Sufjan Stevens

Among the subjects explored on Illinois are the cities of Chicago, Decatur and Jacksonville; the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, the death of a friend on Casimir Pulaski Day, the poet Carl Sandburg, and the serial killer John Wayne Gacy.

Sufjan Stevens (born July 1, 1975) is an American singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist.

He has released ten solo studio albums and multiple collaborative albums with other artists.

Stevens has received Grammy and Academy Award nominations.

His debut album, A Sun Came, was released in 2000 on the Asthmatic Kitty label, which he co-founded with his stepfather.

Following the release of Michigan, Stevens compiled a collection of songs recorded previously into a side project, the album Seven Swans, which was released in March 2004.

Stevens did not leave his job in the children's book division at Time Warner until touring for Seven Swans.

Next, he released the second in the Fifty States project, titled Illinois.

Stevens had spent the second half of 2004 researching and writing material for the album.

As with Michigan, Stevens used the state of Illinois as a leaping-off point for his more personal explorations of faith, family, love, and location.

He received wide recognition for his 2005 album Illinois, which hit number one on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart, and for the single "Chicago" from that album.

Though slated for release on July 5, 2005, the album was briefly delayed by legal issues regarding the use of an image of Superman in the original album cover artwork.

In the double vinyl release, a balloon sticker was placed over Superman on the cover art of the first 5,000 copies.

Stevens later contributed to the soundtrack of the 2017 film Call Me by Your Name.

He received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song and a Grammy nomination for Best Song Written for Visual Media for the soundtrack's lead single, "Mystery of Love".

Stevens has released albums of varying styles, from the electronica of The Age of Adz and the lo-fi folk of Seven Swans to the symphonic instrumentation of Illinois and Christmas-themed Songs for Christmas.

He employs various instruments, often playing many of them himself on the same recording.

Stevens' music is also known for exploring various themes, particularly religion and spirituality.

Stevens' tenth and most recent studio album, Javelin, was released in October 2023.

Stevens was born in Detroit, Michigan, and lived there until the age of nine, when his family moved to Alanson, Michigan, in the northern part of the Lower Peninsula of Michigan.

He was raised by his father, Rasjid, and his stepmother, Pat, only occasionally visiting his mother, Carrie, in Oregon after she married her second husband, Lowell Brams.

Brams later became the head of Stevens' record label Asthmatic Kitty.

Stevens is of Lithuanian and Greek descent.

Stevens attended the Detroit Waldorf School, Alanson Public Schools and Interlochen Arts Academy, and graduated from Harbor Light Christian School.

He then attended Hope College in Holland, Michigan, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, and then earned an MFA in Creative Writing from The New School in New York City.

While in school, Stevens studied the oboe and English horn, which he plays on his albums.

Stevens did not learn to play the guitar until his time at Hope College.

Sufjan means "comes with a sword" in Armenian.

The name most famously belonged to Abu Sufyan, a figure from early Islamic history.

The name was given to Stevens by the founder of Subud, an interfaith spiritual community to which his parents belonged when he was born.

Stevens began his musical career as a member of Marzuki, a folk-rock band from Holland, Michigan, as well as garage band Con Los Dudes.

He also played (and continues to play) various instruments for Danielson Famile.

During his final semester at Hope College, Stevens wrote and recorded his debut solo album, A Sun Came, which he released on Asthmatic Kitty Records.

He later moved to New York City, where he enrolled in a writing program at The New School for Social Research.

During his time at the New School, Stevens developed a preoccupation with the short story form, which he believed would lead him to write a novel, but ultimately returned him to songwriting.

While in New York, Stevens composed and recorded the music for his second album, Enjoy Your Rabbit, a song cycle based around the animals of the Chinese zodiac that delved into electronica.

Stevens followed this with the album Michigan, a collection of folk songs and instrumentals.

It includes odes to cities including Detroit and Flint, the Upper Peninsula, and vacation areas such as Tahquamenon Falls and the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore.

Melded into the scenic descriptions and characters are his own declarations of faith, sorrow, love, and the regeneration of Michigan.

Beginning with the album, Stevens announced his intent to write an album for each of the 50 U.S. states, which he termed the Fifty States Project.