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Sufjan stuffie!

My friend made this for me...





Now all he needs is wings!

dream analysis, anyone?

He was so tired of my friends calling him gay that he got a big ego and started demanding to his agent that he have a flock of hot girls around him for every public appearance.

Honestly, I didn't even know about it; I just wandered into it. I dreamt I was wandering around the Evergreen campus at night by myself and got lost. I ended up walking into this room that I was hoping was a bathroom but it was like a giant clothing store at the mall with all the lights out and that "Numa Numa" song blaring away.

Oddly, my name was already on the list of people auditioning, so they sat me on this bench with another girl who was total supermodel material. She started criticizing everything I was wearing: "Do those shoes have a hole in them??" "Those don't match!" "Your bag is WAY too big."

For some reason the two people there running the show kept it almost completely dark, and stood way far away from us and shouted directions which I couldn't really hear, but apparently I was late to my audition, and there were already three girls in the room with him "auditioning." But they said they would try to help me level the playing field by later letting me in there with him by myself.

The other girl on the couch started questioning just what was in this large bag of mine. She reached in and pulled out my Bible (which, I realized in the dream, a friend had put in there in a previous dream. And then another book, which another friend gave to me in yet a different dream! She started wrinkling her nose and was all "Ewwww, who brings a 90-year-old Bible to an audition?" For a moment I felt really lame, but then thought "I bet if I show this to Sufjan he'll really like it." But I kept that thought to myself.

Taking her advice, though, I decided to change. Since it was dark, I decided to help myself to the clothes. It took a little while to find the skirts, and I chose this red pencil skirt which, as I fumbled to put it on, I realized just might be too small. Right then, my name was called to go in. I found my way to the front.

There was a list of Sufjan's songs handwritten on a sheet in different colors, with some songs scratched out with names of the other auditionees on them. Apparently the way it worked is you chose one of the songs on the list, and Sufjan would play it for you, and if he did a good job, then you got the audition. But as I looked at the list, the songs all changed to a list of songs by bands I had never heard of. I randomly picked one by "Vajl Karla" and everyone "Ooooohed." Then I woke up.

So, a friend of mine posted a personal ad on Craigslist. This was one of the replies she got:

Here's a picture. Let's please talk. I think you're hot. Wanna talk. At least say hi.

Bo


...
uh, yeah, I'm so sure. I'm an optimist and still, this "Bo" guy must think she's dumb. (but we're replying anyway, just to dick with him.)

Did anyone else see the movie "Baby Mama?" When you got to the part about the mom who named her kids Banjo and Wingspan, did you immediately think of Sufjan as well? Or was that just me? :P

(Personally, I'm placing bets that any potential offspring would be named Nebuchanezzer-Mae.)

<sub>my brightest diamond this monday (slaughtered lamb, london)

hola every one

i've 2 spare tickets for the my brighest diamond gig this monday night at the very tiny and very intimate slaughtered lamb gig (holds about 50/60 people). tis sold out now. looksie! https://www.wegottickets.com/event/28449

let me know if you're interested (drop me a pm or email). face value.

she's well good.</sub>

Subject line.

Post about hilarious Sufjan-related thread in another community.

Link to said thread.

Explanation that community is entirely conducted in existential, "meta" format, and commenters often play devil's advocate to poke fun at things they most enjoy.

So. I promised a friend of mine that I'd introduce her to Sufjan's music and upload a few tracks. Somehow I got kinda carried away and ended up doing a "compilation album" of 17 tracks, to give her an image of his range. I hope she'll find something interesting and maybe start wandering deeper into the wondrous world of Sufjan.

Then I thought that maybe the tracklist might be interesting to share with other Sufjan fans. Do you think this is a sufficient sample of his works? What would you have left out, and what would you have chosen instead? As I wrote in my own lj, this is not a "best of" or even "personal favorites" kind of a thing, more like a showcase of what he is capable of. Lots of great songs were left out, simply because he's done so much.

Holland is a city in western Michigan, known for its tulips. They even have a festival dedicated to the flower.

INTRO
Marzuki: 10,000 Roses (for Me)
from album Marzuki (1996); Marzuki were a college band led by Shannon Stephens, Sufjan being usually their percussionist, and very occasionally a vocalist (this is the only Marzuki track with him singing); maybe a little amusing listen, but interesting nevertheless

SIDE A
A Winner Needs a Wand from A Sun Came! (2000; reissued in 2004)
Super Sexy Woman A Sun Came!
Year of the Dog Enjoy Your Rabbit (2001)
Say Yes! to M!ch!gan! Michigan, or, Greetings from Michigan: the Great Lake State (2003)
They Also Mourn Who Do Not Wear Black (For the Homeless in Muskegon) Michigan
The Dress Looks Nice on You Seven Swans (2004)
A Good Man Is Hard to Find Seven Swans

INTERLUDE
What Goes on
Sufjan has participated in quite a few tribute album projects, covering songs by such artists as Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Tim Buckley; this one is a cover of The Beatles' What Goes on, recorded for This Bird Has Flown: A 40th Anniversary Tribute to The Beatles' Rubber Soul (2005)

SIDE B
Jacksonville Illinois, or, Come on! Feel the Illinoise! (2005)
They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh! Illinois
Opie's Funeral Song Mews Too: An Asthmatic Kitty Compilation (2006)
The Mistress Witch from McClure (or, the Mind That Knows Itself) The Avalanche: Outtakes and Extras from the Illinois Album (2006)
Chicago (Multiple personality disorder version) The Avalanche
That Was the Worst Christmas Ever! Songs for Christmas vol. III: Ding! Dong! (2003; commercially released in 2006)
Get Behind Me, Santa! Songs for Christmas vol. V: Peace (2006)

OUTRO
Rosie Thomas: Say Hello
from These Friends of Mine (2006); Rosie Thomas is a folk singer-songwriter, and TFoM is a NYC-themed collaboration album she did with Denison Witmer and Sufjan, who delivers additional vocals for this track; on April Fools' day in 2006, Rosie and Denison performed a rather successful prank, sending an email to Pitchfork and "revealing" that Rosie was pregnant with Sufjan's child, which ended up as a news item and surprised a lot of people, including oblivious Sufjan

The little info texts sound probably a bit obvious to you but I left them there anyway. :P I also suppose most everyone has these tracks already, so I didn't provide links. But if you happen to be missing any of them, just ask and you shall receive.

You know you are too much into Sufjan when...

1. ... you know how to pronounce his name.
2. ... all your friends know how to pronounce his name.
3. ... you think Snow Patrol are a really great band only because they mentioned Sufjan in their song "Hands Open".
4. ... you fantasize about traveling to Illinois and Michigan.
5. ... you think men with butterfly wings are kind of sexy.
6. ... people make comments like: "If there would be toilet paper with Sufjan on it you would buy it!"
7. ... you bought your flat mate from Illinois "Come on feel the Illinois!" for his birthday (despite him liking rap music).
8. ... you proudly told your flat mate from Illinois about Casimir Pulaski Day (and just can't understand people who have never heard of this Polish war hero. I mean what high school did they go to? The high school of Madonna?!)
9. ... you bought your Christian friends "Seven Swans" and "Michigan" to show them what REAL Christian music sounds like.
10. ... you write your history dissertation about JFK and Adlai Stevenson and after finding out that Sufjan has written a song entitled "Adlai Stevenson" you mention this "new-folk musician" in your thesis and even include some of the song lyrics. (I mean, even unsociable history tutors need to know about Sufjan!)
11. ... you catch yourself wondering about the size of Sufjan's feet.
12. ... you actually know the size of Sufjan's feet. (Size 11)
13. ... you post on a music forum of a different artist (Tori Amos) and after bombarding people with Sufjan sigs, lyrics and more Sufjan sigs you leave at least half a dozen Sufjan converts behind.
14. ... your journey around the world turns into a Sufjan crusade. You argue with a guy in Hollywood that "Michigan" is better than "Illinoise", ship "Seven Swans" all the way from the States to a family living on top of a mountain in New Zealand just because the mother mentioned that she loves the banjo and share your Sufjan love with a rasta guy who gave you a ride from Brisbane to Rockhampton. After all he mentioned that he likes folk music...
15. ... you would really love to meet Sufjan. Damn, you wouldn't mind marrying him and giving all your little ones names that start with S!
16. ... you travel 1000 miles in one day to see Sufjan in concert.
17. ... you travel to a different country to see Sufjan in concert and afterwards think: "That was really worth it!"
18. ... you respond to strangers who say: "Oh, I like Sufjan's music!" with "I love you!"
19. ... you are really proud that Sufjan is going global but miss the old days when you could sit so close to the stage you could almost nick his water bottle.
20. … you almost get physically ill with excitement before seeing him in concert.
21. … you can't wait to get home to make toilet paper dolls with "soft, brown raisin eyes" to win hearts everywhere.
22. ... You start playing the banjo because of him
23. ... You hear parts of his songs in everyday noises (ex: my doorbell reminds me of the beginning to "Chicago")
24. ... You get homesick listening to "Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lake State", even though you're not from Michigan
25. ... Every time you see a guy wearing a winter hat with ear flaps you think "Sufjan?..."
26. ... You have a desire to move to Brooklyn for reasons not necessarily related to your career/education
27. ... "Baroque Pop" is a totally familiar musical genre
28. ... You think the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway is an interesting and artistic topic of conversation
29. ... Guys wearing tight white pants are a normal thing to you. In fact, you find it sexy.
30. ... You think of Sufjan every time you see birds (especially swans, barn owls, snowbirds, and once extinct woodpeckers from the swamps of Arkansas.
31. ... You think his version of "The Star Spangled Banner" should replace the traditional one
32. ... You drove to New York in a van (ok, bus) with your friends just to see him. And you WOULD have slept in parking lots (I don't mind, I don't mind).
33. ... You think hula-hooping should be a part of every musical performance
34. ... You know what he smells like.
35. ... You know all the words in "Enjoy Your Rabbit"... yes, the Cantonese.

Numbers 1-19 are from random Sufjan fans; 21 is Nicole's addition (that quote is from the actual letter received from AK), 20 and 22 - 33 added by Katie. 35 added by me.

If you have any additions of your own, feel free to add them!!

for me, the following apply: 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16 (six times over!), 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, and 34! I think I qualify :/

SUFJAN'S GONNA BE A DADDY

as much as i mildly dislike pitchfork:

"And that's not all Rosie and Sufjan have been collaborating on, as the two lovesongbirds are having a baby together. Serious! For once, Pitchfork is not joking.

"Sufjan and I are also expecting and that is something we both are beaming about," wrote Rosie. "Life is good.""

link to article

i'm in shock. (HE LIED TO ME!! T__T . . . just kidding.) 

Edit: mmk, it was an april fools joke and me and my sufjan-obsessed father are out of the loop. whoops.

Arr!

Ah yeah.

Does anyone have an mp3 of "The Lord God Bird"?

some things

a few things I thought I would ask:

1. who else saw Danielson: A Family Movie (or, Make A Joyful Noise HERE)?also . . . i may get flamed for this, but who else really dislikes the danielson family?
2. how many people here are jewish, buddhist, atheist etc. or otherwise not christian? do you feel that sufjan's representation as a "christian musician" is accurate? do you think that it affects his music in any way?
3. does anyone have an mp3 of barn owl, night killer? i've tried hype machine and the single link to it is broken . 
   

thanks guys :]

does anyone have an mp3 of sufjan covering "lakes of canada?" i've been looking for it for sooo long.

I met Sufjan

I was walking out of Joanna Newsom's show at BAM Friday night and knew there had to be some mega famous people in the audience (Maggie Gyllenhal passed us after the show also) so I'm scoping the people walking out of the door as I wait for my friend Soph's friends to show up...and we're walking away...all of the sudden this dude with Buddy Holly glasses (minus the bottoms of the lenses, which had a clear frame around them), a black hat, and a black hoodie over that....and a beautiful space in his teeth...and lovely thick black eyelashes...and blue eyes and a scruffy face...walked passed me with a friend. And then a click went through my head and my brain exploded into a mushroom cloud, prompting me to squeeze the nerves on my friend's arm to their Crazy Pain point and me to whisper "that's SUFJAN MOTHERFUCKING STEVENS"...and with that he was already gliding very fast through the crowd and I pushed rudely to follow him. A dude behind me commented, saying "There's no room to push, young lady" and I wanted to punch him but instead said "I'm sorry oh I'm so sorry!" and did not bother to explain the urgent matter at hand. I reach the back of Sufjan Stevens and see a 100mph marquee of things to say in my head so I don't sound like a total ass and come up with the idea of tapping him on the back and saying "uhhh...hi...um...!!...can I take a picture with you?"

I think he was a little startled that I had actually recognized him under all of that. He had a friend with him and I could tell that Sufjan didn't want his picture taken because he didn't want to be held up for forever. I completely understood as he awkwardly declined and this is the part where I don't remember what I said because we were both so extremely awkward and he looked uncomfortable buthe'smyheroyouknow? so I had to say something! There was some sort of filler in that moment and I have no idea what I was doing or saying except staring at the face of the brilliant Sufjan Stevens. It might have been something sad like this:


M: Oh okay...I totally understand- don't worry
S: Yeah, I'm sorry..it's just
M: Yeah, I know...it's okay
S: Yeah, I really don't want to do that
M: Totally
S: Awkward half-smile
M: Beaming face off of face

I told him it was nice to have met him and he said

S: "Actually we didn't meet. *holds out hand*
M: "Oh, well I'm Meghan!"
S: "Hello, I'm Sufjan"

He is smiley and his hands are soft and pretty

Anyway, he was about to walk away and I had had had to tell him how I felt so to his back I said "wait...can I just tell you something for 10 seconds? 10 seconds."

M: "I just want you to know that I took a 10 hour bus ride here I listened to Michigan the entire time and it just transformed me. It's so incredibly beautiful"

And he is smiling!

S: Oh wow, wow. Thank you so much. 10 hours???! Why were you on a bus for 10 hours? To get here?
M: To see Jo! I came all the way from my school in Vermont to see Jo!
S: Oh my god!

And I don't remember what we said from then on...but his friend was waiting and I didn't want to be rude so we wished each other a good night and parted. I walked away with my eyes and mouth trembling the silly and girly "Oh my God!"s quietly and back through the crowd to my friends. Where I called my father. And talked loudly and sighed at the phone.


And it was toootal beauty

Interview

Sufjan Stevens: So where are you calling from? I have no information about Soundcheck.

Emily Strong: Oh, ok! I'm calling from Austin, actually. And, um, Soundcheck is a new magazine. They have five issues out, but I actually only just started writing for them. In fact, you're my second interview for them so far.

SS: How's it going so far?

ES: Oh, it's good. I really like everybody. It's a good team, and we're kind of like-minded about what we want to do with the magazine. It's really exciting. We've got a lot of good stuff going on.

SS: Is it just local Austin?

ES: No, actually, we have distribution in record stores in a lot of the major cities, and then they're working on a deal with some major bookstore chains to be distributed through them as well. And of course you can order it online... The idea of the magazine, as it was explained to me, is to be like Filter or Vice, but free. So, like, the same level of music information, but, you know, not charging people for it.

SS: I see. How do you afford that? Through advertising?

ES: Yes. Yeah, that's the idea.

SS: That's a noble project, considering that printed media is sort of a dying art form.

ES: Yeah, it really is. And it's so heavily controlled by the magazines that have been around forever. Not that I have anything against them. I enjoy Filter and CMJ and Devil In the Woods. But you know what I mean.

SS: Yeah.

ES: It's just good to get new blood.

SS: It is. You're right.

ES: So anyway, the first question I wanted to ask you was about Asthmatic Kitty. I know you helped found it, but how much are you involved, in terms of band selection and working with the other artists? I know you talked about it being very collaborative, but how much are you involved with the daily workings of the label?

SS: Um, I'm pretty involved in making creative decisions. We never work with a band unless it's unanimous between myself, Lowell [Brams] .. my step-dad, who basically is the foundation of the label .. and then our close friend and colleague, Michael Kaufmann. The three of us are the triumvirate, I guess, of Asthmatic Kitty. Obviously I'm so busy now with my own music that I have less to do with the daily workings of the label, and I don't do a lot of the sort of A&R; business stuff. My role is being more creatively involved in making decisions. And I help out as much as I can with writing content for bios and one sheets and promotional stuff, and getting information on the site, and just making decisions. We all kind of play off each other and work off each other, and we each have kind of our separate roles. Yeah, but my role is changing all the time.

ES: Did you write your own bio?

SS: I did! I wrote my own bio, which is terrible. You know, I think I wrote press materials for the Illinois record, the Michigan record, and for the Avalanche, and then recently we decided that I shouldn't be writing my own press.

(both laugh)

SS: Because there's this weird disembodiment that you need to approach the materials as an objective writer. And I think that's a very unnatural, almost unhealthy, process.

ES: Yeah, that would be very difficult to write about yourself in the third person. I mean, when I was reading the bio.. Well, first of all, it's really well-written. I really enjoyed it. But I was like, ..This sounds like him. There's too much personal knowledge going on here. But man, that would be so difficult to be writing about yourself objectively!..

SS: Well, it's not objective, and then what happens is that I start indulging in fiction, and it becomes a fabrication, or it's very selective and unbalanced, or one-sided. And that's fine. I mean, a bio is a pretense. It's not comprehensive at all.

ES: Well, and it's always a little bit fictional. Not that lies are being told about the person, but it is a narrative, so it's very much a slant.

SS: Yeah, and I think it's selective information, and it's supposed to support a listener or reader's understanding of the music, and that's kind of how I approached it.

ES: I like it, though. So you did most of the bios?

SS: No, I did some of them. It's a very collaborative thing, and our bands are really involved in a lot of the elements. Some of them design their own records and contribute to their own bios. It's a very do-it-yourself record label. It's very cooperative in that way.

ES: I like that. I actually was reading the Curtains' bio because they were opening for Final Fantasy..last week..

SS: Oh yeah!

ES: And I was reading more about them, and I was like, ..Oh, they're on Asthmatic Kitty!.. I didn't realize that. I guess I hadn't noticed them before?

SS: They're kind of a new band for us.

ES: Ok, yeah, because I thought I was familiar with all the Asthmatic Kitty bands and I just hadn't heard of them. But then when I was interviewing Owen [Pallett], he was telling me that Annie [Lewandowski, of the Curtains] has a side-project..that he really likes, and I was like, ..Oh, I wonder if they're on Asthmatic Kitty, too?.. I don't know what's going on. I'm just kind of discovering them, so their world is just sort of opening up to me.

SS: Well you know, Chris [Cohen] used to be in Deerhoof.

ES: Yeah, I've actually seen him in Deerhoof several times, so I recognized him. So anyway, moving on. Your music is a little difficult to categorize, which a lot of bands on your label are. I think it's harder now to stick bands in a genre. That's partially just because there are so many hybridizations of genres now..

SS: Yeah.

ES: There's also a lot more of what you're doing, more like mixing rock with more classical elements. And I was wondering where you think that's going in terms of I guess what is called independent music .. which is a sloppy title to begin with .. but where do you think that's going? What were your goals in creating your music in that way?

SS: I don't know if I can make remarks about independent music generally, but for me personally, I find that I have kind of a folk songwriter foundation, but I have classical aspirations. Because I studied a bit of classical music, and I studied a bit of oboe when I went to music school. I know enough about music theory and I know just enough about classical and baroque music and listening to enough opera to aspire to those forms. But I'm not sure why. Because they're more sublime? Because they're more transcendent? Sophisticated? I find that, in the back of my mind, there's this sort of staunch, sort of stuck up, maybe very conservative ideology that that music is better..you know, more valuable.

ES: (laughs) Sure.

SS: Because it's been sort of canonized. But at the same time, at the heart of it, I am just a folk singer. And I'm a very clumsy performer, and I play the banjo and the guitar, which are just folk instruments. So it's just a lot of confrontation between those two aesthetics in my music. And when I open my mouth and sing, it's not going to be opera; it's not going to be classical music. So I'm limited on what I can do vocally, and when I sing, I'm just telling stories. That's kind of my impulse. So it's a real tension. I think, for me, right now, I'm sort of in a season of trying to improve as a performer, and learning to master performance, and learning to master an instrument, and to present the songs live in a more sophisticated way. Because I think my live shows suffer, in fact, because of clumsiness and awkwardness, and having friends on stage instead of musicians.

ES: Do you think that's a bad thing, though?

SS: No, it's a good thing, because it's charming, and it's comfortable, and it's a sense of community that I like and is very intimate. And that's kind of what I communicate in my music. But there's always a certain sense of disappointment that I feel after a tour, because I haven't performed well. You know, that the songs are never fully realized on stage, and that the recorded songs, or just the songs in and of themselves, are far superior to my performance of them. And I always feel that my.. Because I was so late in performing, because I was always writing and recording, and then I started performing later, I feel like I had to catch up.

ES: Do you enjoy touring, or is it more something that you feel is an obligation?

SS: I think at first it was an obligation, because people were inviting me to play, and I never wanted to do that. I had a job, and I was busy, and I would rather just record things at home. But people were inviting me all the time, so eventually I felt obligated. And I had this opportunity to play a festival, or to play in Norway, or to do this tour, and I was thinking, ..You can't pass this up. This is a chance of a lifetime... So I just kept saying yes and yes, and that was always my impulse, to say yes. It was a great experience, because it was so awkward at first, because people were coming to the shows expecting to see this baroque performance, this very sophisticated music.

ES: Well, especially from A Sun Came.

SS: Yeah, and then they would see me struggling to get through the songs, and not singing in tune.

(both laugh)

SS: So that was humbling. But last year, with the cheerleading uniforms, that really shifted my point of view in that I really wanted to entertain. You know, that was a real change.

ES: So, you took a break over the summer. Are you going to be really touring a lot over the next few months, or..?

SS: Yeah, I think I have like a month and a half of touring now, starting in September. Three or four weeks in the States and then two or three weeks in Europe. Not too much. It's just enough. I don't tour for months and months like a lot of bands. I'm very, very selective about it, and when I do, I try to make it an event. You know, so there's going to be a lot of people on stage.

ES: Well, I'm glad that you decided to come to Austin. I actually have a kind of funny story to tell you that's not at all related to the interview, but I think you should hear it. A couple of years ago, at SXSW, my friend and I were sitting at the back of a venue, kind of trying to decide where to go next, and this paper fell on my head, and I took it off my head, and somebody had written in pencil, ..HAVE YOU SEEN SUFJAN STEVENS LIVE???.. You know, with three question marks. And I looked around, and there was absolutely nobody anywhere close to us. The back of the venue was empty, except for us, and nobody was looking at us. And I was like, ..Where did this paper come from?.. It just kind of fell from the ceiling. But the ceiling was smooth; there were no bars or pipes or rafters or anything that it could have fallen from. And the paper was smooth, not folded, so it couldn't have been thrown from very far away. So I pinned it to my chest, because it was just kind of a joke. My friend and I were laughing about how this paper just came out of nowhere.

SS: Yeah!

ES: And this was probably, um, I think this was SXSW '04. It was pre-Illinois. I think it was right after Seven Swans came out, maybe. But all these people kept walking by, and being like, ..YES! He's so great live!.. Everybody was freaking out. I left it on the whole night, and we'd be in a venue or walking down the street, and people kept coming up to me and being like, ..He's incredible! Have you seen him live?..

SS: Well, that's encouraging. Because I wasn't feeling that about my live show at all at that time.

ES: Yeah, well, that's why I decided to tell you, because you're talking about how discouraging it was, and I was thinking, ..I don't know, dude, I think that might be something of a misperception on your part... It was pretty funny; the reaction was pretty massive! (laughs)

SS: Yeah, that is kind of a strange phenomenon. Like it was sent from heaven.

(both laugh)

ES: Yeah, it was! I still have no idea where it could have come from.

SS: ..Did you ever see Sufjan Stevens live?..

ES: Yeah. I still have that paper. I do a scrap book every year of my experiences at SXSW, and I still have that paper with the 2004 scrapbook because it was so funny. It just came out of nowhere.

SS: I love stuff like that!

(both laugh)

SS: I have little napkins with stuff scribbled on it that I've found at bars and venues that I saved. Then, years later, I look at it. There's one that's like a scribbling of a stick figure and it says, ..Orthodox monks...

(both laugh)

SS: I have no idea what it means!

ES: Are you talking about Greek Orthodox?

SS: I think it is! I think it's Greek Orthodox monks. There's a drawing of two figures. And one of them says, ..Blahblahblah...

ES: Like you were just pondering Orthodox monks at the time?

SS: Yeah!

(both laugh)

ES: That's so funny. That's the religious background I come from. My family is Greek Orthodox.

SS: Oh, you're kidding!

ES: No! I grew up in that whole environment, and I've actually been to several of the monasteries around North America. It's just funny that you have that.

SS: Isn't that the oldest Christian church?

ES: Yeah.

SS: And then the Catholic..

ES: Well, Rome was originally one of the seven bishops, and then there was kind of disagreement between him and the other six bishops, so they kind of split off. So, Roman Catholicism, I suppose, is the first branch away from the original church. Or whatever.

SS: Although Catholics call themselves the True Church, so there's some arguments there, huh?

ES: Well, you know, because Rome was the seat of Peter. There has been some conflict over the years between the two [churches], which is unfortunate.

SS: What is an Orthodox service like? I've never really been to one.

ES: It's actually really beautiful. I stopped going to church, not so much because of a lack of faith or a disdain for the belief, but because the culture is kind of overwhelming to me in terms of social strictures, ideologies, cultural expectations, most particularly their ideas of what a woman should and shouldn't do in her life.

SS: Right.

ES: But I actually have a deep appreciation for the religion and the liturgies, because it's deeply symbolic, and even though it's highly ritualized, it's still very emotional and present and tactile. You experience the liturgy through all your senses. And almost the entire service is from scripture, or prayers written by the forefathers of the faith, and of course the Psalms are very emotional. It's like an impassioned conversation with God, while at the same time, everything that is done is a symbol of something else. It's not ritual for the sake of ritual, but it's ritual so that we can, in a way, experience what Christ experienced, or what the early Christians experienced..the stories recorded in Scripture. The Paschal liturgy .. the Easter service .. is very beautiful. And the music is.. Orthodox music is some of my favorite. I find it so pure, and so emotional, and so striking. And you know, most of it was written over a thousand years ago, so it's kind of a time capsule. Every once in a while I go back and visit, because I miss the experience of it.

SS: This is Greek Orthodox, right? Are you Greek?

ES: Well, no. I actually grew up in the Antiochian church, which is the Middle Eastern countries. But I've moved around a lot. I've been kind of nomadic, so we would go to whatever church was most available. We've been in the Russian, Ethiopian, Greek.. Here in Austin, though, it's the Greek Orthodox church.

SS: Oh, ok. Orthodoxy is very eastern, isn't it? I have a feeling that if I went to a service, it wouldn't be very familiar to me.

ES: No, it's completely foreign to anything most Christians are familiar with. The closest thing it actually comes to is.. Have you ever been to an Orthodox Jewish synagogue?

SS: No, I don't think so. I've only been to a synagogue to go to a wedding. So no.

ES: Well, to me, it's most like the Orthodox Jewish ceremonies. Although, strangely, there are also some elements of Buddhism that come very close to it. And the Greek chanting is not dissimilar to Buddhist chanting. More so than the Russian or western music.

SS: That's interesting. Yeah, I've done a lot of reading about Orthodoxy, but I have never been to a service. I've never had a real tactile experience with it. So I was curious.

ES: Well, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go off on that tangent. I just thought it was funny that you mentioned it, that you have that paper. (laughs)

SS: Don't you stand the entire time? There's no chairs?

ES: Oh, it depends very much on the church. Some churches are more fastidious about observing the canons in that respect, but almost every church will have seats around the walls for the elderly, the sick, young mothers, and then of course visitors. But there are some, like the Greek church here in Austin, that have chairs throughout the entire room. You stand during parts and sit during other parts.

SS: Do you do any kneeling?

ES: Yeah, there are some times when there are full prostrations.

SS: So everybody has to prostrate?

ES: Well, not everybody. Obviously people who are not physically able to do so are not expected to. It's not like a judgment thing, like if you don't do it.. I mean, there are people who stand or sit the whole time, and nobody really notices or cares. That's one thing I like about Orthodoxy very much. There are a lot of rules, but they are not requisites. They're more like, ..If you choose to participate, it will benefit you. But it's also ok if you choose not to. That's between you and God... You know what I mean?

SS: Yeah. I go to an Anglo-Catholic church, which is very ritualistic, and there's a lot of kneeling and genuflecting. And it's the same way: some people do it and some don't do it at all.

ES: I like that, that it's open to each person's individual choice, because everyone's path is different. And I apologize if this is, you know.. I got a letter from [your publicist] about not discussing religion or politics, but I didn't mean for this conversation to go in the direction it did.

SS: Well no! I am now interviewing you. I'm writing a story.

(both laugh)

ES: Ok, well, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't crossing any lines.

SS: No, no! No, this is fine. I don't usually want to talk about [religion], but this is interesting to me. I have a personal interest in Greek Orthodoxy because my family is Greek on my mother's side, and they were all Orthodox, and then they converted to, I think, Christian Science, which is strange.

ES: Yeah.

SS: So I'm curious as to the whole thing.

ES: Well, it's beautiful. I think you might appreciate it. If you ever have a chance to go to a Paschal liturgy, and have somebody there to really explain what everything symbolizes.. Because I think that's one thing that happens.. If you go and have a lack of understanding about what's going on, you can't really appreciate it as much. But if you ever have the opportunity, it's quite an experience. And the music! It can bring tears to your eyes; it is that incredible. And the Greek culture, too .. I'm sure you know, since your mother is Greek .. it's very colorful. (laughs) I love it!

SS: Yeah, it is.

ES: So anyway, back to the interview!

(both laugh)

SS: Back to reality.

ES: I really apologize for taking you on that long tangent.

SS: No, it's fine! It was really interesting to me.

ES: That's good. So, ok. Outside of your own records, do you have any other projects planned for the near future? Any more collaborations, or even non-musical projects?

SS: Do I have any non-musical projects?

ES: Well, it seems like you have a lot of interests outside of music.

SS: I've been criticized for having too many interests and hobbies.

ES: Oh, well, I have, too, but who cares what they think?

SS: I recently have taken up bird watching. In the spring, there's a migration that comes through New York, so it's a great time to see birds.

ES: I love birds. I used to work for an aviary.

SS: Oh yeah? I don't have any projects yet. I've been asked to do this .. I don't know what it's called .. this old music group. My friend Bryce [Dessner] .. he's from The National .. wants to start a music group where we play period instruments. Like old guitars and old stringed instruments. And I would be playing a forerunner to the oboe..a double reed instrument of some sort. That's something we joke about all the time, but we haven't actually practiced yet.

ES: That would be great, though! How did you select the oboe? I love the oboe, and when I was a little girl, I used to listen to Peter and the Wolf and Dance of the Swans all the time, specifically because of the oboe. But how did you end up playing it? Was it something like, ..I love this instrument. I want to it play it,.. or did you kind of fall into it by chance?

SS: I was tricked into it.

ES: (laughs) Were you?

SS: Yeah, because when I transferred to public school, there was a new band teacher who was starting a band, and she was desperate to fill every chair in the band. There was a vacancy in the oboe section. There was no oboe at all. I really wanted to play the trumpet, and I had no idea what the oboe was. I was told it was similar to the trumpet.

(both laugh)

SS: And then when I got it in the mail, I was disappointed. But, because I was the only oboe, I got all the solos, which was a highly esteemed position to be in, in the band. And then I transferred to music school for a year and studied oboe intensely at Interlochen Arts Academy in Michigan. That's where I really learned the most about the instrument. It was basically studying oboe every day for a year.

ES: And, I guess this is a stupid question, but has it become a favorite instrument, or is it just something that you have in your background, just thrown in there with all the rest of the instruments?

SS: Uh...it's a love/hate relationship now. I think anyone who studies as much as I did invariably begins to neglect it. I kind of walked away from the oboe in college. I don't like it that much anymore... It's just such a fickle instrument. It's really difficult to play well, to play correctly. You have to stay in shape; you can't just pick it up. It's not a very emotional instrument if it isn't played well. It's a challenge. It was a real challenge for me to learn how to play it. I put a lot of time and energy into it, and eventually just abandoned it.

ES: So there will be no oboe music in a future Sufjan Stevens record, huh? (laughs)

SS: Well, you know, I use it a lot, but it's usually hidden in with other woodwinds.

ES: Yeah! I know! And that's one of the most frustrating things to me about listening to your music. I'll just hear bits and pieces of it, but that's it, and I'll be like, ..No! Bring it out! Give me more!.. But nothing more ever comes out of it.

(both laugh)

SS: Yeah, there's never a solo oboe. But I think its day will come. In fact, I've been challenged to bring it on tour and to play it in front of people.

ES: Yeah, you should!

SS: Maybe I will. But it's a little embarrassing. Especially to have the kind of training and history that I have with the instrument, and then to kind of put that aside for years and years. It's very humbling to go back to it. I don't know if I could do that in front of hundreds and hundreds of people.

ES: Well, I understand the pressure of trying to play a difficult instrument like that on stage, especially in a popular music setting, but on the other hand, it would be an interesting thing to say that you've done. You could say, ..Hey, I did it. I'll never do it again, but it was great...

SS: That's a good point. And I think that's a great way to approach it.

ES: Because how many bands do that? I don't know of a single one.

SS: Yeah. That's true. Maybe I will. I don't know what song I could do it with. I'm so busy trying to play the guitar, or the piano, or sing, and trying to direct my band. When am I going to have time to take my oboe out, wet the reed, and play in tune?

ES: Yeah, that is a challenge. You should just write a new song specifically for the oboe, because it's brought up all the time. Almost every interview that I've read with you, the oboe is brought up. But it really actually plays very little role in your actual music. That's why I brought it up, because I thought it was funny that it gets talked about all the time, but you never actually hear it.

SS: It's like a distant cousin, that's what it is. It's always showing up at the family reunions, but you don't really know him very well. You don't talk to him, but you've heard a lot about him because he has autism, or something.

(both laugh)

SS: That's what the oboe's like to me.

ES: That's a good way to put it! (laughs) So, I know that you started off as a writer first. Do you feel that music has sidetracked your writing, or are you managing to keep up with your writing as well?

SS: No, I haven't written much lately. Music has been a big distraction.

ES: Is that something that you want to go back to at some point?

SS: Yeah. I need to; I have to. It's been talked about so much. If I were not to publish a book, I think I would be disappointed, and so would a lot of other people.

ES: Yeah. I would.

SS: (laughs) Also, I went to graduate school for writing, and it's supposed to culminate into a thesis, the beginning of a novel, or a collection of stories, and invariably, it's supposed to get published later. I'm running into old friends and colleagues from the program, and a lot of them have published, and I am very envious of them for having been published, and they're very envious of me for being successful in music. I think that's sort of a funny trade we have.

ES: Yeah. Well, I read in an interview that you did with Stephin Merritt a while back that you had said that you wanted to be popular in other ways, but not with music. Were you specifically speaking about writing there?

SS: Writing, yeah. Probably. I mean, that was a long time ago, but..

ES: Sure, yeah, it was.

SS: I definitely would rather be a well-known author and writer than a well-known musician.

ES: You said that a couple of years ago, before the big Illinois explosion .. I mean, popularity explosion .. but now, post-Illinois, you are pretty ubiquitous.

SS: I'm not that popular.

ES: Eh...I don't know about that. (laughs) I can't go anywhere or read anything without you being brought up at some point, it seems.

SS: I'm sorry. [Ha! He actually said, ..I'm sorry!.. I love it!] You know, yeah, but that's a real problem. We need to counteract that somehow.

ES: (laughs) So it bothers you that you're getting to that point?

SS: It's a little troublesome because you're losing a sense of self, and your identity.

ES: Sure.

SS: And I don't want to invade people's personal space. (laughs) You know? I don't want to be a phenomenon; I just want to be a musician. But I think it's also just the nature of the music industry. There's a lot of pageantry and celebrity in the music industry, and that's just kind of what it's about. It's a kind of a circus act, in a way. In the writing community, I don't think there's as much of an emphasis on that. There's obviously celebrity personalities in writing, but for the most part, you can be a successful, respected writer, and not be a ..personality... And I really kind of admire that. I think it's just a much more even-tempered industry, the writing field. And it's because, you know, it's writing. It's a slightly more academic art form.

ES: Well, I think it's not just the academia, but it's also the lack of media involved with the individuals themselves. Even when a book is made into a movie, unless you're just a really popular author like Stephen King.. I mean, how many people know what Toni Morrison, for example, looks like?

SS: Right. Like, do you know what John Updike looks like, or Philip Roth, or even Rick Moody? Probably not. Not a lot of people do.

ES: Right. And that's the difference. I mean, with music, you're expected to have a press kit, and photos, and posters. Even with interviews, which are a written media, you still have to have a photo shoot for that as well. So it's an entirely different field, because in music your person is actually lionized, not just your work.

SS: Yeah, that's true.

ES: So how are you planning on tempering that, then? (laughs) What's your big..

SS: Well, I think I could make a decision not to release records for a while.

ES: That would be sad, though.

SS: That's probably one decision I could make. Um, also, to not tour. Touring is exciting because it's an interaction with the public, and it's a very emotional.. It's an existential event, where everybody comes together and you're all participating in this thing.

ES: Right.

SS: And it generates a kind of an experience for everybody that's memorable, whereas a recorded song has less of an impact, probably.

ES: Yeah, I think that's probably true to an extent.

SS: But so much of that is just .. your public profile, your media profile .. so much of that is an illusion, anyway. It has sort of a weird, cosmic trajectory that has nothing to do with you. But you can't control it, so you just kind of have to relinquish ownership of that and just let it go on its way.

ES: Well, it's the idolization of a person, where they become more of a concept than a person. For instance, I have some friends who have been playing music for years and years, and I've known them for almost as long as they've been making music. But recently they were on a national television show, and watching them on TV, I'm thinking, ..Wow! Look at them! They're so big!.. And I know these people, but still there's this sense of...kind of this inflated, fantastical element to them. They're not just people; they're a band. (laughs) You know? It's kind of absurd!

SS: Yeah, yeah! It's a weird phenomenon.

ES: It is!

SS: I think you just kind of have to reckon with that, if you're going to be a musician and have any kind of profile. You need to prepare yourself for that kind of disembodiment that happens, and understand that it's very short lived, luckily, that public interest is fleeting, and it's an illusion, and you're not really accountable to it so much. I think it's important to continue to be responsible for yourself, your person, your personal relationships, and the community around you. Keep things really local. And everything else is just kind of a fabrication, and you can control it only so much. And I shouldn't complain. I'm complaining about it sort of tongue-in-cheek, because I know there's no point in complaining about having a high profile. It's so condescending to bands and artists who work so hard and get absolutely no recognition. I don't want to offend those people, because I understand that it's difficult work. It's a lot of work.

ES: Yeah, it is. So, this is a totally different subject, but you have a brother who's training for the Olympics, right?

SS: Yeah.

ES: And you've mentioned having a sister. How many siblings do you have?

SS: I have two brothers and three sisters.

ES: Do you keep in touch? Are you close together, or are you spread all over the place?

SS: Some of us are close. I keep in touch with my older brother. But we're all over the country: my brother's in San Francisco, my other brother's in L.A., I have two sisters in Michigan, and I have a sister in Hong Kong.

ES: Wow, Hong Kong.

SS: Yeah, and I'm in New York, so it's obviously very difficult to stay in touch.

ES: Right. Well, the reason I was asking is because I read [an article] where you were talking about how coming from a large family sort of promotes story-telling. (laughs) I laughed when I read that, because I come from a large family, too, and that's very true, for me, at least. So I was curious about what your family is doing. You have this record label with your step-father, and your brother is going to the Olympics..what is everyone doing?

SS: Well, my brother, Marzuki, has always been very ambitious. He's an architect. He went to Harvard, and is in a reputable engineering firm that does solar panels in Berkeley. And he's always been an incredible runner, all through college. He was state champion, and then he started running marathons and he's doing very well. He's considered an elite runner now. Yeah, he's always been really good at what he does, you know? There was a lot of competition, growing up in our family..in athletics and academics. We were all vying for attention from family members and parents and older siblings. We were all very possessive of our things and our space, because we grew up in such close proximity. So, I think that's what growing up in a large family with a big, messy house does to you: it sort of requires you to find yourself at an early age. You know, find what you're good at, and work at that thing as much as you can. Because there wasn't enough attention to go around.

(both laugh)

SS: So yeah, for me, I always had this weird admiration for my teachers. I always had weird crushes on them.

ES: And you taught, too, didn't you?

SS: Yeah, a little bit.

ES: What did you teach?

SS: When I graduated from the New School, I was asked to fill in for a few classes, where the instructors had canceled. So I was teaching these writing courses for adults..fiction writing classes.

ES: And you enjoyed that?

SS: It was fun, but it was terrifying, because I was in my early twenties and most of my students were in their fifties. They were professionals and they were making ten times as much money as I was making. They wanted to write their memoir, but they couldn't put a noun and a verb together to save their lives. And I was this snotty little kid, giving them reading lists and telling them how to edit their sentences.

ES: Yeah, I was a tutor when I was in college. It's hard, teaching people who are your peers or your elders. It's a difficult thing to do. I can't say that I enjoyed it, but it was a good experience, I guess, learning the difference between a teacher and an authority figure. Because I was their teacher, but I wasn't necessarily their authority figure.

SS: Yeah. It's an interesting dynamic.

ES: What did you enjoy about teaching?

SS: I think I liked the problem solving..reducing these problems in writing into sets of issues to talk about in order to enable these students to be better writers. I don't think they went for it, though. I don't think they were very excited about it. I don't know what they wanted, but it was very fun for me, and I think they hated it.

ES: Yeah. Well, I think whenever you are passionate about something, you care about the mechanics of how it gets done. But if you're not really passionate about the thing itself, you're just wanting to use it as a means to an end, the details get kind of boring. And I think that's the big problem with teaching anything at all. Kids in school don't care about the subject; they just care about getting the grade so that they can move on to whatever it is that they want to do in their lives, whereas the teacher really cares about the subject.

SS: Yeah, people are very goal-driven. If you give somebody an assignment, and they finish the assignment, but it's badly written, they're not interested in fixing it so much as getting a good grade. That happens a lot. I don't know, people always wanted to talk about their alcoholic mothers. And that's fine, but I was thinking, ..Well, let's talk about the microscopic elements. Let's talk about the modifiers in the sentence... But they found that to be too...

ES: Mundane?

SS: Too distracting. Oh! I have to go! I have another phone call from a guy in Portland.

ES: Yeah, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to keep you that long! I was actually done with my questions..

SS: No, it's been a great conversation. I think I asked too many questions about Greek Orthodoxy.

ES: No, that's ok. The only thing I didn't get to was the fan's questions, but I don't really need them. I got everything that I need. So thank you so much for all of your time!

SS: Thanks, Emily. I'll talk to you later.

ES: Um, ok. Take care.

SS: Alright, bye!

a) Is there merchandise at his australia shows?
b) Who is going?

sufjan stevens / patrick wolf icons

x. credit
x. comment
x. no hot linking
x. blanks are not bases
x. enjoy


1-46: sufjan stevens
47-88: patrick wolf

teasers: (look beneath the floor boards for the secrets i have hid)

sufjan stevens icons

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[ here here here - this leads to my journal ]


x-posted a little bit, sorry if you got caught in the cross fire.

Sufjan-inspired Trends in Contemporary Literature?

IN RELATION TO macramedildo's POST:

I wonder about the whole Flannery O'Connor thing ... When I found that "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" was required reading for most Southern Literature classes, I was really hopeful ... But when Seven Swans was released and all of Sufjan's fans began to make the connection, I became flat-out terrified. I try to keep up with the literary world ... I really do ... but it's become really nauseating.

I grew up reading Flannery O'Connor. My grandmother was brought up in Milledgeville, Georgia and actually attended school with her up until college. Milledgeville is a relatively small town now. I can only imagine how small it was back in the 30's. So ... inevitably ... they got to know one another pretty well. My grandmother has always led a pretty lackluster life, and enjoys forcing her girlhood anecdotes of "Mary Flannery" down the throats of just about anyone who expresses even the slightest interest in literature of any kind ... I read "Wise Blood", "Everything That Rises Must Converge", and "The Violent Bear It Away" as an adolescent. Thinking back, I realize what a lasting impression those novels left on me, both as a literature enthusiast and a human being. It took a few years, but by the age of 16, I knew I wanted to be a writer. For a while, I was pursuing a Creative Writing degree at a local university, but my own tendency to become easily disappointed and give up on the things I care most about forced me to hightail it across town to art school, in pursuit of a bachelors degree in Painting - something I am detached enough from to excel in without experiencing the same overwhelming sensitivity I would have had to sustain had I remained a Creative Writing major.

Sufjan can spin a story. I can tell that he definitely took something from Flannery O'Connor's published works ... I respect him as a writer. But when I wind up loafing around my apartment, in my pajamas, at 3:30 in the afternoon, hopping from blog to blog/LJ to LJ/Myspace to Myspace, and seeing "Flannery O'Connor" and "Sufjan Stevens" both listed as "favorites", I immediately want to rip the skin off of my face. I want to take a survey of the number of people who have pursued O'Connor's works BEYOND "A Good Man Is Hard To Find". I'd be willing to bet the number is ... quite slim.

I wish I could have attended this conference. I regret to hear that the future of literature is leaning more towards the "short story" end of the spectrum. I would consider myself more of a poet than a novelist, but there's a lot to be said about a good, well strung-together, meaty novel. Leo Tolstoy, holler back? I don't know, guys. Poetry is being strangled to death, thanks to the Slammers (and their drunken, disinterested predecessors, the Beats), and novelists have become lazy, preferring to resort to shock value and inconclusive cultural criticisms in the place of well-considered plot lines, craftsmanship and ingenuity, just to keep themselves from becoming bored, completely giving up and becoming interior decorators or graphic designers ... So I don't know where all of this is going.

Again, I stress, I just don't know ... What should I think? Someone tell me what to think.

Keeping Sufjan, his fans, and their strange obsession with his preoccupations in mind, I could also get on the topic of birds ... but I will refrain. You can't really fuck with taxonomy. The world needs more bird enthusiasts. After hearing "The Lord God Bird", if you suddenly feel the urge to save the Ivory-billed Woodpecker, I'm sure Brinkley, Arkansas would be happy to have you. Birds are glorious creatures. I guess even a half-hearted, Sufjan-inspired appreciation for birds is better than none at all. Just sayin'.

Comments? Critiques? Questions? Rebuttals? Anything?

extra ticket

Hey guys!
I know this is really last minute, but I have an extra ticket to Sufjan's talk/possible performance at Southpaw for the Penultimate thingy tomorrow! My friend had a test scheduled and sadly cannot go with me. I'm hoping to give it to someone who really appreciates the beauty/ magic/ mystery/ etc. that is Sufjan, hence I came to this community first!

So, the ticket will be like $13, that's how much it was with shipping and such. aim me M14ball, or just comment on this post!

Early bird gets the worm!

BQE

Look! He's smiling! (I don't think I've ever seen him smiling)


This makes me wish I could have gone.



Other things of this sort here. If you listen to the whole radio show with him, he talks a lot about the project and you can hear the third movement as well as the sixth, which is above.

Edit: I can't tell if some of you are being sarcastic in your comments. I hope not. I'm not trying to be like a 'fangirl' or whatever, I genuinely had never seen him smile...

Barn Owl, Night Killer?

I saw Sufjan's BQE extravaganza. Amazing.

He played "Barn Owl, Night Killer" during the "Sufjan Plays the Hits" section. Does anyone have a copy of this? I know it's not released, I was just hoping and praying that someone may have recorded it live.

ring them bells!
(change xx to tt)

also, sufjan to australia!!!! who's going?