that we rented. And I remember I was like, ‘This truck is so cute.’ And Mike was like, ‘I need this truck too.’ You were trying to convince Alan to buy a truck.

ÉDITIONS [J.S.]: Yeah, it's on the cover. Isn’t it just like a Toyota Tacoma or something?

MIKE HADREAS: It's a little one. It's a Ford Maverick. I think it's the short truck.

CODY CRITCHELOE: It's really sassy.

ÉDITIONS [J.S.]: Lots of funky things in the mix — for example, listening to the album it's a much more collaborative group of songs, built for a full band. Mike, in another interview, you mentioned that it caused you to think about how you communicate musical ideas in a way that other people could inhabit them or interpret them in their own way.

When we work together, for example, we often skip references altogether and go straight into finding a feeling, describing the idea to each other and then going off to make it. You probably have a good way to do that for music, but what’s it like for you working on visuals outside the moodboard industrial complex?

MIKE HADREAS: It feels like… free. It feels more free, which is my favorite thing. It feels like you can be surprised, which is what I'm always craving, but you also have to really trust the people ingredients that you're going to be reacting to — or throwing away or heightening or whatever. There has to be a rich bed of stuff before you can throw it away or pinhole into one thing. There has to be some kind of understanding about what's going to be found there and what we're going to find before and stuff like that.

But I also think it's really hard to do that with people. Sometimes you're just giving somebody one thread, when in your head there's actually five that are woven together and you want all five to be there. You know what I mean? But you end up with just one sometimes because it's hard to explain.

I like Cody understands that. And if I ever get too on the nose, he's like, ‘What if it was just a nostril?’ and I really, really, love that.

CODY CRITCHELOE: You do the same thing for me too. I think I have this thing with Mike where it's like, I like the way he looks. I like the way he moves and the way I like what he does. You know what I'm saying? I like watching him and I seeing photos of him. And to me, he looks the kind of star that I want to see. He physically embodies what, this sounds crazy, but this kind of ideal proportion for me in I'm just like, I like everything he does, even if it's kind of weird or off appeals to me. I think that's the way he walks.

MIKE HADREAS: That makes me feel really good. Did you know that? It makes me feel really good about myself and it makes me, because I can be kind of shy or I can be self-conscious or I can be questioning my choices or how I look or whatever. And Cody makes me feel really good about everything and really capable and not in a cutesy way. And the whole thing, I don't know me, it feels more like me because I feel better and I feel more confident.

CODY CRITCHELOE: I don't think of you in a cutesy way. To me, Mike embodies something that's like rock and roll. That's a terrible way to explain it but actually.

ÉDITIONS [J.S.]: Cody, you directed 'Queen', an iconic Perfume Genius video which has been out for 11 years now. I went back and watched it just before this — it's fun to see that there are these recurring themes within the conversation that you two are having. There are mirrors, Mike flirting with his own mortality, driving around. There are these group choruses or plural characters, whether lesbian hog writers or cheerleaders or a boardroom full of men in suits. Like the extension cords, they all kind of become these essential elements for Mike to play off of. What I love is that in the world of GLORY, none of this was just repackaged or recycled, everything feels different.

MIKE HADREAS: It's like a different bitchiness, 'Queen,' very defiant and angry, like a headbutt or something. And GLORY more internal, but without sacrificing strength or rebellion or confidence. But that’s the musical side, which I think informed the visual world. What do you think, Cody?

CODY CRITCHELOE: I didn't even think about the small similarities between them to be honest. But yeah, I think I also, I don't know. I'm always trying to have the person die the video.

ÉDITIONS [J.S.]: I was struck by the differences, actually — in the ‘Queen’ video, Mike jumps off a building at the end and then it cuts to a sunset, kind of serene, almost a relief or resolution. But in GLORY, there’s a sense that you’re sitting with the question and not answering it. It’s dousing yourself with a gas can and never seeing the fire, deep-throating a pistol but without ever hearing a shot. Cut to titles, cut to next scene. You can never tell if it's the afterlife, or maybe it didn’t even happen? What do you think?

MIKE HADREAS: It’s hard because I don't unpack so much of this, and I don't want to honestly — I don't know if I could even, which is why I love it. But there's some things that feel very intentional and understandable, and then there are some things that are totally inexplicable… and I don't want to explain them.

CODY CRITCHELOE: Lots of the time I don't know. It's literally just an instinct or just a weird kind of obsession. Mike is just a lot of green lights, so it's like if I'm like, ‘Let’s do this’ he’s like, ‘O.K. yeah.’

ÉDITIONS [J.S.]: There all these moments that seem only obey their own logic, or set the stage and then lead to something else and sort of disappear. How do these choices come to be?

MIKE HADREAS: Before we did the ‘No Front Teeth’ video I was screen recording all these ice skater falls, but cutting out the actual falls. So they would just start with them on the ground and then never show them getting up. then it would slow them down like 200% or something. And so it just looked like they were sleeping or they were in some void space or something — but then it would show everyone in the audience upset. And then I was making all these Sade songs to put on top of them. But yeah I just sent all that Cody [hahaha].

ÉDITIONS [J.S.]: I think all those unexpected things are what make it feel memorable. But that gets me thinking about how much heavy lifting that images have to do for an album cycle. It's promo material. It's album artwork. It’s ad formats generated by a production company or venues somewhere. It's really kind of technical, but then it still has to be compelling as an image unto itself. How do you think about balancing all that?

MIKE HADREAS: The older I get, the more pressure is on. I've been paying my rent for this long, I want to keep doing that. This is my job. And so it becomes hard because you know that your instincts, regardless of if it goes against what's recommended, is probably going to ring more true because it is true.

But then you have pressure on you to try to package it in a way that is proven to be good. But also, I love pop music and I love serving and album packages — I like all that stuff, but it's just like how do you balance all of those things and find the fuel in listening to other people, and that the fun of it being pressurized in a job and for other people, you're not going to look at it.

CODY CRITCHELOE: There are always these moments of fun, but we're really trying to do something. I feel like in the moment when we're shooting something, I'll understand importance of it or I'll feel really passionate about something or why we need to do this. And it's frustrating — honestly I'm not in that great of a mood most of the time when we're doing it. I’m focused and I want it to be good, and it’s a delicate thing that if you're not careful, it can fall apart. So it is fun, but it's a lot of thinking goes into it and a lot of care goes into it. But I love all that.

I'm sure Mike has more pressure on him, but for me, it's like I'm literally just thinking of what is going to be, how can we make this amazing? How can it be awesome? How can it just trying to make something that I'm truly in love with and that Mike, because I know if we're really into it, then it's going to resonate with the right people. It will work.

ÉDITIONS: Since you’ve really set it up, it’s been fun to approach the design process as a part of the world. space to embody almost a character or a role. When we were working all together on The Sun Still Burns Here, we imagined the promo materials as being designed by a graphic designer at a community theater nonprofit. It opened the door to lot of choices that might not have been available without that inhabiting that mindset.

There’s a bit of that with GLORY too — the type is set rather naively in a forced italic, one weight and style across everything. It's a little bit low-budget art film title, or like an earnest eighties porno mag where they could only afford one typeface and they had to make it work with it. Leaning into something so simple when there could be so much more design, for there are these moments of doubt, but you always say yes. What’s the feeling when something is right?

MIKE HADREAS: Well, for me, it's that I trust you. I trust you to go in there and make the thing but then also destroy it or be really loyal to it, or just find something in it based on that. I know you're going to understand what I'm trying to say, whether it's circular or really intentional, and then also build on it yourself.

ÉDITIONS [J.S.]: Like the color, ‘Glory Blue’ as we’ve come to call it — it kind of came about just because we were using a lot of red on the last three albums. It also felt right this time to have something very strong that sits outside the images, rather than having the titles and information interact directly, almost like film credits. I also love that blue can be flat, but you can go into it infinitely too. A lot of surface area and meaning there. Cody, I know it’s an important color for you too.

CODY CRITCHELOE: Well, I mean, I love that color. That's my favorite color ever. I love it so much. I think it's the best color in the world. To me it's immediately like VHS. And I grew up taping everything off TV, that's what it reminds me of — I dunno how to say it, I just love the color.

ÉDITIONS [J.S.]: That was actually a wild coincidence, I didn’t really know that when I started laying out concepts for the artwork.

CODY CRITCHELOE And I remember whenever we were just fooling around with the images, it just looked really, really sharp. I and I just got the physical vinyl today or yesterday actually, and the blue inside sleeve was so satisfying.

ÉDITIONS [J.S.]: There’s always a moment where you try something out and after a minute it’s just like, it can’t be anything else.

MIKE HADREAS: Well, remember when we were going to have the word GLORY just be huge. But now you pull it out of the jacket and I'm so glad that it's small.

CODY CRITCHELOE: It reminds me of when you made the first demos of the music, a moment that can still be heard at the end of ‘No Front Teeth’ — the size of the type on the sleeve matches the the way you say ‘glory.’ When I heard that, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s how you mean this title. That's what you’ve always meant by this title.’ And everything just makes sense.

'Glory' is out now everywhere music is streamed and sold, with a massive tour kicking off on May 8th, 2025 — follow Perfume Genius for updates and other unhinged tweets.