Sufjan Stevens ( / ˈ s uː f j ɑː n / SOOF -yahn ; born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and musician who plays many different instruments. He has released ten solo studio albums and worked on several albums with other artists. Stevens has been nominated for Grammy and Academy Awards.

His first album, A Sun Came, was released in 2000 by Asthmatic Kitty, a record label he started with his stepfather. He became well-known for his 2005 album Illinois, which reached number one on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart. The song "Chicago" from that album also gained attention. Later, Stevens contributed music to the 2017 film Call Me by Your Name. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song and a Grammy for Best Song Written for Visual Media for the track "Mystery of Love" from the film’s soundtrack.

Stevens has created albums with different styles, including the electronic music of The Age of Adz, the simple folk sound of Seven Swans, and the orchestral music of Illinois and the holiday-themed Songs for Christmas. He often plays many instruments himself on his recordings. His music explores themes such as religion and spirituality. His tenth studio album, Javelin, was released in October 2023.

Early life, family and education

Stevens was born in Detroit and lived there until he was nine years old. His family then moved to Alanson, Michigan, which is located in the northern part of the state's Lower Peninsula. He was raised by his father, Rasjid, and his stepmother, Pat. He sometimes visited his mother, Carrie, in Oregon after she married her second husband, Lowell Brams, who later became the head of Stevens' record label, Asthmatic Kitty. Stevens has Lithuanian and Greek ancestry. The name "Sufjan" is an Islamic name of Arabic origin, meaning "son of Sufyan ibn Harb." His parents gave him this name when he was born because they were members of Subud, a spiritual group that brings together people of different faiths.

Stevens attended several schools, including the Detroit Waldorf School, Alanson Public Schools, and Interlochen Arts Academy. He graduated from Harbor Light Christian School. He later studied at Hope College in Holland, Michigan, where he earned a Phi Beta Kappa degree. He also completed an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School in New York City.

During his time in school, Stevens studied the oboe and the similar English horn, which he plays on his music albums. He did not learn to play the guitar until he was at Hope College.

Career

Stevens began his music career as a member of Marzuki, a folk-rock band from Holland, Michigan, and as part of the garage band Con Los Dudes. He also played (and still plays) many instruments for the group Danielson Famile. During his final semester at Hope College, Stevens wrote and recorded his first solo album, A Sun Came, which he released through Asthmatic Kitty Records. Later, he moved to New York City and joined a writing program at The New School for Social Research. While there, Stevens became interested in writing short stories, which he thought might help him write a novel, but eventually led him back to songwriting.

While in New York, Stevens created and recorded his second album, Enjoy Your Rabbit, a collection of songs inspired by the animals of the Chinese zodiac. This album included electronic music styles.

Next, he released the album Michigan, which featured folk songs and instrumentals. The songs described places like Detroit, Flint, the Upper Peninsula, and vacation spots such as Tahquamenon Falls and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. The album also included personal reflections on faith, sorrow, love, and the renewal of Michigan. Starting with this album, Stevens announced a plan to create an album for each of the 50 U.S. states, called the Fifty States Project. After Michigan was released, Stevens compiled earlier songs into a side project called Seven Swans, which came out in March 2004. He continued working at his job in the children's book division at Time Warner until he toured for Seven Swans.

The next album in the Fifty States Project was Illinois, which explored topics like the cities of Chicago, Decatur, and Jacksonville; the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition; the death of a friend on Casimir Pulaski Day; the poet Carl Sandburg; and the serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Stevens researched and wrote the album in the second half of 2004. Like Michigan, Illinois used the state as a starting point for personal reflections on faith, family, love, and location. The album was originally scheduled for release on July 5, 2005, but was briefly delayed due to legal issues involving an image of Superman on the original cover. The first 5,000 copies of the double vinyl version had a balloon sticker covering Superman's image, while later versions left the space empty, as did the CD version. Illinois received widespread praise and was named the highest-rated album of 2005 on Metacritic. It also won several awards, including Album of the Year, Best Album Art/Packaging, and Male Artist of the Year at the 2006 PLUG Independent Music Awards. Pitchfork, No Ripcord, and Paste magazine named Illinois their top album of 2005, and Stevens received the 2005 Pantheon Prize for the album.

In April 2006, Stevens announced that 21 songs from the Illinois recording sessions would be used in a new album called The Avalanche, released on July 11, 2006. On September 11, 2006, in Nashville, Tennessee, Stevens performed a new piece titled "Majesty Snowbird," a ten-minute composition. In November 2006, a five-CD box set titled Songs for Christmas was released, containing original songs and Christmas classics recorded each year since 2001 (except 2004). Stevens started the project to help him appreciate Christmas more. The songs were created through annual collaborations with different people, including minister Vito Aiuto, and were shared with friends and family.

Although some of Stevens' later work was linked to future "States" projects, he later admitted that the Fifty States Project was a "promotional gimmick" and not something he intended to complete. In November 2009, he told Exclaim! magazine that he no longer had as much confidence in his work, but believed this change helped him be more flexible in his creative process.

During the 2005 winter holidays, Stevens recorded an album with Rosie Thomas and Denison Witmer, who played banjo and sang. In April 2006, Pitchfork mistakenly reported that Stevens and Thomas were expecting a child, and later retracted the claim. Witmer and Thomas later said it was an April Fools' joke. In December 2006, the recordings were released digitally by Nettwerk as a Rosie Thomas album titled These Friends of Mine. The album was released physically in March 2007.

On May 31, 2007, Asthmatic Kitty Records announced that Stevens would debut a new project called The BQE in early November 2007. This project was described as a "symphonic and cinematic exploration" of New York City's Brooklyn–Queens Expressway. It was performed as a live show, featuring an original film by Stevens (shot in Super 8 and 16 mm film) and a live soundtrack by Stevens and an orchestra. The performance included 36 musicians, such as a small band, wind and brass players, string musicians, horn players, and hula hoopers. The music had no lyrics. The BQE was commissioned by the Brooklyn Academy of Music for their Next Wave Festival and performed on three nights from November 1–3, 2007. The show sold out the 2,109-seat BAM Opera House without any advertising. After three weeks of rehearsals, Stevens presented a 30-minute composition, followed by an additional hour of music. The BQE won the 2008 Brendan Gill Prize. In April 2007, Stevens made surprise appearances on Thomas's tour in support of These Friends of Mine in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. In 2007, he performed at various events, including a show at the Kennedy Center to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Millennium Stage concerts.

Stevens has also written essays for Asthmatic Kitty Records' "Sidebar" feature and Topic Magazine. He wrote the introduction to the 2007 edition of The Best American Nonrequired Reading, a short story about his early education titled How I Trumped Rudolf Steiner and Overcame the Tribulations of Illiteracy, One Snickers Bar at a Time. That winter, he hosted an "Xmas Song Exchange Contest," where Alec Duffy won the rights to the original song "Lonely Man of Winter." The song was only available at private listening parties until 2018, when Duffy negotiated with Asthmatic Kitty Records to release it, with all proceeds going to his organization, JACK.

Stevens has also contributed music to artists such as Denison Witmer, Soul-Junk, Half-handed Cloud, Brother Danielson, Danielson Famile, Serena-Maneesh, Castanets, Will Stratton, Shannon Stephens, Clare & the Reasons, Little Scream, and Liz Janes. In 2007 alone, he played piano on The National's album Boxer, produced and contributed instrumental tracks to Rosie Thomas's These Friends of Mine, played

Artistry

Stevens' music is often linked to genres like indie folk, alternative rock, indie rock, indie pop, baroque pop, chamber pop, folk pop, avant-garde folk, lo-fi folk, and electronica. He plays many different instruments, including the banjo, guitar, piano, drums, woodwind, and others. He uses a technique called multitrack recording to layer these sounds together in his recordings.

Stevens' work often includes themes such as love, religion, outer space, and grief. His record label noted that his 2010 album, The Age of Adz, included themes like love, sex, death, disease, illness, anxiety, and suicide.

Although many of his songs include spiritual references, Stevens does not identify as a contemporary Christian music artist. He rarely discusses religion with the press. In an interview with The Village Voice, he said, "I don't think music media is the real forum for theological discussions. I think I've said things and sung about things that probably weren't appropriate for this kind of form. And I just feel like it's not my work or my place to be making claims and statements because I often think it's misunderstood."

In a 2004 interview with Comes with a Smile magazine, Stevens said, "I don't like talking about that stuff in the public forum because I think certain themes and convictions are meant for personal conversation." In a 2006 interview, he added, "It's not so much that faith influences us as it lives in us. In every circumstance (giving a speech or tying my shoes), I am living and moving and being."

Personal life

Stevens has lived in Upstate New York near the Catskill Mountains since 2019. Before that, he lived in New York City for 20 years. He is a Christian. In 2005, he said he attended an Anglo-Catholic Episcopal church.

In September 2023, Stevens shared on Instagram that he had been hospitalized the month before and was diagnosed with Guillain–Barré syndrome. He wrote that he was receiving physical therapy to learn how to walk again after the illness.

In October 2023, Stevens dedicated his new album, Javelin, to his partner, Evans Richardson, who died in April of the same year. Richardson had worked as the chief of staff at the Studio Museum in Harlem, which is focused on showing the work of Black artists. In 2021, he was elected as chair of the accreditation commission for the American Alliance of Museums, with a focus on making museums more diverse and accessible to the communities they serve. Stevens’ dedication of Javelin to Richardson was the first time he publicly mentioned Richardson or discussed his own sexuality.

Discography

• A Sun Came (2000)
• Enjoy Your Rabbit (2001)
• Michigan (2003)
• Seven Swans (2004)
• Illinois (2005)
• The Age of Adz (2010)
• Carrie & Lowell (2015)
• The Ascension (2020)
• Convocations (2021)
• Javelin (2023)

• Sisyphus (2014), with Serengeti and Son Lux as Sisyphus
• Planetarium (2017), with Bryce Dessner, Nico Muhly, and James McAlister
• The Decalogue (2019), with Timo Andres
• Aporia (2020), with Lowell Brams
• A Beginner's Mind (2021), with Angelo De Augustine
• Reflections (2023), with Timo Andres and Conor Hanick

• The Avalanche (2006)
• Songs for Christmas (2006)
• The BQE (2009) (soundtrack)
• All Delighted People (2010)
• Silver & Gold (2012)