Perfume Genius, the stage name of Seattle musician Mike Hadreas, has released the video for the first single, “Queen,” off his new album, Too Bright. Directed by Cody Critcheloe, stage name Sscion, the video sees Hadreas as a street hustler and evolves to include pigs, smashed computers, giant shrimp dinners, a one-legged Elvis impersonator and a troupe of cheerleaders celebrating a suicide.
“I’ve seen faces of blank terror when I walk by, sometimes from seemingly strong, macho dudes,” Hadreas says of the song and video’s meaning. “Somehow my presence confuses and ultimately scares them. There is a strange power to it that I’ve only recently begun to understand and embrace. After many years trying to sort out exactly what they are scared of, most of the time converting the result into personal shame, there are now moments of monstrous pride.”
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