Sufjan Stevens reveals 'mysterious and debilitating health issues' stopped him working on new album

Sufjan Stevens has revealed that "mysterious and debilitating" health issues stopped him from working on his new album 'The Age Of Adz'.

The singer-songwriter explained that it took "several months" before he could return to working on music.

"I probably shouldn't go into the gory details of what I went through," Stevens told Exclaim.ca. "But I will say that I did get very sick last year and had some serious health issues that were really confusing and mysterious and debilitating."

"For several months, I couldn't really work and was forced to focus on my physicality and restoring myself," he continued. "It took several months before I could even get back to working again and writing music."

Stevens also admitted that once he was better, he found that finishing off the album was "really overwhelming".

"I was really, really desperate to get better because I had started so much music," he said. "I had begun all of these projects and was recording a lot. Then when I went back to it, I found it really overwhelming and I didn't know how to approach it."

He added: "So, this record, 'The Age Of Adz', is, in some ways, a result of that process of working through health issues and getting much more in touch with my physical self. That's why I think the record's really obsessed with sensation and has a hysterical melodrama to it."