Suzanne Vega

By Alex Teitz

Suzanne Vega pioneered new music before most realized there was a new frontier ahead. Her first album came out in 1985 and was strangely different. The music was introspective and driven by songwriting and poetry. In 1987 her second album introduced the world to the songs “Tom’s Dinner”, and a disturbing song called “Luka.” Vega became a chart builder during that time and her albums continued to come. In 1993 she released 99 Degrees Fahrenheit with a strong band sound. In 1996 she released Nine Objects of Desire with a small recall of her past journey. It was at that time that Vega began a different life as well, as a mother.
For five years the world waited to see if Vega would return to music at all. This fall she did with Songs in Red and Gray. It is another introspective album led by challenging lyrics. The song “Widow’s Walk” is already on the airwaves, and Vega is on tour once again. FEMMUSIC was honored to speak with Vega recently.
Suzanne Vega

FEMMUSIC: Can you describe your songwriting technique?

SV: Well I’ve been doing it for a long time so it’s changed over the years. It’s not the same way it used to be. Let me think for a second. (Pause)
It comes in all different ways. Sometimes it’s the melody first or the title first or sometimes it’s just an idea that doesn’t go away. This last year I actually found it helpful to back to a writing group that I’ve been a part of for a long time. In the early 80’s I was part of the Greenwich Village Songwriter’s Exchange. Just sounds very formal but it’s not all actually. It’s where a lot of songs from the first album came. I went back last year to that same group which had been going on the whole time. It’s not really a technique it’s more of a place to go and sing songs that you’d written the week before.

FEMMUSIC: What was the biggest challenge making Songs in Red and Gray?

SV: Getting started cause it had been awhile since I’d written anything. I guess for about three years I wrote maybe two songs. And if you’re a single mom you can very easily let everything else get in the way. Everything else comes before it: doing laundry, looking after the house, and it’s easier, in a sense, to do the mundane things than try to sit down and write a song, and FAIL at it. So I just kind of let it go for years. It was the daily challenge of keeping writing, that was the most difficult thing. And once we were actually recording, we started recording in November with about six or seven songs which wasn’t quite enough to make a whole album and then during the course of the recording about five of the new songs came through. I was very happy about that.
The actual writing of the songs was the challenge.

FEMMUSIC: What was the best experience making Songs in Red and Gray?

SV: Probably working with Rupert Hine who is a very easy going character. When we started recording we had this wonderful system by which he would work alone in the mornings doing arrangements and working on whatever he had to work with. I would come in between three and five-thirty or between three and six in the afternoon and I’d plan whatever new things I’d been working on, or I would go over what he had been doing in the morning and then in the evenings he would have the live musicians come in (the guitar player, the bass player) and they would work on what Rupert and I had done during the day. So it was a very easy predictable rhythm and routine set-up. Which I found it really easy to work that way because sometimes making an album can be all consuming. You end up spending days and nights in there which I would really rather not do. (laughing) So this kind of still allowed me a bit of objectivity. I was still involved in it every day but I wasn’t consumed with it the way I’d been with other albums.

FEMMUSIC: It sounds like your approach to this album was different from anything else in the past.

SV: Yeah it was. The last two albums I’d made with Mitchell Froom. With the first album I didn’t know him but we were all consumed with that album and then we married each other, and then for the second album we were all consumed with the album again. So I ended up spending lots and lots of time in the studio. And with that previous album I made it with Anton Sanko who I was also living with (laugh) so the albums have tended to be all consuming. We tend to fall into them and you really can’t maintain your objectivity. So this was great. I really liked working like that. I hope I get to continue.

FEMMUSIC: How is it dealing with the music industry after having such a long break?

SV: Oh it’s a little weird. I’m sort of getting used to it again. It’s like a river. You never step into the same river twice. It’s kind of the same thing. Some things are the same as it had been. Some things are not. Mostly I try to stay grounded. My family really keeps me grounded so I find that I’m not swayed by the whole music industry “idea.” I guess I don’t feel that I don’t have to prove so much at this moment. I guess I some of taking things as they come and seeing where they lead me without any particular quest to prove myself to anybody. So I guess that helps.

FEMMUSIC: What one thing would you like to change about the music industry?

SV: I don’t know where to begin really. (laugh) When I think of one thing I think of a whole network of things that could come up attached to it. I guess it’s still, although women have come a long way in the music industry, I think that there’s still an issue on how women are perceived, and how they’re perceived on the radio. It’s still this thing where women are competing against each other. Even though there are a lot more women now, and a lot more types of women now which I think is really great. I still wish there were more….that it wasn’t so difficult to have a variety of things on the radio. A lot of things on the radio sound the same to me.
But also the other thing I find frustrating is that there’s much music now that you’re in competition with your heroes. You’re in competition with the people who you listened to in the 60’s and 70’s. It’s not something that I would change but it is frustrating to turn on the radio and like in some ways the radio as it was in the 60’s and 70’s. You can still hear Dylan, Led Zepplin and The Beatles and you’re competing with them for airplay which is bizarre to me. I wish that there were an easier way to do things.

FEMMUSIC: Do you think there is as much discrimination in the industry as when you began?

SV: No actually I don’t think there is. I think there’s a lot more options. There’s a lot more options now than there used to be and a lot less characterizing and stereotypes. Even though when I first started there were still a lot of women making music (Chrissie Hynde, Ricki Lee Jones and Joni Mitchell) so I didn’t think of myself as pioneering in any way but I feel like I was still a bit of a novelty back then. I think things have gotten a lot better for women and I think the Lilith Fair was an indication of that. Even though in the end it got sort of a bad reputation I still think it was a great experience and really good thing to be part of.

FEMMUSIC: I know, I’m still seeing the effects of it from many artists.

SV: Yeah I think so do. It was really kind of a revolutionary idea that Sarah had. It worked to a greater idea than she even dreamed of. It’s just terrific. Such an unqualified success. It was really great to be part of that.

FEMMUSIC: What advice would you have for an artist just starting out?

SV: My advice to artists just starting out because I get a lot of people coming up to me saying, “How do you get a record deal?’ (laugh) You’re starting at the wrong end. You can’t just start by making records. I think the way to really start is to be a performer. To just do it. You write in your room or with a group or however you get yourself to write and then you go perform wherever you can and find an audience. Develop yourself. Develop your style. What it is you’re trying to say. What is it that makes you different from all the hundreds of other people who are standing on stage with a guitar. If you can sharpen yourself to the greatest degree that you can then you’ll attract what you need to attract to get to the next level. People I think start at the wrong end. They want to start out big and you have to start out small. You have to start out by developing yourself and then you take baby steps from there. Then after that you attract an audience who wants to hear or has to hear what you have to say. That’s how it works.