“Lookaftering”
Well, we talked about doing the thing and the fact of the matter is, the British-born Vashti Bunyan started doing the thing pretty early. In the 1960s, while studying at the Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art at Oxford, Bunyan was expelled for focussing more on making music than on drawing. So she went home and started making music. When her mother’s hip actress friend got the 19 year old Bunyan a face to face with the Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham, he was properly charmed and handed her the Stones track “Some Things Just Stick In Your Mind” to record. And so she did. Backed by her own song “I Want To Be Alone,” “Some Things” featured Jimmy Page on guitar, but it didn’t turn as many heads as Bunyan had hoped. She did another single, sang on a Twice As Much album, and appeared in a documentary about swinging London. So the ball was rolling. Bunyan and her fella hit the road in search of an artistic community and she ended up Holland, The Scottish Highlands and the Cumbrian Mountains. Her journey informed the songs for her debut album Just Another Diamond Day, which is fabulous, but was too fabulous for the time it was released. Look, sometimes the world just has to catch up and it did. But it took 30 years. Bunyan was so disappointed by Diamond Day not really troubling the charts, she hung up her guitar, lived in the Scottish Borders in cottages occupied by the Incredible String Band and raised three kids, putting her music career on mothballs, seemingly for good. The world was quietly catching up however, and Diamond Day had sneakily become a cult classic. It was re-released in 2000 and with Joanna Newsom and Devendra Banhart championing her work, Bunyan was introduced to a whole new generation, who adored her. Since then, she’s recorded two more albums–Lookaftering and Heartleap–and she’s appeared on albums by Banhart and Animal Collective, she appeared at London’s Royal Festival Hall with The Heritage Orchestra () as part of Massive Attack’s Meltdown (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meltdown_(festival)), she wrote a memoir, and was the subject of a full-length documentary. So she’s back. Yes. No. I mean, sort of. But I also mean yes. Confused? You won’t be for long. To commemorate Lookaftering’s 20th anniversary, DiCristina Records is releasing an expanded edition of Bunyan’s sophomore album and it’s packed with demos, live stuff, fabulous liner notes, lyric sheets and paintings by Bunyan’s daughter. Bunyan’s music is hard to classify–it’s bedroom pop that isn’t pop and wasn’t recorded in a bedroom but it’s got this hushed and fractured quality that’s filled with mysterious power. This conversation is a real treat and in the end, there’s an unexpected walk across the rooftops that’s really cool.
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