Sufjan Stevens Cancels State Project

American songwriter Sufjan Stevens has claimed that his ongoing project to write an album about each American state was a "joke".

As far as ambitions go, this was one of the best. Cult songsmith Sufjan Stevens released two albums - 'Greetings From Michigan: The Great Lake State' in 2003 and 'Illinoise' in 2005 - that were to be part of a series.

The aim, he explained at the time, was to write an album for each American state. That's right, every single one from Alaska to Texas. However amid increasingly despondent interviews Sufjan Stevens has now admitted that the plan was a joke.

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

Sufjan Stevens seems to be struggling of late. The singer recently gave an interview in which he appeared to unravel, questioning the very nature of songwriting and that of performance itself.

"I’m starting to get sick of my conceptual ideas" he admitted. "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, which, y’know is suffering right now of course."

"I’m wondering what am I doing? What is a song even? I’m questioning, what’s the point of a song? Is a song antiquated? Does it have any power any more? The format itself — a narrative song with accompaniment — is really beyond me now."

However Sufjan Stevens did pick himself up to write 'The BQE' a concept album about the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. Accompanied by a new film, it was released earlier this year.

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