Intro:
The UK singer/songwriter Vashti Bunyan released one very beautiful folk album in 1970. After that she disappeared from the musical world. 35 years later Vashti returns with «Lookaftering», again a piece of very fine folk. In the interview she talks about how she started in the sixties, how she was discovered by Andrew Oldham, why she left everything behind and moved to the Isle Of Skye and writing new songs.

E.C.: The music on "Lookaftering" sounds like as if the time has stood still for over 30 years. Have you lived that far away from everything that the songs sound that uninfluenced by anything but yourself?

Vashti Bunyan: Maybe I have. I don¹t really know, I can¹t tell from here.

E.C.: How came the decision to record a new album?

Vashti Bunyan: The unexpected warmth that came towards me after the re-issue of my old album.

E.C.: How difficult was it for you to write songs again after such a long time?

Vashti Bunyan: It took a while and I think I maybe wrote a lot of rubbish at first. Like teenage poetry.

E.C.: What was the first song you wrote for "Lookaftering" and what is it about?

Vashti Bunyan: It was «If I Were» and was about two doubting lovers who don¹t quite believe in their own love.

E.C.: You appeared in 2003 at the Royal Festival Hall invited by Stephen Malkmus. What did you feel at this night?

Vashti Bunyan: It was the most terrifying moment of my life when I stepped up on to the stage as I had not done this in so many years ­ but the audience was so welcoming and I was so surprised that I forgot to be frightened anymore and just sang.

E.C.: What was the most memorable of your concerts in the sixties?

Vashti Bunyan: I only remember doing two ­ one was at a poetry reading at the ICA in London where Joe Boyd first saw me (although we didn¹t meet for another two years) and the other was at a literary festival where I sang on a big stage with just my guitar to an almost empty theatre.

E.C.: How did it all start for you musically in the sixties?

Vashti Bunyan: With an obsessive love for pop music. Mostly the Americans like Buddy Holly and the Everly Brothers and Ricky Nelson ­ but their English equivalents as well. I liked the way the songs were so simple and was fascinated by what stories and emotion could be conveyed in the space of two minutes. I still am.

E.C.: When and where did Andrew Oldham discover you?

Vashti Bunyan: I sang (reluctantly) at a party given by an actress friend of my mother.. one of the guests was an agent who knew Andrew Oldham and she called him about me.

E.C.: How much did you like the idea to be hyped as the new Marianne Faithfull?

Vashti Bunyan: I hated it and it spoiled everything for me as I really didn¹t think we were in any way alike ­ mostly because I saw myself as a song-writer as much as a singer. I didn¹t realize this would be the way I¹d be portrayed and once I did I was very sad.

E.C.: What made you decide to leave it all behind and to move to Donovan’s community on the Isle Of Skye?

Vashti Bunyan: I recorded three more singles with Andrew Oldham throughout OE66 and OE67 ­ none of which ever came out and after the last one I lost my musical heart. I wanted to leave London and the music industry way behind me.

E.C.: What did you hope to find on the isle?

Vashti Bunyan: A way of life that didn¹t demand me to be married or have a job ­ a way of surviving on very little and having some ground to grow food and some space for my children and animals.

E.C.: Where the songs on your debut from 1970 "Just another diamond day" all inspired by the stay there?

Vashti Bunyan: No ­ they were written on the way there. My boyfriend and I traveled with a horse and cart and it took us 18 months to get there. The songs were a way of keeping the dream alive.

E.C.: Why and when did you leave the community?

Vashti Bunyan: After one night! It was clear that the dreams we had shared with the others who traveled there by more conventional methods (cars) all those months before had done their dreams and decided to go back to the city.

E.C.: What did you do after and where did you move?

Vashti Bunyan: Briefly on to another island in the Outer Hebrides. Then back to London for the birth of my first child, then to Scotland again, then to Ireland and then finally back to Scotland where I still live ­ but back in the city now.

E.C.: Will we hear more from you in the future?

Vashti Bunyan: I do hope so. I turned my back on music for a lot of my life and now that I listen again I find so much that I lost ­ of other people¹s music too. I would like to try to write a piece of music as well as songs. I am very much looking forward to a musical future.