His words, not mine, folks. Either way, you can probably stop that long running bet with your bro who writes for the university paper about whether or not Oregon, New Jersey or Rhode Island will be the next Sufjan States record, because, well, it probably ain’t going to happen. In an interview with Paste, Stevens calls the absolutely ambitious and totally NPR-worthy States Project “a joke.” The dude who wrote tunes about a holiday that celebrates a Revolutionary War officer from Poland and the pot-holed mess of a raised motor path known as the BQE, goes as far as saying “I took it too seriously. I started to feel like I was becoming a cliché of myself.” Sufjan then goes into detail about his BQE project, which debuted over two years ago at the Brooklyn Academy of Music and is just now being issued to the public. “In all honesty, that piece is what really sabotaged my creative momentum.” Apparently, considering he hasn’t done anything but issue old stuff (the BQE), rearrange older stuff (Run Rabbit Run), contribute re-arranged, remixed, re-worked 10 minute-plus old track works to a high profile AIDS comp and probably made a Grilled Cheese or two. Anyway, sounds like someone’s developed a really hefty weed habit, is spending too much time hitting the Volcano and not enough time researching the Battle of Appomattox Court House. And for a second, I totally thought this dude could pull a Jandek and release hundreds of albums in a lifetime.

After his brief (or ongoing, depending on how you look at it) existential artistic crisis, it seemed Sufjan needed some soul-searching. And a welcome but somewhat surprising conclusion to this soul-searching: simplification? He elaborated in an interview with Vish Khanna. “I’m trying to dissuade any kind of conceptual framework and just write music, love songs, pop songs, and just forget all that conceptual mess…” We like pop music and love songs. Double win. (Via: Stereogum)

From time to time Sufjan is known to do some some interesting PR work for his Asthmatic Kitty Label. And by PR we don’t mean press releases so much as quirky homemade videos, in-depth (albeit biased) album reviews and oddly personal interview with fellow AK artists. The latter is the case this time as he interviews new labelmate and former bandmate (Marzuki) Shannon Stephens (weird huh?), and in the process reveals nearly as much about himself as Shannon does in her answers. Shannon’s just released The Breadwinner, her first album in almost a decade. At face value, this sounds encouraging right? Sufjan chatting it up with someone who did who knows that besides releasing a proper album for ten years and then just decided ‘Today’s the day!” Not so fast… “I’m at a point where I no longer have a deep desire to share my music with anyone, having spent many years imparting my songs to the public,” Sufjan says. ” Although I have great respect for the social dynamic of music–that it should be shared with others, that it brings people together–I now feel something personal is irrevocably lost in this process.” Oy ve. Check out the full interview here. (Via: Stereogum via Asthmatic Kitty)

The BQE, Sufjan Stevens‘ multimedia ode to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, encompasses a triptych experimental, geometric film of the transportation hub, a score composed by Stevens himself, a comic book and a View-Master reel. It will be released on October 20 via Asthmatic Kitty, and is available for pre-order here. A clip from the film has been made available for your viewing pleasure. Click play up above.

If you’re reading this post you probably like music, art, film and comedy, or at the very least some combination of the four. If so, ATP New York probably has something for you and, it’s only a few weekends away. Just for starters: Jim Jarmusch presenting his film Mystery Train, a David Cross curated comedy section, an Eric White art exhibit, Sufjan, and No Age and Bob Mould performing Husker Du… the list goes on and on.

ATP takes place the weekend of September 11 at Kutsher’s Country Resort in Catskills, New York. Three-day or one-day passes are available as are buses from Brooklyn and Manhattan to the stomping grounds.And there’s no corporate sponsorships in these parts, so while this does seemingly lessen your chance of getting a free energy drink upon arrival, it way ups your chance of not selling out and whatnot. Full details at the ATP website.