Sufjan Stevens Biography

Sufjan Stevens was born in Detroit, Michigan, and spent his formative years on the Lower Peninsula's pristine upper reaches. Young Sufjan, a self-taught musician, practiced Mozart sonatas on a toy Casio and became proficient on a variety of instruments by the time he was in school, including the oboe, recorder, banjo guitar, vibraphone, bass drums, and piano. Along the way, he eventually started singing as well, but his friends at the time disapproved. He invested in a 4-track tape recorder and painstakingly recorded concept collections lasting an hour and a half for The Nine Planets, The Twelve Apostles, and The Four Humors. He read works by William Wordsworth, William Blake, and William Faulkner. Sufjan's music started to sound like a medieval woodwind ensemble waving swords and lights at the twelve-headed mythological snake of death during that time in school when the world seemed overwhelming and potentially dangerous. Sufjan selected and collected a selection of these songs during his last semester of school to produce his debut album, "A Sun Came," for Asthmatic Kitty Records, the house label he co-founded with his father Lowell. A thousand copies were created and delivered to a drab, damp warehouse somewhere in the empty, black expanse of the cosmos, where they continued to move and wheeze while dozing off for some time. Sufjan subsequently relocated to New York City and lived in a bohemian manner with three other school grads in the unfashionable financial neighborhood before being accepted into the ace's program for authors at The New School for Social Research while pedaling his bicycle there. There he met Jhumpa Lahiri and pestered Philip Gourevitch on the phone while making futile attempts to complete an epic collection of tales and portrayals about woods Midwest Kinmen. Christian fundamentalists, Amway salespeople, and healers of valuable stones are all located in a small rural community in Michigan. Gee. Nobody seemed really interested. Sufjan returned to the 4-track, exhausted by "words," and set out to complete his most ambitious project to date: a collection of automated musical melodies for the animals represented by the Chinese Zodiac. There were no lyrics, but rather more than a few cymbals swells, oboe twists, and background organ drones, all accompanied by PC-produced techno beats and sophisticated pandemonium. Although ambitious, the result wasn't quite flattering. He sent a few copies to squeeze, but they were received with confusion. One author said, "A hyper-adjusted Atari confronting a beefed-up Colecovision in a chess coordinate/fight match." Sufjan dropped off a copy at the renowned record shop Other Music in New York because he was feeling inspired, only to discover it in the pre-owned section at a discounted price 14 days later. Sufjan regards this as a compliment. His target did not. write the songs his father requested for his advancement. Create something with tunes and text.

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