Sufjan Stevens: Not a Boy from Illinoise

Sufjan Stevens is not a nice guy. He's not sweet, nor is he sensitive, even if his tenderly penned folk songs suggest so.

When he softly sings lyrics like, "I'd swim across lake Michigan / I'd sell my shoes / To be alone with you," it's all a façade. Or so he'll have you believe.

"People think I‘m a very sensitive, kind, empathetic, emotionally enhanced man," says Stevens, attempting to add an edge to his speaking voice. (It's not working.)

"Well I might be a little bit of that, at my best behavior, but there is so much more to me," he continues. "It doesn't communicate in my songs."

It's easy to assume Stevens is the nice guy he so adamantly claims he is not. On his new album, Illinois (also known as Come On Feel the Illinoise), even a song about mass murderer John Wayne Gacy seems compassionate, and Stevens finds commonality with the convicted pedophile: "And in my best behavior / I am really just like him / Look beneath the floorboards / For the secrets I have hid," he sings.

It doesn't help Stevens' case that he's a regular dreamboat. In every photograph he looks forlorn: his bright hazel doe-eyes stare into the distance and he is rarely captured indulging in a smile. Stevens often looks sad, and his music follows suit.

The multi-talented musician has mastered everything from the vibraphone to the banjo, and his background as a literature major makes him one of the most prolific songwriters in indie rock. And with several highly acclaimed self-recorded albums under his belt, including 2004's Seven Swans (Asthmatic Kitty) and 2003's Michigan (Asthmatic Kitty), Stevens has finally been recognized as such.

Recently, most journalists have focused on Stevens' lofty goal to record an album for each of the 50 states. But Stevens is tired of talking about the United States plan. Right now he's focused on just one state, Illinois, which he heavily researched before beginning to record the album. For such a strange endeavor, he resorted to even stranger methods that could mean you've unknowingly chatted with Stevens online.