Interview: We love you suzanne
Widely regarded as one of the most brilliant songwriters of her generation, Suzanne Vega emerged as a leading figure of the folk-music revival of the early 1980s. Jeff Hemmings finds out more
Born in Santa Monica, California, she grew up in Spanish Harlem and the Upper West Side of New York City and her family home featured a mix of multicultural music including Motown, bossa nova, jazz and folk. At age 11 she picked up a guitar and as a teenager she started to write songs.
She ended up studying dance at high school and then English literature at Barnard College. But it was at a 1979 Lou Reed concert that she really began her musical journey. Receptionist by day, Suzanne was hanging out at the Greenwich Village Songwriter’s Exchange by night and was soon playing iconic venues like The Bottom Line and Folk City.
Influenced by the likes of fellow New Yorker Laura Nyro and Leonard Cohen in particular, she once said; “I love her inconsistencies and the characters she wrote about. whereas she was very feminine, I was a more boyish kind of girl – I thought of her as the womanly figure that I would never be.” Vega’s demo tape was, however, rejected by every major record company, and twice by the very label that eventually signed her – A&M Records. But her self-titled debut album was finally released in 1985, co-produced by Steve Addabbo and Lenny Kaye, the former guitarist for Patti Smith. A million sales later and it was clear that Suzanne’s voice and stories had universal appeal.
‘Marlene on the Wall’ was a hit in the UK and 1987’s Solitude Standing album, again co-produced by Addabbo and Kaye, elevated her to star status. It included her most famous song, ‘Luka’, a song that has subsequently entered the cultural vernacular, and perhaps the only hit song ever written from the perspective of an abused boy.
She has said of the song; “A few years ago, I used to see this group of children playing in front of my building, and there was one of them, whose name was Luka, who seemed a little bit distinctive from the other children. I always remembered his name, and I always remembered his face, and I didn’t know much about him, but he just seemed set apart from these other children that I would see playing. And his character is what I based the song Luka on. In the song, the boy Luka is an abused child – in real life I don’t think he was, he was just different.”
“I’ve seen both sides of the city; I’ve lived in some rough neighbourhoods”
Vega’s songs have always tended to focus on city life, ordinary people and real world subjects. And her cerebral but also streetwise lyrics are often about New York in all its glory; “I’ve lived here most of my life so I’m naturally deeply involved in it. I’ve seen both sides of the city;
I’ve lived in some rough neighbourhoods.”
Also on Solitude Standing was an a cappella piece, ‘Tom’s Diner’, about a nondescript restaurant near Columbia University. A hugely important part of American culture, diners are a funny thing; “It’s inbetween being home and being out in the street: you can feel a sense of community there with other people or you could feel alienated.” Without Vega’s permission, it was remixed by UK electronic dance duo DNA and bootlegged as ‘Oh Susanna’. Suddenly her voice was being heard in clubs in the UK and beyond. Vega then permitted an official release of the remix of ‘Tom’s Diner’ under its original title which reached number five in the US.
Meanwhile, Karlheinz Brandenburg, the German computer programmer was busy developing the technology that would come to be known as the MP3 and heard the a capella version of ‘Tom’s Diner’ on the radio. He found that Vega’s voice was the perfect template with which to test the purity of the audio compression that he was aiming to perfect. Thus Suzanne earned the nickname ‘The Mother of the MP3’.
Over the next few years, Vega moved away from her acoustic/folk roots, experimenting with industrial and techno music and in 1999, The Passionate Eye: The Collected Writings Of Suzanne Vega, a volume of poems, lyrics, essays and journalistic pieces was published.
An inspiration for a new generation for female folk-pop singer-songwriters such as Tracy Chapman, Shawn Colvin, and Indigo Girls, she returned to her acoustic roots for 2001’s Songs In Red And Gray, followed by the equally impressive Beauty & Crime in 2007. It was in 2001 that Vega suffered the loss of her brother Tim in the 9/11 attacks but Beauty & Crime still sees her love of the city shine through – as she sings on ‘Ludlow Street’; “Love is the only thing that matters/Love is the only thing that is real.” While on ‘Anniversary’, she sings; “Make time for all your possibilities/ They live on every street”.
Writing, broadcasting and dipping her toes into the world of theatre for the first time since she was a teen. In 2006 she became the first major recording artist to perform live in avatar form within the virtual world Second Life, and continues to dedicate much of her time and energy to charitable causes such as Amnesty International, Casa Alianza, and the Save Darfur Coalition.
Over the last few years Vega has been re-recording her back catalogue, with stripped-down arrangements that highlight her lyrics and melodies, for both artistic and commercial purposes; Called the ‘Close-up series’. Three volumes have been released so far, the fourth and final volume is out later this year. “They’re reinterpretations of my old songs and I’ve put them together by themes, instead of by albums.
All the love songs are on one album; all the weird songs about states of being are on another and then the hits, which I call, ‘People and Places’, are on another album,” she said. It has also given her a chance to revisit those first two albums; “[Producers] Addabbo and Lenny Kaye were inexperienced. When I listen to those records, even though they were the most successful ones, I’m not always that happy with how they came out.”
However, it’s touring that Vega relies on; “I’m always touring. I do about fifty shows a year – I just came back from Asia and that was great. I like the touring life. It’s how I make my living for the most part, and I’m really enjoying it.” She will be appearing at the Brighton Dome this month with support from ex-Soul Coughing’s, Mike Doughty.
Suzanne Vega, Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, Thursday 14 June, 8pm, £27.50/25, www.brightondome.org
