Since the release of his latest album Javelin, Sufjan Stevens has been living in the fallout of two devastations: the death of his long-term partner Evans Richardson, and being diagnosed with the autoimmune disease Guillain-Barré syndrome. While he understandably hasn't produced any of his own original music in the time since, he's kept busy working on other artists' projects, and, more recently, Asthmatic Kitty announced the 10th anniversary reissue of his 2015 album Carrie & Lowell — a document of another devastation.
For this release, the musician gave a now-rare interview with Vulture to talk about what he's been up to, how he's faring in the wake of his continued role as the "poster child of death," and how the Bible is kinda gay.
When asked about his health and interest in music, Stevens shared that the thought of touring isn't top-of-mind, yet:
I'm okay. Situation normal, all up, kind of a thing. I've had some pretty difficult things happen to me, so I'm in a state of repair and survival. I'm not really in any state of mind or any position to go on tour yet. But I'm starting to see the light. I'm starting to feel a sense of direction toward something meaningful and substantial. I've been focusing on the moment and on things that feel very silly and Zen: serenity and acceptance and duty and stewardship.
He added that routines like walking the dog and gardening have been keeping him busy, in addition to stepping into a larger role at Asthmatic Kitty since Lowell Brams's retirement. "I've been working on other people's music this past year, not my own," Stevens explained. "It feels like my life is in service to other things right now. It's fine and required of me. I'm okay, I'm okay, I'm okay. It's been two years of a shitshow, but I'm okay."
As for Carrie & Lowell's lasting power, particularly its opening track "Fourth of July," which holds half a billion Spotify streams, as journalist Craig Jenkins points out, Stevens says that "to live is to be preoccupied with death. Maybe that's why this material speaks to a lot of people. I've become the poster child of death in a lot of ways in the music world. It wasn't intentional. It crept up, but it's always been there. Even the happy-go-lucky chamber-pop music from Illinois and Michigan. It sounds really optimistic, but if you start to parse the lyrics and content, there's a lot of death and mortality."
In a roundabout way, Jenkins pressed Stevens for the answer to the most enduring question about this catalogue: is this song gay or about God?
"The religious is very sexual," Stevens said. "It's erotic. Look at Catholic art through the ages, Baroque art. It's all very fleshy and sensual and full of naked bodies. I've always embraced that. I've always felt that my relationship to God is a very intimate and sensual one. Sacraments are. It's engaging with God in a physical way. You're literally eating the flesh and drinking the blood of God during the Eucharist. It doesn't get much more erotic than that. If you're a vampire, that's the ultimate erotic experience."
He added, "The Bible's very gay. Just all men. That's what you get when there's a patriarchy that's endured for so long. Jesus was single, never married; Disciples were all dudes …"