I believe that music is a spiritual language. My everyday self is pretty mundane and boring, but when I'm making music it allows for me to communicate a kind of transcendence that I can't communicate otherwise.
Sufjan StevensRead
I still feel like I have a lot to learn in the realm of sound experimentation, and I think I would like things to get noisier and weirder and more distressed and more aggressive, but I don't know if that's something that would be suitable for public consumption.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the artist's desire to explore and push boundaries in their creative work while questioning the suitability of that exploration for their audience.
Sufjan Stevens reflects on his ongoing journey as an artist and his curiosity about delving deeper into sound experimentation. He expresses a wish to embrace more chaotic and unconventional elements in his music, illustrating the tension between personal artistic exploration and the considerations artists often have regarding public reception and consumption.
Themes
SoundExperimentationArtCreativityPublic Consumption
In practice
Example use cases
In a music workshop, this quote can inspire discussion about the balance between artistic freedom and audience expectations.
More from Sufjan Stevens
All quotes →Every time Jimmy Scott sings, it's the same but slightly different. I don't know how he does that or where he gets that from. I think it's instinct. Nothing he does is by chance; he's in complete control of what he's doing. He's just beautiful and unique.
Sufjan StevensRead
I feel like the Internet needs to be disarmed in some way. There needs to be a philosophical undermining of the Internet. We take it too seriously and too literally. For a reference we go to Wikipedia, which is full of inaccuracies and misinformation. It's kind of beautiful - it's all the product of imagination; it's not reality at all.
Sufjan StevensRead
Musicians are often asked to answer for an entire culture, or for an entire movement. It's a process of commodification. It becomes packaged and summarized in a word like 'emo' or 'grunge'... or 'folk music.' I think that's just language itself, trying to understand the mysteries of the world.
Sufjan StevensRead
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