Moses Sumney

Sumney was born in San Bernardino, California to Ghanaian parents. He moved with his family back to Ghana at the age of 10. Sumney described his childhood as "Americanized" by this age and had difficulty adjusting to the culture of Ghana.[3] His family returned to Southern California when Sumney was 16, settling in Riverside, California [4]

He did not learn to play any instruments until he was older, writing a cappella music for years instead. Sumney did not perform his musical compositions publicly until he was 20.[2]

He attended the University of California, Los Angeles.[5] He majored in creative writing and studied poetry, which helped him improve his songwriting.[6]

In 2013, Sumney attempted to break into the Los Angeles music scene and he caught the eye of many record labels. He said at the time it did not feel right because labels were trying to conform him into a certain image and he was still trying to discover the artist that he wanted to be. He decided to turn down these labels and move to Asheville, North Carolina.[7] His resistance to labels is reflected in his later album, Græ. [7]

Sumney's debut in 2014, Mid-City Island, is a five-song EP that was self-recorded onto a four-track recorder given to him by TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek. The EP was described by Pitchfork as "primarily composed of first-takes and improvisation; the music is stirring but purposefully incomplete".[8] Sumney joined Terrible Records after the release.[9] He considers his songs to be performance based, and that many of his recorded compositions derive from fleshing the songs out through live performance.[10]

He has performed at venues such as the Hollywood Bowl and alongside artists such as Dirty Projectors, Junip, St. Vincent, and Local Natives.[2]

Sumney sang on the opening track of Beck's album Song Reader.[3]

On September 30, 2016, Sumney released Lamentations, an EP which featured a guest appearance from Thundercat.[1]

Sumney's first full-length album, Aromanticism, was released on September 22, 2017 by Jagjaguwar. It received acclaim from Rolling Stone,[11] The Guardian,[12] and The New York Times,[5] which also named it one of the best albums of 2017.[13] He stumbled across the term "aromantic" when he began writing it back in 2014 and found the term resonated with him.[14] Several songs from the album have been featured in the soundtracks of various television shows. His 2017 single "Doomed" appeared in the Season 6 finale of Netflix's Orange is the New Black, and appeared again in Westworld, Season 3, Episode 3, "The Absence of Field". His 2017 single "Quarrel" appeared in Netflix’s Dear White People. His 2017 song "Plastic" and his 2020 song "Keeps Me Alive" both appeared in HBO's Insecure.

Sumney played himself in Season 1 episode 4 of HBO's Random Acts of Flyness.[15]

Sumney released his second studio album, Græ, in two parts in 2020. The first part was released on February 21, 2020,[16] and the second part was released on May 15, 2020, accompanied by a physical release of the double album.[17]

In March 2020, he released the self-directed music video "Cut Me".[18]

In May 2020, Sumney released "Bless Me" as a single from the second part of his album, Græ. [19]

In December 2020, Sumney's single "Me in 20 Years" was featured in a special episode of the HBO drama Euphoria.[20]

In June 2020, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the first LGBTQ Pride parade, Queerty named him among the fifty heroes “leading the nation toward equality, acceptance, and dignity for all people”.[21][22]

• Tiny Concerts at Coffee Tables Near You. The New York Times. October 20, 2014