Suzanne Vega wants you to know New York is still crawling — literally. “I saw a little rat playground the other day in Central Park,” she says, eyes twinkling like she just found a new fairy tale to narrate. “A bunch of teenage rats hanging around… you almost expect one to have a boombox on their shoulder.”
Vega’s new song Rats comes wriggling out right on time for Halloween and, coincidentally or not, the inaugural International Rat Summit in NYC. “It would be silly to have a song called Rats and then have it come out six months from now,” she shrugs. “Why not release it now?” Why not indeed. If you’ve ever scurried through Tompkins Square Park at 2 AM, you know this city has always been a rodent opera scored by subway screeches and diner neon.
Speaking of diners, Vega’s voice softens when the conversation turns nostalgic. “As a kid, a diner was a safe place — you could go hang out for two hours for 35 cents and kill time with your friends.” She’s still the chronicler of urban ghosts, whether they’re sipping bad coffee in a corner booth or sprinting across the F train tracks. “I love diners. I love seeing the bit of history in the city. The good ones still have that 50s feel.”
Her longtime guitar wizard, Jerry Leonard — he of Bowie’s band — brings the city’s texture to life onstage. “When he’s not yours, he’s mine,” she once told Bowie, and you’d better believe she meant it. Leonard’s loops and pedals twist her folk poetry into what she jokingly calls “industrial folk” or “Irish sounding things,” depending on the setlist. “I can throw any kind of song at him,” Vega says, “and he can respond with an appropriate production just by himself.”
Vega’s next album, her first since 2016, is a genre buffet. “It’s a bunch of different genres, each one almost clearly defined. There’s folk rock, there’s one that sounds a bit like Motown — that’s new for me.” If all goes to plan, it’ll drop in spring 2025 (update: Flying With Angels is now out) — conveniently landing on the 40th anniversary of her debut.
She’s not exactly in a rush, though. “Life intervenes. We had a lot of life between 2016 and now. Personal things. Covid — I was not one of those people who sat at home writing songs. I was cleaning my house. Monitoring the news. It got a little neurotic.”
If you’re hoping the new record might come with some Duolingo French — well, that’s a possibility too. “I wrote a little song I sang for the French audiences,” she laughs. “It’s really cute. I’d love to record it.”
And just like that, the urban poet of the subway and the diner window slides back into the Louisville festival haze, rat tales intact. New York never stops talking to her — and lucky for us, neither do its rodents.
Watch the interview above and then check out the video below.
