Mike Hadreas, the man behind Perfume Genius, gets angry on his latest album

On his first two albums, Perfume Genius — the stage name of Seattle artist Mike Hadreas — focused on creating songs that were delicate, almost elegiac. The music on 2010’s Learning and 2012’s Put Your Back N 2 It were sad and solemn, like mournful diary entries. In fact, Hadreas didn’t expect anyone beyond friends to hear Learning, and he was writing for no one but himself when it came to Put Your Back N 2 It.

Too Bright, released Tuesday, is a different story. For the first time, Hadreas considered a broader audience, and the result is an album as harrowing as it is beautiful. It directly addresses, among other things, Hadreas’ views on homophobia as an out gay man. (Take a look at the video for “Queen,” shot and produced by Kansas City’s Cody Critcheloe of Ssion.)

Ahead of Hadreas’ Monday-night show at the Riot Room, The Pitch dialed him up at his home.

The Pitch: Writing personal songs is one thing. Sharing them with the world and performing them live is another. What has it taken for you to become comfortable playing your music live?

Hadreas: I don’t know if I ever am comfortable, but it feels important to share, I suppose. I’ve always written music as a therapy to start with, even the first couple albums. I’m glad people were moved the way they were, but I wasn’t thinking I was going to be sharing with more than my immediate friend groups. That’s changed now. I’m writing from a personal place still, but I’m also writing for people that I think are going to be listening. That can be kind of paralyzing, and I thought I might need to change the way I wrote initially. It works for me, though, to tell my own secrets, and being that personal [with my music] ended up reaching more people, in a way. I was trying to write for other people when I started this album, but it lost heart and impact, and I wasn’t thinking about what I needed to say.

Yes, Too Bright came after you scrapped that material for a different album. When the songs that are on Too Bright started to come to you, how did you know they were different?

I think it’s riskiness. When I’m uncomfortable or nervous to share [songs], I feel that they might be important. Most of the things I’ve done that have been worthwhile, I’ve been scared to do but I’ve followed through anyway. I could just tell when my heart is in it, not just my brain making a nice song. When it feels dramatic or spiritual, when I feel brave about it — that’s [what is] on this album. A lot of the music I scrapped was nice or pleasant, but it didn’t particularly feel brave. It felt like you could play that music when you were shopping or something.

“Queen” isolates this misguided notion of “gay panic.” Was there a particular event that inspired that song, or were you just generally frustrated by that false notion?

I think if I went off and wrote a song every time someone said something to me, I’d have too many songs. I kind of combined it all. In some ways, it’s a dead-serious song, and I actually am angry and wagging my finger a little bit [at homophobia]. But also, there’s a playfulness to it, and by magnifying it, I think there’s a sense of humor to it. I like how those two things can kind of bounce off each other.

I needed that song for me. I can walk with my head down a little bit sometimes on the street, and I needed that. But as much as I needed that, I knew that other people needed it, too. People have written me letters and stuff over the past few years, and I knew that it would be helpful. I wanted to make something that wasn’t victim-y or defensive. I wanted it to be empowering, like a weapon. I wanted to make something explicit — not just about the edges of this issue. I wanted it to be very gay. [Laughs.] I wish I would have heard something like that when I was younger.

Do you ever feel that tackling these heavy themes in your music will somehow diminish the art of what you’re doing?

I think about it all the time. I knew that when I was writing and recording [this record] that that’s what was going to happen, honestly. I make talking points before interviews sometimes. But it’s a weird thing to negotiate. It’s important for me to talk about these things, but in a weird way, you don’t want it to be a big deal, either. It’s just who I am. I want to make these songs, and there would be some gay shit in there no matter what because I’m a gay person. But at the same time, it’s intentional because I know it’s going to be heard.