November 5, 2009 11:10

Sufjan Stevens says 50-state album project was a 'joke'

Musician admits project was result of him becoming a 'cliché'

Sufjan Stevens has said that he believes that his former plan to write a concept album about each of the US states was the result of him becoming a "cliché", and looking back it seems like a "joke".

The musician released 'Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lake State' in 2003 then 'Illinoise' in 2005, which were supposedly part of the project to write an album for each of the states.

Stevens has now told Paste magazine that now the concept seems a bit silly.

"The whole premise was such a joke," he admitted. "Maybe I took it too seriously. I started to feel like I was becoming a cliché of myself."

Instead of writing albums about states Stevens has recently honed in on a smaller entity – the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway that runs through the New York boroughs. He released 'The BQE', an album about the road that accompanies a film, earlier this year.

"In all honesty, that piece is what really sabotaged my creative momentum," he said. "It wasn't 'Illinoise' so much."