Wine and Cheese: Perfume Genius and Weyes Blood

Perfume Genius and Weyes Blood are a match made in chamber pop heaven.

It’s your dream collab. The artists you add back-to-back to the queue. The pairing you can’t get enough of. You know they sound good together, but why? Welcome to Wine and Cheese, a series investigating the why and telling you all about it.

Written by C.S. Harper

Photos courtesy of Justin Higuchi and Perfume Genius

On the surface, Perfume Genius and Weyes Blood may seem like radically different artists. With her operatic voice and immaculate suits, the latter brings an understated elegance to her music. Perfume Genius’ tenor vocals, billowy clothing, and dance-heavy concerts give his songs a more free-spirited nature. Although these artists seem incompatible, their opposing personalities and sounds make for a unique listening experience.

Weyes Blood and Perfume Genius have crafted distinct brands of indie pop. The former’s music has a vintage folk flair, featuring basslines and drumming that could be found on a Fleetwood Mac album. Coming from a Christian and experimental rock background, Weyes Blood also incorporates these influences into her music. In an interview, she detailed that “I grew up with church music …. When I record, I think about sacred space, and I think about what would be the sound of your soul if there is music coming out of it.” Before her solo career, she was the bassist for the freak rock band Jackie-O Motherf-cker, which similarly fuses electronic and folk. As such, her songs often use organ-like synths and dissonant guitars that add layers to her ‘70s-inspired sound. “Movies” and “Picture Me Better” from her latest record, Titanic Rising, feature operatic vocal performances and spacious production reminiscent of worship music. On the other hand, “Mirror Forever” combines her influences by layering distorted guitars in the bridge, followed by organs in the final chorus.

A pop wild child, Perfume Genius makes music that is bold and colorful. He is unafraid of experimentation, taking inspiration from genres ranging from jazz to glam rock. Rather than developing a cohesive sound throughout his discography, he connects his albums through their minimalistic lyrics and layered instrumentation. His latest record, 2017’s No Shape, is his most fearless one yet. Its maximalist production style breaks many pop norms by employing irregular song structures and experimental synths. Unlike Weyes Blood, he uses an array of inorganic instruments to build a wall of sound in his tracks. As a result, he creates expressive songs that revel in sonic chaos. One track off No Shape, “Slip Away,” begins with a guitar but explodes into a “glitter grenade” of drums and synths in the chorus. Similarly, “Go Ahead” plays with sonic incoherence through rhythmically offbeat synths.

Photo courtesy of Michael Booth

Despite their differences, these artists have much in common. Their music, which pulls from various genres beyond pop, is filled with lush production and intricacies that unravel with every listen. Both musicians also challenge gender norms through their aesthetics. Whereas Weyes Blood usually wears tailored suits in concert, Perfume Genius has traditionally feminine clothing and makeup for promotional shoots. Their lyrics also share similar themes of romance, self-love, and heartbreak. They write with candidness, drawing from personal experiences to create poignant tracks. Due to their innovative creative visions, these indie pop masterminds are the perfect combination for a playlist.

The singer-songwriters don’t just sound good on a playlist — they also sound great together on a track. For No Shape, they collaborated on two songs. In “Braid,” Weyes Blood provided dreamy backing vocals to complement Perfume Genius’ somber singing. The second track, “Sides,” merges each’s trademarks flawlessly. It begins with a screeching guitar riff and zany synths — very on-brand sounds for Perfume Genius — as he sings from the perspective of a lover who is frustrated with his aloofness. After his verse, atmospheric synths and a bouncy bassline kick in as Weyes Blood sings about the other side of the relationship in her usual stately fashion. The artists sing together in the outro, their vocals intertwining perfectly to pack a punch in the end.

Perfume Genius and Weyes Blood are the pop duo the music community needs. With two indie pop masterpieces under their belts, here’s hoping the pair will deliver another bop on Perfume Genius’ upcoming 2020 album, Set My Heart On Fire Immediately.