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The Michael Visceglia Q/A Session

1. You've toured with Suzanne for over a decade. How have her audiences changed over the years?

MV: The audiences we play to now, although smaller, seem to be very dedicated fans familiar with most of Suzanne's body of work. They can be very spontaneous and interactive. Because of the lack of attention radio and video has given to Suzanne lately, it has been harder to make new converts. That's why playing at the Lilith Fair was so important. In general Suzanne's audience remains very diverse cutting across all ages, races and demographics.

2. What are your favorite and least favorite Suzanne Vega albums and songs?

MV: My favorite Suzanne album is "Solitude Standing" because it reflects a great time in Suzanne's and my career and I was happy and honored to contribute to it in different ways. As far as favorite songs, I have no one favorite. Songs like, "Cracking," "Small Blue Thing," "Ironbound," "In Liverpool," "World Before Columbus," and "Caramel" are my equal favorites. To me, they show Suzanne in top form. My least favorite album is "Days Of Open Hand." Conceptually, it doesn't hold together for me.

3. How has Suzanne's music changed over the years?

MV: What has changed in Suzanne's music over the years is her openness to embracing textures that are sonically and commercially unconventional. I think the ways that she has evolved and revealed her art has given a solid sense of confidence in her place in the music world. What hasn't changed in Suzanne's music is her sense of uncompromising excellence in her songwriting.

4. Does audience reaction make any difference to the level or quality of your performance?

MV: It makes a lot of difference, because it's not like the medium of doing a record, where the initial reward is hearing the product and responding to that; doing concerts is a very interactive event. Sometimes you go out there and they're totally there for you - screaming, yelling - and that makes you feel good, it makes you feel relaxed and know that you're accepted.

What we do is very, very hard and usually the only reward - the main reward - is playing a good show, performing what we do. For that hour-and- a-half each day, hopefully it will justify the twenty-two-and-a-half hours of logistics and boredom and tedium and travelling, and everything else that goes into making it work. This music demands a lot of concentration because it's delicate, it has a lot of dynamic range to it, it demands a lot musically, and it takes a lot of attention and concentration. So if the show isn't rewarding then, oh boy, the day is kind of shot, you know.

The shows where you really feel the music, get lost in it, those are the best; that's what you strive for in any artistic endeavour - to really commune with the Muses, and to feel that you are actually a part of the music. Those are the peaks of the art, and it does happen; I've felt that, and it's a great feeling.

5. What other bass players do you enjoy listening to?

MV: There is a bass player out of New York named Anthony Jackson. Although not a household name he has performed on hundreds of recordings and continues in my mind to be the most important voice on the instrument. His dedication, boldness and musicality are what I aspire toward.

6. After recording a song and later playing it live, do you ever wish that you could re-record it?

MV: I almost always wish I could go back to re-record songs after playing them live on tour. I'm always looking for and learning new ways of approaching older material. But I have to let go of that because a recording is just a snapshot of where an artist is at a given time. You have to look forward to the next, and hopefully better, one.

7. I've read that you're a fan of Peter Gabriel. How would you like to learn the Chapman Stick and replace Tony Levin? =)

MV: I have no intention nor desire to learn to play the Chapman Stick. I have enough of a time dealing with fretted and unfretted basses. Tony Levin is a great musician and one of my heroes. He's the perfect bassist for Peter Gabriel. More power to him.

8. How is your enjoyment of the music affected by the fact that this is your job, and you have to play the same songs, again and again?

MV: One of the reasons for doing this is because I don't feel I have the constitution for a routine nine-to-five kind of existence; I'm not demeaning it, I'm just saying that I haven't done that in like fifteen or sixteen years - it doesn't suit my lifestyle, my style of being. So I never want to feel that playing music has any connection with that routine, even though there are obvious relationships when you're playing the same things night after night. Sometimes it's not inspiring and you feel like you don't want to be here doing this, but you have to, and it becomes the job more than the art; when it feels like that you have to just push through it. One good thing is that there's this little break in the show for us: we go backstage and kid around, drink some Perrier, and talk about how the first half of the show went; we can get a little breather, then go back on and have a fresh attitude.

9. Has the amount of time that you've been working with Suzanne created any hinderances in your working relationship?

MV: At this point in my relationship with Suzanne I find no hinderances. On the contrary, I find more comfort than I ever have. We have a long history together and an intuition about how each of us works individually and together. I think this has led to an acceptance of who we are and how we are. I love playing music with her as much today as I did 10 or 12 years ago. I consider her a good friend.

10. Is there a conflict between the part of you that loves jazz - and presumably improvisational work - and this role where you are basically reproducing the album live?

MV: Well, no, because my sensibilities run classical too. I mean, ultimately I would love to have the improvisational ability of a jazz musician - that to me is the highest art form; but to reproduce something faithfully, if not exactly, night after night, and do it in an inspired way, is a good sensibility.

11. You're listed as a co-writer of "Language." Do you participate in the songwriting process with Suzanne?

MV: I do not participate in songwriting with Suzanne, but I continue to co-write with other musicians in the New York area.

12. Which gives you more pleasure: the situation where the "creative spark" is at work, or reproducing the music live?

MV: That's a good question... They both have a high value, and I guess one is the completion of the other. It's very rewarding to come up with the creative ideas that fit into the compositional arrangement, and then the coming to fruition of that is the performance of it. I think they both have their value, and are both different.

13. Do you think that having a cohesive band unit has produced a better sound than the session musician approach of the first album?

MV: Oh yes, I think it's definitely the right thing to do. It feels much more complete. The first album doesn't have the impact of a band; it sounds like a project. Personally, it's something that I've always wanted; the reason I haven't immersed myself in striving to become a studio musician is because I've always wanted to have a band identity.

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