Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevens
Sufjan Stevensis an American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He first came to wider recognition with the 2000 album, A Sun Came, which was released on the Asthmatic Kitty label he co-founded with his stepfather. He is perhaps best known for his 2005 album, Illinois, which hit number one on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, and for the single "Chicago" from that album...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMusician
Date of Birth1 July 1975
CountryUnited States of America
beliefs church confess entire hard ideologies people personal political reconcile within
It's hard to reconcile my personal beliefs with an entire institution like the Church or the Republicans. Or with people within those political persuasions who have such different ideologies but confess the same things I confess spiritually.
answer asked becomes entire music musicians mysteries packaged process trying understand word
Musicians are often asked to answer for an entire culture, or for an entire movement. It's a process of commodification. It becomes packaged and summarized in a word like 'emo' or 'grunge'... or 'folk music.' I think that's just language itself, trying to understand the mysteries of the world.
chance complete control gets jimmy slightly time
Every time Jimmy Scott sings, it's the same but slightly different. I don't know how he does that or where he gets that from. I think it's instinct. Nothing he does is by chance; he's in complete control of what he's doing. He's just beautiful and unique.
actual record taken
I'd like to do a record that doesn't even reference actual places. Because I think it's kind of an open-ended concept. It doesn't have to be taken so literally.
however
I come from a folk tradition where you just dance however you feel comfortable.
excited music pop work
Pop music is so structured, and I'm excited to try and challenge that in my own work.
albums amy christmas dated feels nearly performance production relationship vocal
I have a love/hate relationship with Amy Grant, but I do go back to her Christmas albums once in a while. They're dated and sentimental and the production is nearly unlistenable, but there's something about her vocal performance that just feels really true. I would take her Christmas albums over Mariah Carey's or Destiny's Child's any day.
though worried worry
So I'm a little worried about that though I know I don't have to worry about these things in the way, I don't know, that Cher has to worry about it.
art focusing level work
My anxiety level of my own work and what I'm doing and focusing on my art and all of that stuff? That's fundamental.
basically bind corporate country developed faith government guided laws principles reduced standards uses
Morals, principles and laws are when faith is reduced to standards and those standards basically just bind us, and we become prejudicial, racist, self-serving when we're guided by these laws... When a developed country uses Christianity in its policies, in government, in maintaining corporate wealth, that's a bastardized rendering of a faith.
casey
I think I get a lot of ideas from when I was a kid, listening to Casey Kasem's 'American Top 40.'
distressed public realm weirder
I still feel like I have a lot to learn in the realm of sound experimentation, and I think I would like things to get noisier and weirder and more distressed and more aggressive, but I don't know if that's something that would be suitable for public consumption.
evoke exciting illinois itself music seemed several states tone
I was working on several states simultaneously. The tone of the music for Illinois seemed much more exciting and challenging to me. The music itself seemed to evoke a very big character.
complete ways
I think the implausibility in some ways redeems me from having to complete it.