Perfume Genius (duo) with Dan English @ First Parish Church

Indie-pop sensation and Grammy-nominated artist Perfume Genius, the longtime project of Mike Hadreas, play a special duo set at the First Parish Church, presented by SPACE.

Hadreas, a Seattle native, began his music career in 2008 and released his debut album, Learning, in 2010 via long-time label home Matador. The album immediately captured critics’ attention, with Pitchfork praising its “eviscerating and naked” songs, marked by “heartbreaking sentiments and bruised characterizations delivered in a voice that ranges from an ethereal croon to a slightly cracked warble.” These descriptors became the hallmarks of Perfume Genius — Hadreas’ unique ability to convey emotional vulnerability not only lyrically, but with his impressively nuanced vocals.

In 2012, Hadreas released Put Your Back N 2 It, further growing his audience and critical acclaim. His 2014 album, Too Bright, marked a bold evolution in production and confidence. Co-produced by Adrian Utley of Portishead, it featured the standout single “Queen,” which quickly became a queer anthem and powerful statement of identity. Hadreas later performed the track on Late Night with David Letterman.

In 2017, Perfume Genius released the GRAMMY-nominated No Shape, a breakthrough album that expanded his global fan base and brought mainstream recognition to his art. Produced by Blake Mills (Fiona Apple, Alabama Shakes), the record earned high praise, with The New Yorker noting, “The center of his music has always been a defiant delicacy—a ragged, affirmative understanding of despair. No Shape finds him unexpectedly victorious, his body exalted.” During the album’s campaign, Hadreas appeared on multiple late-night shows and graced the cover of The Fader.

In 2020, Hadreas released Set My Heart On Fire Immediately, a critical masterpiece on Matador Records that garnered worldwide acclaim. Produced by GRAMMY winner Blake Mills, the album featured contributions from Phoebe Bridgers, Jim Keltner, Pino Palladino, Matt Chamberlin, Rob Moose, and longtime collaborator Alan Wyffels. It explored and subverted concepts of masculinity and traditional roles, introducing distinctly American musical influences. Hadreas promoted the album with performances on Jimmy Kimmel Live! (“Jason”), The Late Show with Stephen Colbert (“Whole Life”), and The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon (“On The Floor”). He followed with Ugly Season, a project born from his collaboration with choreographer Kate Wallich on The Sun Still Burns Here, a dance piece commissioned by Seattle Theatre Group and Mass MoCA and performed across major cities in 2019. The release included a stunning 30-minute film, Pygmalion’s Ugly Season, created with renowned visual artist Jacolby Satterwhite, blending surreal visuals with Hadreas’s music.

Mike Hadreas is now based in Los Angeles with his partner in life and music, Alan Wyffels.

For the longing listener… The music of composer Dan English is the communing of the head and the heart sharing secrets. The songs subsume time into feelings and images of purity, sonically and spiritually, and then, somewhat masochistically, play with lyrics drawn from the dingier parts of life: love, family, and capricious head-spaces. It’s movie-music; eternal scores for an espionage film with a protagonist who’s a clandestine, time-traveling romantic tailing the spirit itself.

Born in a quiet town in Iowa, he grew up chasing invisible things: codes in books, echoes in movies, half-sentences in songs. English found himself glued to the radio from an early age and, after picking up guitar at 10, language and sound conspired.

Following a move to New York City, Dan released his first album “Fruit Boy” in 2018 followed by 2020’s “In Grace” EP. His newest offering, Sky Record (June 2025), is his second full-length album and continues to expand upon and probe the depths explored in his previous work. The music is part confession, part séance— lush spells where the sacred and the stained trade places. Emotions arrive in disguises: tenderness (smoke), grief (rhythm), silence (a cathedral on the verge of collapse).

In addition to his solo work, Dan moonlights as a guitarist for beloved NYC rock outfit Porches and is often to be found collaborating with his cousin Melody English.