I can actually answer this now :) Take a look below, hopefully that will clear it up.

#!/usr/bin/env perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Encode;

binmode STDOUT, ":utf8";

my $string = qq(Queensrÿche);

print qq($string\n);

Encode::is_utf8($string)? print " - is utf8\n" : print " - is not utf8
+\n";

use utf8;
$string = qq(Queensrÿche);
no utf8;

print qq($string\n);

Encode::is_utf8($string)? print " - is utf8\n" : print " - is not utf8
+\n";
[download]

Ouput:

Queensrÿche
 - is not utf8
Queensrÿche
 - is utf8
[download]