Perfume Genius has announced his fifth studio album Set My Heart on Fire Immediately, out May 15th via Matador Records.
The Seattle-based artist also known as Mike Hadreas shared the first single from the LP, “Describe,” on Tuesday, with an accompanying video directed by Hadreas and featuring choreographer Kate Wallich’s dance company the YC.
“It started as a really somber ballad,” Hadreas wrote of “Describe.” “It was very minimal and very slow. And then it turned into this beast of a song. I started writing about when you are in such a dark place that you don’t even remember what goodness is or what anything feels like. And so, the idea was having someone describe that to you, because you forgot or can’t get to it.”
He said that the video was meant to depict “an end of the world where there are no boundaries, there are no edges, no rules, or the rules are completely new with how you interact with each other and the space around you.”
Wallich and Hadreas have previously worked together on 2019’s The Sun Still Burns Here, a collaborative dance project that Hadreas wrote the music for and performed in.
Hadreas will be joining Kevin Parker, a.k.a. Tame Impala, on tour this summer, opening for the Slow Rush artist in North America from May 29th until August 7th.