"I didn’t really have the mental capacity to write my own music. This stuff felt wholesome and pure and safe": Sufjan Stevens on producing John Legend's album of children's music

In what's likely to be 2024's least expected collaboration, indie-folk maven Sufjan Stevens and soulful crooner John Legend have linked up for an album of children's music called My Favorite Dream.

In an interview with the LA Times, Legend revealed that the idea for the album was sparked when he performed one of the songs from his daughter's Fisher-Price play mat in a viral video shared by his wife, Chrissy Teigen. “People were like, ‘John, why don’t you do more of these?’” he says. “And I was like, ‘Yeah, why don’t I?’” 

With this concept in mind, Legend's first choice for a producer was Sufjan Stevens, who he says he's been listening to for 20 years. “To me, Sufjan’s music is relaxing and stimulating at the same time,” he says. “And I wanted this to feel dreamy and whimsical and adventurous and fun.”

Speaking about his motivations for working with Legend, Stevens says he "could feel the curiosity behind what he does", describing Legend as a "shape-shifter".

"I think there’s also a general apocalyptic anxiety that pervades a lot of our culture today," he continues. "What I love about these songs is that they focus on the kinds of aphorisms that speak directly to our fears and worries. You don’t have to be a kid to appreciate what he’s singing about."

This is the first we've heard from Stevens since the release of his tenth studio album, Javelin, a project dedicated to his late partner Evans Richardson who died in April 2023. Last year, Stevens revealed that he'd been diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome, a rare auto-immune disease. 

“One of the main reasons I decided to do John’s album is because I hadn’t been able to really work on anything outside of self-care and rehabilitation,” he says. “I finally wanted to get back to work, but I didn’t really have the mental capacity to write my own music. This stuff felt wholesome and pure and safe.“