Pitchfork

OK, Sufjan Stevens is officially procrastinating on his 50 States Project. As if ranking horror films and reviewing live gigs from his Asthmatic Kitty kin weren't enough, Sufjan has now taken to interviewing his labelmates.

Today he posted a Q&A with Rafter on AK's Sidebar, as part of the "Half-Week of Rafter Love". We wouldn't be surprised if Sufjan then took four consecutive "power naps," moseyed over to the vending machine for his ninth Mountain Dew of the night, and gazed detachedly out the window until dawn.

Sufjan's interview is a strange thing that has him alternating between the sincere and academic-- "Do you feel music should inspire the listener and/or the performer?"-- and the ironic and, um, neurotic: "You have red hair. Do you belong to a Redhead organization? Do you feel Redheads suffer special discrimination in society? Do you think Redheads have special advantages? Do you feel some ulterior motive in my capitalization of the word 'Redhead'?..."

The whole thing, however, is rather cute, and Rafter reveals his convoluted music-making process, the origins behind the wacky title of his recent LP (Music for Total Chickens), the joys of fatherhood, how he doesn't much care for Antony's vocals, and how "one of [his] favorite things to get from music is a sense of total doom and annihilation." Huh??

Read the entire interview here. Oh, and pssst, Sufjan? Pitchfork is, like, looking for a news reporter, so...

As part of the Half Week of Rafter Love, Asthmatic Kitty has also posted the winners from the Rafter music video contest and promises more Rafter-riffic content in the next couple days. Annnnd Rafter has officially agreed to collaborate with Sufjan on "a record about California," which means OMG SUFJAN POSSIBLY RELEASING CALIFORNIA ALBUM IN NEAR OR FAR FUTURE MAYBE.

Rafter heads to SXSW in mid-March, while Sufjan woos the Grand Rapids masses at a long-sold-out Calvin College gig March 30.