Singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens has admitted he is in the throes of an "existential crisis" regarding his vocation as a musician.
Stevens unloaded in a recent interview with Exclaim magazine as he pondered the purpose of writing and recording music.
"I definitely feel like, ‘What is the point? What’s the point of making music anymore?’", he said.
"I feel that the album no longer has a stronghold or has any real bearing any more. The physical format is obsolete; the CD is obsolete and the LP is kinda nostalgic. So, I think the album is suffering and that’s how I’ve always created – I work with these conceptual albums in the long-form. And I’m wondering, what’s the value of my work once these forms are obsolete and everyone’s just downloading music?"
Ah, so the problem is just technology, right? Wrong. He continued: "I’m starting to get sick of my conceptual ideas. I’m tired of these grand, epic endeavours and wanting to just make music for the joy of making music and having it be immediate and nothing to do with the industry itself.
"What am I doing. What’s the point of a song? Is a song antiquated? The format itself – a narrative song with accompaniment – is really beyond me now."
It didn’t end well either, as he glumly concluded: "I don’t think I can win. I feel like it’s a losing battle."
That new album’s going to be a really cheerful little number, isn’t it?
