Gently Does it: Gigwise meets Perfume Genius.

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The first thing you notice about Perfume Genius is how quietly he sings. Known to his parents as Mike but now going by an assumed name Perfume Genius makes some of the most haunting and unsettling music you'll hear all year. This week he releases his debut 7" single, 'Mr Petersen', a song about paedophilia and Joy Division mixtapes masked behind a tender ballad. Gigwise decided to delve further into the psyche of Perfume Genius to find out what makes him tick.

When did you first start writing songs?
Few years ago? I had been living with my mom in Everett, Washington. By living, i mean facing down in the bed. I'd get up to do dishes, play piano, feed the dogs - thats about it. A real winner, really. Some kind of shift in my center took place, or the core of something shifted - I had this real compulsion to write music. So i sat down and did it. I don't mean to make it sound like some huge ordeal, like i was ecstatic and banging on the keys like some jazz bitch.  But it was definitely a huge cathartic thing I had never felt before, i became obsessed by it and have not quit.

When do you tend to get down to writing? A lot of your songs sound nocturnal…
It has always been a solitary thing though, you know? I am capable of hiding and filing in bits and pieces throughout the day, but mostly i get down to business at night when i am certain nobody is around or awake.

Do you keep a diary?
I keep sketchbooks like any good homo should. I always want to carry around a proper little notebook for writing, but i don't. I basically carry a purse too but its full of weird shit i will never need, like coupons for Netflix trials and books on "Sensuality." I will buy any book featuring or dealing with "Sensuality." My favorite is "The Sensual Divorcee" - if you need a hot tip. Lots of good advice on relocating to male hotspots and how to meet men at the grocery.

Is there a reason your promo shots always have you covered in bruises on them?
I don't know. Honestly, that just ended up being how my physical cookie crumbled for a good deal of years. Putting them on myself is just a gentler way to keep the ball rolling.

Where  are you based at the moment?
I live with my brother in yet another suburb of Seattle. I'm here now. It's almost 3pm and he is still asleep.

What do you do for a living?
I just got fired from my job at a department store. I kept it, miraculously, for two years. I made keys, mixed paint, lifted furniture in to people's station wagons. I got fired because i didn't go to work, i took a bus to the city and sat down on a bench and cried. Straight up! How dramatic is that? I went in the next day and they told me our "relationship" was "severed." I wanted to mention the time i called four hours after my shift started with no idea where i was, which was apparently a non-issue. They let me come in late that time smelling like vinegar and running in to walls without even a "verbal."

Do you enjoy playing live?
I hope so! I have yet to. My first show is on the 9th here in Seattle, at the Vera Project.

What was your high school experience like?
I think I can boil it down to smoking a pack of Newports 200 yards away from campus, dodging spit and death threats from many white people wearing backwards hats.

What was going through your mind when you wrote Mr Petersen?
A teacher I had.

How does it feel to perform such intimate and personal songs? Do you detach yourself from the meaning or is that too hard?
I can only imagine really at this point. Having never planned for all the songs to be heard really, it never crossed my mind. I am insanely stoked about it now, obviously. I'll just bang it out. If i cry on the bench and get fired, i cry on the bench and get fired.

Do you have plans for an album?
Yes! Its finished, the whole thing is all wrapped up. I made it in that house in Everett - sort of like a diary timewise - the songs in the order they were written and recorded.

What is the album called?
Called "Learning." which is the first song on the album and the first song i made when i sat down to make songs.

Are you going to be coming to the UK any time soon?
When that album comes out, i'll be all over that motherfucker!

Finally, what was the last great song you heard?
JJ "From Africa to Malaga" : "No matter how dumb you are / you eventually rise."

'Mr Petersen' is released this week (March 1st) on Transparent.

Perfume Genius Myspace