Alan Vega Finished an Unreleased Album Before His Death, Henry Rollins Says

BY Gregory AdamsPublished Jul 20, 2016

After breaking the news of Alan Vega's death over the weekend through his website, good friend Henry Rollins has now confirmed that the former Suicide frontman completed an unreleased album ahead of his passing. The record is called It.

An interview with Rollins explained how he first learned of Vega's passing via a conversation with the singer's wife, Liz Lamere. While reminiscing on the legacy of his friend, Rollins noted that Vega had apparently just finished making a number of paintings and had also completed work on a full-length album.

"There's a finished new album called It. I heard part of it," Rollins confirmed with Pitchfork. "The guy was always starting the next thing while he was in the middle of other things."

It's currently unclear if It will be released to the public. While Vega had issued the Sniper collaborative effort with Marc Hurtado in 2010, his last proper solo LP was 2007's Station.

The interview also finds Rollins discussing a brief email interaction with Vega's Suicide partner Martin Rev, reissuing some of Vega's music through his own 2.13.61 and Infinite Zero imprints, and what it was like to hear Suicide for the first time back in the '70s.

"We just put it on and listened to it. And then you hear 'Frankie Teardrop' for the first time and nothing in your record collection or your life — outside of war — prepares you for the storyline. To this day, no record I own compares to that first Suicide album, and that song in particular. It remains the most intense thing I ever heard."

A stream of "Frankie Teardrop" can be found below. The song is included on Exclaim!'s list of essential Alan Vega songs, which can be found over here.

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