Moses Sumney

🪵 Custom Craftwork, 🧴 Black Girl Sunscreen, 🙏🏿 Grace, and more.

July 23, 2024

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Moses Sumney is a North Carolina/ New York-based musician and actor who made waves with his first EP Mid-City Island, recorded entirely on a four-track. His unique approach has since led to highly acclaimed albums, collaborations with legends like Sufjan Stevens, and contributions to various soundtracks such as Everything Everywhere All at Once + The Idol (which he also appears in). His upcoming EP Sophcore drops on August 2nd and we highly recommend checking out the singles, Gold Coast and Vintage. Moses recently shared some insight into Sophcore with Ayo Edebiri (PI #328) during a lovely conversation for Interview Mag. Currently, you can also catch on the big screen with Mia Goth in Ti West’s latest, MaXXXine. Lucky for us, Moses is here to tell us what he’s been into.

🪵

Custom Craftwork

This may seem obvious to people who didn’t grow up in the suburbs, but I’ve been enjoying having custom objects made for me. I’ve been wearing a belt I designed from an anagram I’ve been drawing since I was 12, cut by a trusted steelworker who also built the railing I designed in my house. I have custom handmade mirrors and tables and handbrushes and stools and jeans. I may not be able to build stuff but I sure can tell people what to do. It’s so nice to have personal relationships with objects and the craftspeople who make them.

🧴

Black Girl Sunscreen

I’m at the sunscreen. I’m at the moisturizer. I’m at the combination sunscreen and moisturizer. I get Black Girl Sunscreen from Target like a Real American, except I get the kids’ version because it’s lighter and tbh do you really need that much SPF when you’re the color of night? Unclear, but I do love that it leaves me looking moisturized and glazed after my morning skincare, fresh out the oven.

🙏🏿

Grace

I am learning to forgive people instantly, to forgive before they’ve wronged me, to forgive them for the sin that is being human. Grace is undeserved favor, and as someone who has been obsessed with being The Victim, it’s so freeing to accept that all people are deserving of forgiveness and grace. Also, it makes me morally superior to them.

📀

DVD’s

Remember Deleted Scenes? Remember Director’s Commentary? Remember the feeling of holding something warm in your hands and appreciating the cultural exchange you just had with it? You can’t get that from a streaming network. I bought a DVD player this year, went to the Goodwill DVD section and bought Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and a pilates dvd for $1. One day the billionaires will cut the internet off and we will all look up and realize that we don’t own any of the media we love. Buy vinyl, buy cds, and buy DVDs – especially if you want to learn more about the movies you already love.

🧜🏿‍♂️

Sea Moss Gel

I am that person, yes, who hears about a new dietary thing that’ll fix my gut and give me gills, and then incorporates it into his daily morning meditative smoothie. Except Sea Moss isn’t necessarily new, it’s from the ocean (did you know that – the “sea”). I first heard about sea moss from Lily Rose when we were shooting The Idol, and she swore by its effects. Then I kept seeing the Caribbean lady at my local farmers market in Asheville tout its healing properties. I finally bought some dried sea moss from her and made my own sea moss gel and now I too am hooked. It’s helped my digestion and inflammation and snatchery and desire to prove how different I am.

🎶

Shazam

I do not understand how everyone is not shazaming everything all the time. I once was trying out an assistant who asked me “what song is this?” TWICE in a row about an obscure playlist I was bumping. Needless to say, he was never seen again. I can tell what city I was in at any given time based on what Shazams are in my history. Do you not feel the burn of existential curiosity searing a hole into your soul constantly?

🕴🏿

Overdressing

I love doing the most. I have an EP coming out this year that I finished at Electric Lady, and every day I would see how dressed up I could get. Knee-high Telfar boots with a vintage blazer for vocal tracking days; slacks and loafers for days laying on the couch editing. It made me take myself seriously, like I was an “adult,” “going to work.” Sometimes I get dressed up to go to Target or to travel from the kitchen to the living room, just to feel something.

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Moses Sumney

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