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Sufjan Stevens is one of those artist I hold in the highest of regard. In my personal opinion, he’s one of a small group of super musically inclined individuals that despite their abilities, still create accessible music. In an industry as oversaturated as the music industry, its an admirable feat to be able to make the music you want and still garner success. For his new full-length, “The BQE“, Sufjan crafted a cinematic suite inspired by the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway and the Hula-Hoop. Commissioned by Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), the BQE was originally performed in the Howard Gilman Opera House in celebration of the 25th anniversary Next Wave Festival in October of 2007. Vish Khanna has released an excerpt of his chat with Sufjan about the suite in full-length form, comments about his supposed retirement, why his music is so EPIC, and more. Below is an excerpt of that excerpt (lol), I’m sure the full interview will be online shortly:
I recently chatted with Sufjan Stevens about his new record The BQE, which will be released on October 20, 2009. Here’s an excerpt from our conversation:
For anyone, the BQE would be a lofty endeavour but, in some ways, you gravitate to this scale of artistic expression. What motivates you to take on such grand projects?
Well y’know, I don’t think I set out to make epic projects. I think the projects themselves become unmanageable in the process and I end up producing so much for a single project, that they end up taking over and becoming much bigger and grander than I’d anticipated. I never intended for this to be so drastic or extensive. In the case of the commission from [the Brooklyn Academy of Music], I was definitely working within a form. The piece itself had to exist in an opera house seating 2,000 people and fill the space visually, orally, and conceptually. So I knew I had to work within that scale and that’s why I wanted these three images, a miniature orchestra, and live hula hoopers, because I felt like that was what was required! I had the grant so I had the money to see things through. And then after the piece premiered and it came time to condense this into an album, I was really frustrated by the inability to reduce it to an LP. That’s when I started to develop more of the expository parts of the essay, and that’s when the comic book developed. So, the whole thing was unwarranted of course, but was heedlessly enraptured by this conceptual ideal or grand idea of just venturing beyond what was normal or rational to capture it, and satisfy my creative desire to have a set piece that would represent The BQE.
That speaks to The BQE but in general, you’re saying your ideas develop from basic structures ?
They’re really small. I really work on a very microscopic level. I really think in terms of the song or folk song, and I work within a very conservative frame of melody, accompaniment, and narrative. So really basic, simple forms, and they just end up becoming hybrids or amended or expanded to form greater, epic, set pieces.
Check out the rest of the interview HERE!
Here’s a favorite of mine from the new LP:
Sufjan Stevens - Movement III: Linear Tableau With Intersecting Surprise (CLICK TO LISTEN)
And to purchase your copy of Sufjan Stevens - The BQE.
Exactly
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Hi. Thanks for posting this interview excerpt on your blog. I posted a link to this on my company’s Microcinema Facebook Page. I hope that is okay. Just in case you didn’t know, Sufjan Stevens’ “The BQE” is an Asthmatic Kitty release now available through Microcinema DVD. To order this DVD and/or other titles distributed by Microcinema, go to: http://www.microcinemadvd.com
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