Sufjan Stevens

[hag]

Musician and multi-instrumentalist.

I grew up in Michigan and I eventually moved to New York to attend the New School for the writing program. I think I was always a musician even before I could play an instrument and I think I wanted to be a writer. Writing was more a sort of self-conscious desire through education, classes and reading. It was kind of a personal aspiration whereas music was my natural language from the beginning. It was an inherent inclination that I had. Writing was kind of a way to thwart music because I couldn’t really perceive of a way to be a musician as a vocation or practical way of life. I could see myself as a writer or journalist. But when I got here I started meeting lots of other musicians and they just coaxed me into playing and recording songs and participating in their shows. I did it kind of unwillingly at first and I kept saying ‘No, I’m a writer. I’ll do this because you invited me. But I’m working on my book and I want to get published and I want to teach.’ But eventually it took over and now I consider myself a failed writer.

I'm a very self-conscious person; I think we all are, but I'm especially not very comfortable in my body. I always feel really weird and awkward on the street or on the stage. It has nothing to do with circumstances; it's just an ongoing psychological state, like white noise.

Sufjan Stevens is a magician who seems to be able to conjure up mystical and enchanting elements within simple melodies that become ever more complex by means of constant repetition, compositional layering (with rich harmonies) and ever-changing variations. The music usually starts naive and rather straight-forward, but tends to build up to a towering climax, like a train speeding towards a cliff, without ever sounding rushed, tense or hurried in any way. The travellers (me and you) have all the time in the world, observing details of the landscape through the window, hearing stories of local legends while we're at it, that become an intricate part of the journey. The music is a delicate balance between fragile folk music and complex classical music (of the minimalist kind). It is gentle and deeply human, as well as being rigid and mathematically structured at the same time. Sufjan's voice is flimsy, speaking to the listener on a very personal level, and most of the time it fits the music perfectly, particularly as a contrast to the grand sonic curtains that envelop it. His voice is, in fact, the only thing in his music that sounds limited in any way, for his creativity is simply mind-boggling.

https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/sufjan-stevens