By: Dave Gil de Rubio
Despite being born in Santa Monica, Calif., Suzanne Vega is a tried-and-true New Yorker ever since her family moved to Manhattan when she was two-and-a-half years old. If environment shapes an artist, evidence to support that theory can be found in Vega’s body of work up to and including her latest recorded effort, 2020’s “An Evening of New York Songs and Stories.”
Recorded in 2019, this collection of songs found the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter taking the stage with a trio of musicians at the Carlyle, an iconic venue located on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. For someone whose usual live spaces are folk clubs and theaters, this venue proved to be quite an adjustment.
“I’m not really a jazz singer and I haven’t been trained in theatrical singing, [so] I had to alter my approach,” Vega admitted in a recent interview. “We decided to do a lot of songs that bordered on lounge music. And we changed our usual lineup. I don’t think we had a drummer—we just had an upright bass, keyboards and Gerry Leonard on guitar. That was interesting to have to change my vocal approach. In spite of the fact that the Carlyle is this tiny venue that holds about 70 people, I had to really project a big personality because that’s what they’re used to. They’re used to icons. The Carlyle is a place where someone like Eartha Kitt played.”
Aesthetics were also addressed with Vega treating those recorded dates like a theater piece, where she kept a consistent look, be it her wardrobe, hair, make-up or speech pattern. Stories were prepared, audience interaction was at a premium, and as she pointed out, “You have to play as hard as if you’re playing to a room of 1,000.”
Now it’s back to touring, and Vega’s current string of shows will find her including material from a forthcoming untitled new album.
“These shows will just be me and Gerry [Leonard],” she said. “That tour is called something like Songs Old and New. We’re starting to feature newer songs now because (that’s) also what I’m recording. I’m hoping to have a complete new album recorded by May or June.”
Nine studio albums in, Vega has come a long way since releasing her 1985 self-titled debut album. While the debut made a bigger splash in the United Kingdom, her sophomore bow, 1987’s “Solitude Standing,” gave her major crossover success stateside, thanks to the Top 5 single “Luka.” Then a 1990 “Tom’s Diner” remix by British electronica duo DNA that also cracked the Top 5. Since then, Vega has spent less time pursuing continued commercial success and focused more on indulging her various creative muses.
Theater has been a particular interest for her starting with 2011’s “Carson McCullers Talks About Love,” a play she wrote about the life of the late writer with fellow singer-songwriter Duncan Sheik. The seeds for this passion project were planted when Vega was barely out of her teens.
“Carson McCullers is a unique personality in literature that I found very endearing when I was 19, which is when I first started working on this theater piece,” she recalled. “I felt that she wrote about life in an honest and blunt way and I felt that she expressed the truth of things. And then when I was asked as part of a theater musical ensemble group to come in and do this exercise where we were asked to come in as someone in the arts who was no longer alive and be ready to answer questions as though I was on TV, Carson McCullers was who I chose. I had seen her photo on a biography that had come out and was in the library. Having seen her face before and her hair style, I knew I could do this. I went back to the library and took out the book because I thought I had a passing resemblance to her. I already loved her work and it just sort of took hold. I found that acting as her—coming in with my pack of cigarettes and flask of gin was so much fun that I didn’t want to stop playing her.”
More recently, Vega’s balancing act of music and theater found her playing 10 different characters in a pre-pandemic Off-Broadway show “Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice.” In it she played all the characters who were not Bob, Carol, Ted or Alice and included women, old and young people. But for now, music is her full focus with a new record and further touring on the slate for this year. In the meantime, she’s continuing to challenge herself creatively.
“Peter Gabriel once told me that as an artist, it’s good to blow up your idiosyncrasies,” she explained. “He said that to me in the late ’80s, right after ‘Luka’ had been this big success. Sometimes when you’re successful, you feel that everybody wants you to iron out your idiosyncrasies. You’re asked why you don’t do this or that. This was a great relief when he said that to me. I love that idea. I still believe it and have concluded that your limits and quirks are your style. That’s what I’ve distilled from that bit of advice that he gave me.”