Perfume Genius – aka Michael Alden Hadreas – has shared his cover of Leonard Cohen’s 1969 classic ‘Bird on the Wire’ as part of a residency at LA’s KCRW station.
Putting a unique spin on what Cohen himself described as “simple country song,” Hadreas said he’d ideally perform the track with a “big pipe organ.”
“If I could play this cover anywhere, I think I’d want to play in a big church with a big pipe organ, or if we could somehow get the pipe organ into like a deep dark cave,” he said.
Hadreas also took the time to perform two songs from this year’s Set My Heart On Fire Immediately, and revealed latest single ‘On the Floor’ was inspired by “the idea of a crush.”
“When it becomes desperate and obsessive, it can turn into this thing that lives on its own separate from you and almost detached from the person you care about,” he said, “its own weird world with fictions and ideas all swirling around, and how it can be like a plague on you, and really taxing.”
It seems Hadreas is no stranger to promoting an album amidst a global pandemic, having performed several socially distanced shows since its release back in May.
Perhaps most memorably, he performed a stripped-back version of ‘Whole Life’ from home during a remote episode of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Love Indie?
Get the latest Indie news, features, updates and giveaways straight to your inbox Learn more
Continuing to make the best of a bad situation, Hadreas is set to perform a live stream gig from LA’s Palace Theatre on September 19.
Speaking to WBUR, he revealed he’s “still figuring out” how to navigate performing in 2020.
“I’m trying to figure out how can I have ideas that feel as inspired or are good in this current situation instead of trying to jam old ones into it,” he said, “they’re not going to really make sense… you know, I don’t want to livestream just to do it because that’s what you’re supposed to do… I want to make sure what I am doing, like a concert from home, which even just saying that is bothersome to me.”
Listen to Perfume Genius cover ‘Bird on the Wire’ (from the 9-minute mark):
