# Moses Sumney

Moses Sumney (born May 19, 1992) is an American singer-songwriter. His self-recorded EP, Mid-City Island, was released in 2014. He released another five-song EP in 2016, titled Lamentations. His first full-length album, Aromanticism, was released in September 2017. His second studio album, Græ, was released in 2020. Sumney has performed as an opening act for James Blake, Solange Knowles, and Sufjan Stevens. In 2023, he was featured on The Weeknd's HBO TV series The Idol.

## Early life

Born in California, Sumney was raised by pastor parents, and moved with his family back to Ghana at the age of 10. He described his childhood as "Americanized" by this age and had difficulty adjusting to the culture of Ghana, especially the rural nature of his new environment. There he grew up on a goat farm in Accra and commuted by public bus to school. His family returned to Southern California when Sumney was 16, settling in Riverside.
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.
After high school, he moved to Los Angeles in 2010 to attend the University of California, Los Angeles. He majored in creative writing and studied poetry, which helped him improve his songwriting.

## Musical career

In 2014, Sumney broke into the Los Angeles music scene and 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. His resistance to labels is reflected in his later album, Græ.
Sumney's 2014 debut project, Mid-City Island, is a five-song EP that was self-recorded onto a four-track recorder given to him by Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio. The self-released EP was described by Pitchfork as "primarily composed of first-takes and improvisation; the music is stirring but purposefully incomplete". Sumney joined Terrible Records after the release. He considers his songs to be performance based, and that many of his recorded compositions derive from fleshing the songs out through live performance.
He has performed at venues such as the Hollywood Bowl and alongside artists such as Dirty Projectors, Junip, St. Vincent, and Local Natives. Sumney sang on the opening track of Beck's album Song Reader. On September 30, 2016, Sumney released Lamentations, an EP which featured a guest appearance from Thundercat.
Sumney's first full-length album, Aromanticism, was released on September 22, 2017 by Jagjaguwar. It received acclaim from Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and The New York Times, which also named it one of the best albums of 2017. He stumbled across the term "aromantic" when he began writing it back in 2014 and found the term resonated with him. 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. The songs "Quarrel", "Doomed", and "Swan Song" all appeared in the 2021 film Swan Song.
Sumney played himself in Season 1 episode 4 of HBO's Random Acts of Flyness. He also appeared in the movie Creed and worked on the soundtrack alongside Ludwig Görannson and Tessa Thompson.
Sumney released his second studio album, Græ, in two parts in 2020. The first part was released on February 21, 2020, and the second part was released on May 15, 2020, accompanied by a physical release of the double album. In March 2020, he released the self-directed music video "Cut Me". In May 2020, Sumney released "Bless Me" as a single from the second part of his album, Græ.
In December 2020, Sumney's single "Me in 20 Years" was featured in a special episode of the HBO drama Euphoria. Sumney contributed a cover of the Metallica song "The Unforgiven" to the charity tribute album The Metallica Blacklist, released in September 2021. On December 8, 2021, Sumney released a full-length concert film, Blackalachia, recorded over two days in the Blue Ridge Mountains. An accompanying live album, Live from Blackalachia, was released on December 10.

## Awards and honors

In 2018, Moses Sumney's self-directed music video "Quarrel" won a SXSW Film Festival Special Jury Award, and was nominated for a Camerimage award and UKMVA. In 2020, his self-directed video for "Cut Me" was nominated for a UKMVA for Best Alternative Video - International. Both of his albums have topped the year-end lists of Pitchfork, NPR, New York Times, Stereogum, and more.

## Discography
### Studio albums

List of studio albums, with selected information :
| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions | Peak chart positions |
| Title | Details | US Sales | US Heat | BEL (FL) | POR |
| Aromanticism | Released: September 22, 2017 Label: Jagjaguwar Format: CD, LP, digital download, streaming | — | — | 139 | — |
| Græ | Released: May 15, 2020 Label: Jagjaguwar Formats: CD, LP, digital download, streaming | 28 | 8 | — | 44 |

### Live albums

List of live albums, with selected information :
| Title | Details |
| Live from Blackalachia | Released: December 10, 2021 Label: Jagjaguwar, Tuntum Format: CD, LP, digital download, streaming |

### Extended plays

List of extended plays, with selected information :
| Title | Details |
| Mid-City Island | Released: April 7, 2014 Label: Self-released Format: Cassette, CD-R, digital download, streaming |
| Lamentations | Released: September 30, 2016 Label: Jagjaguwar Format: CD, vinyl, digital download, streaming |
| Make Out in My Car: Chameleon Suite | Released: May 25, 2018 Label: Jagjaguwar Format: Digital download, streaming |
| Black in Deep Red, 2014 | Released: August 10, 2018 Label: Jagjaguwar Format: Vinyl, digital download, streaming |
| Bryce Dessner: Tenebre (with Ensemble Resonanz) | Released: September 20, 2019 Label: Resonanzraum Format: Vinyl, digital download, streaming |
| Sophcore | Released: August 2, 2024 Label: Tuntum Format: Digital download, streaming |

### Singles
#### As lead artist

| Title | Year | Album |
| "Man on the Moon" | 2014 | Mid-City Island |
| "Scratch the Surface" / "Forlorn Fantasy" | 2014 | Non-album singles |
| "Seeds" / "Pleas" | 2015 | Non-album singles |
| "Everlasting Sigh" | 2016 | Non-album singles |
| "Worth It" | 2016 | Lamentations |
| "Lonely World (Lamentations Version)" | 2016 | Lamentations |
| "Doomed" | 2017 | Aromanticism |
| "Quarrel" | 2017 | Aromanticism |
| "Indulge Me" | 2017 | Aromanticism |
| "Rank & File" | 2018 | Black in Deep Red |
| "Virile" | 2019 | Græ |
| "Polly" | 2019 | Græ |
| "Me in 20 Years" | 2020 | Græ |
| "Cut Me" | 2020 | Græ |
| "Bless Me" | 2020 | Græ |
| "The Other Lover" (with Little Dragon) | 2020 | Non-album singles |
| "The Unforgiven" | 2021 | The Metallica Blacklist |
| "Can't Believe It" (with Sam Gendel) | 2021 | Non-album singles |
| "Get It B4" | 2023 | The Idol Episode 3 (Music from the HBO Original Series) |
| "Vintage" | 2024 | Sophcore |
| "Gold Coast" | 2024 | Sophcore |

#### As featured artist

| Title | Year | Album |
| "Show Me Love" (Skrillex remix) (Hundred Waters featuring Chance the Rapper, Moses Sumney, and Robin Hannibal) | 2016 | Non-album single |
| "To Believe" (The Cinematic Orchestra featuring Moses Sumney) | 2019 | To Believe |
| "Cul de Sac" (Trayer Tryon, Jónsi, and Alex Somers featuring Moses Sumney, Nicole Miglis, and Julianna Barwick) | 2020 | Non-album single |

#### Other charted songs

| Title | Details | Peak chart positions | Album |
| Title | Details | US Dance | Album |
| "Tell Them" (James Blake featuring Metro Boomin and Moses Sumney) | 2019 | 23 | Assume Form |

### Guest appearances

List of guest appearances as featured artist, with the respective artists and albums :
| Title | Year | Artist | Album |
| "Title of This Song" | 2014 | Beck | Beck Song Reader |
| "Shed You" | 2015 | Tessa Thompson | Creed: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack |
| "Show Me Love" | 2016 | Hundred Waters, Chance the Rapper, Robin Hannibal, Skrillex | Non-album single |
| "Mad" | 2016 | Solange Knowles, Lil' Wayne | A Seat at the Table |
| "Cassidy" | 2016 | Jenny Lewis & Friends | Day of the Dead |
| "Truth Lies Low" | 2016 | Andrew Bird | Are You Serious |
| "Weekend" | 2017 | Flume | Skin Companion EP 2 |
| "Tell Them" | 2019 | James Blake, Metro Boomin | Assume Form |
| "U (Man Like)" | 2019 | Bon Iver, Bruce Hornsby, Jenn Wasner | i,i |
| "To Believe" | 2019 | The Cinematic Orchestra | To Believe |
| "Standing on the Horizon" | 2019 | Woodkid | Woodkid for Nicolas Ghesquière - Louis Vuitton Works One |
| "Tenebre" | 2019 | Bryce Dessner, Ensemble Resonanz | Bryce Dessner: Tenebre |
| "Blood in Rain" | 2020 | Ethan Gruska | En Garde |
| "The Unforgiven" | 2021 | Metallica | The Metallica Blacklist |
| "I'll Be Seeing You" | 2023 | — | A Small Light (Songs from the Limited Series) |
| "Insecurities" | 2024 | Shabaka | Perceive Its Beauty, Acknowledge Its Grace |
| "Around the World in a Day" | 2024 | RM | Right Place, Wrong Person |
| "Is It Cold in the Water?" | 2024 | Anohni | Transa |
| "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" | 2024 | Lyra Pramuk, Sam Smith | Transa |

## Filmography

| Year | Title | Role | Notes | Ref. |
| 2023 | The Idol | Izaak | Supporting role | |
| 2024 | MaXXXine | Leon Green | Supporting role |

## Awards and nominations

| Year | Association | Category | Nominated Work | Result |
| 2018 | AIM Independent Music Awards | Independent Video of the Year | "Doomed" | Nominated |
| 2018 | AIM Independent Music Awards | International Breakthrough of the year | Moses Sumney | Nominated |
| 2018 | Libera Awards | Best Outlier Record | Aromanticism | Won |
| 2019 | Libera Awards | Video of the Year | “Quarrel” | Nominated |
| 2020 | AIM Awards | Best Second Album | Græ | Nominated |
| 2021 | AIM Awards | Best Independent Album | Græ | Nominated |
| 2021 | Libera Award | Best Outlier Record | Græ | Nominated |