History Trivia / SufjanStevens

* OldShame: Sufjan's unreleased ''Stalker'' album would seem to qualify, ''if'' it's a genuine Sufjan project. (In short: in 2016 musician Marc Rebillet made a Reddit post claiming he had found some discarded copies of a never-released Sufjan CD from 1998, a concept album about stalkers, in the dumpster of a building where they both worked. Rebillet posted photos of the album art along with some feasibly Sufjan-esque audio. Sufjan never gave a response, and a representative from his record label admitted to not knowing if the project was real or not, while also expressing frustration that someone would leak a "discovered" album without the artist's consent. To this day fans are divided as to ''Stalker''[='=]s authenticity, but if real it seems clear Sufjan didn't intend for anyone to hear it.)

** As mentioned above, ''Carrie & Lowell'' was at one point conceived as an Oregon-based follow-up to ''Illinois'' and ''Michigan''.

*** Logic also sampled "All for Myself" in "Life of a Don".

* ReclusiveArtist: While Sufjan tours, does interviews, and has a modest social media presence, but he tends to be extremely private about his personal life outside of his music, preferring to let the songs speak for themselves. The most public he had ever gone on social media was in the lead-up to ''Javelin'', where in September 2023, he revealed he was on a slow recovery from a sudden diagnosis of Guillain–Barré syndrome from the previous month, and that ''Javelin'' was made InMemoriam to his late partner, Evans Richardson, who died in April 2023 (it wasn't even known at the time that they were in such a relationship, additionally marking the very first time Sufjan had publicly discussed his oft-debated sexuality).

** Several of the unreleased bonus tracks included in certain special editions of ''Javelin'' also include references to Oregon history, and sound similar to his ''Carrie & Lowell''-era recordings too.

* AttentionDeficitCreatorDisorder: Outside of his career as a solo musician, he has been a member of the alternative / comedy hip-hop group Sisyphus; has written music for the New York City Ballet; has collaborated on a classical music project commissioned by the Dutch concert hall Muziekgebouw Eindhoven; has contributed to the work of (and appeared in concert with) Music/TheNational; has done movie soundtracks (''Round-Up'', ''Film/CallMeByYourName'') and directed music videos.

* CopiouslyCreditedCreator: He has his own label, which he co-founded, and is normally the one writing, recording, engineering and producing his albums (although the exact percentage of his contributions varies from record to record). In addition, he's also served as the art director / graphic designer on some of his album covers, and has directed animated music videos for his label.
* CreatorBacklash: Sufjan has been very critical of his performance of "Mystery of Love" at the 2018 [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAward Oscars]], describing feeling traumatized and completely out of place in the Hollywood awards world.

* CreatorsApathy: He has stated in interviews that the commissioned project ''The B.Q.E.'' sapped his creative strength and led to a temporary CreatorBreakdown.

* CreatorBacklash: Sufjan has been very critical of his performance at the 2018 Oscars, describing feeling "traumatized" and completely out of place in the Hollywood awards world.