The Best Collab We Never Got

I discovered Nick Drake and Vashti Bunyan around the same time. I was a senior in high school and going through some stuff mentally that put me in the darkest headspace I'd been in at that point in my life. The purity and emotional nakedness of their music was truly beautiful to me. It was music I had always romanticized in my mind, but didn't think could actually exist. Despite the melancholy lyrics and gothic-folk air to the songs, their music was like a hug that made me feel like everything would be okay. I clung more fiercely to Nick, as his music spoke to me a little more; though I did and still do enjoy Vashti Bunyan's music as well.

Both Drake and Bunyan started their careers around the same time in the late 60s/early 70s. Initially, Bunyan found minor success by guest singing on a track for Twice As Much, and also a short appearance in Tonite! Let's All Make Love in London, a featurette about London's underground music scene. Meanwhile, in 1969 Nick Drake had just dropped out of school at Cambridge to pursue music--but was finding little success.

Both found themselves in the care of American producer, Joe Boyd, who acted as unofficial manager to both of them. In 1970, Bunyan released her first full-length album, Diamond Day; Nick released Bryter Layter the same year. Neither album garnered much attention. Joe Boyd was concerned for these artists. Noting their similar folk stylings, he thought getting the two together to collaborate on music would be a godsend. Not only would it sound incredible, but it would surely help get these two struggling singer-songwriters' names out in the public! It was a foolproof plan!

Well, this backfired spectacularly, because Joe Boyd didn't consider one very important thing: Both Nick and Vashti were extremely shy. Nick was also suffering terribly from depression and social anxiety that was so bad, his sister had claimed that speaking at all--even to family and people he'd known his whole life--made him feel nauseous. So when they met, not a word was said between the two of them. Vashti Bunyan recounted the experience years later:

Neither of us knew the other’s music. I had no record player and I had been on the road with no access to radio or music papers or anything for some time — so I had no idea who Nick was when we were both first working with Joe...Joe asked me to go to Nick’s house where I found him sitting at an upright piano – quite wordless. I had a tiny baby by then who cried whenever I put him down to pick up my guitar. Nick’s shoulders went higher and higher and it became quite clear that writing together was just not going to happen.

However, she says the lack of communication between them may have been a good thing, as she believes she and Nick were both far too individualistic and liked to be in control of their projects. Which--fair enough--most creative people are not too keen on collaborating.

But at the time, both Drake and Bunyan were discouraged by their lack of success and withdrew from the public--Nick to his parents' house in Warwickshire, and Bunyan into the country to raise her children. Bunyan later said she was so heartbroken by her lack of success that she stopped trying with music all together. "I didn't even sing to my children. I don't like to admit it, but that's what happened."

Meanwhile, Nick did attempt a fourth studio album a few months before his death in 1974. But his mental state was in such shambles, it was clear nothing was going to come from it--apart from a few tracks that remained unreleased until a 1987 posthumous compilation of demos and outtakes. Though the guitar work on these tracks are still very much Nick, there's a noticeable bitterness and restrained anger in the lyrics and his voice that had not been there previously. Clearly feeling the same personal heartbreak as Vashti Bunyan.

Nick died near the end of 1974 at the age of 26, from an overdose on his antidepressants. Vashti Bunyan continued living anonymously as a mother. The two talented artists were doomed to fade slowly into forgotteness with every year that passed.

Then, something great happened: The internet.

Okay, the internet definitely has many pitfalls. But modern artists definitely have a much easier time getting their work seen and heard because of how far the spread is. That includes artists like Drake and Bunyan who are too shy to go out and promote their music via live performances and TV interviews.

With internet radios like Pandora, Spotify, and iHeartRadio, the music of Drake and Bunyan started circulating among fans of melancholy but beautiful folk tunes. They both started developing cult status, and bands of loyal followers--decades after their music had originally been released. Today Drake, especially, is considered one of the most influential and talented singer-songwriters in rock music. Though unfortunately, he didn't live to see the day his music would become successful.

But the good news, is that Vashti Bunyan did! Feeling reinvigorated by her newfound success, she finally released a second album in 2005, The Lookaftering, proving her voice and musical sensibilities hadn't changed at all despite--by her admission--years of stagnancy. In 2014, she released yet another album, Heartleap. She seems very happy with her new life as a resurrected singer-songwriter with a new, young fanbase.

In 2013, Joe Boyd got a group of artists who were influenced by Nick Drake to put on a concert where they covered his songs. Amidst these artists was Vashti Bunyan. Perhaps the closest thing we will ever get to an official Drake-Bunyan collaboration, would be her rendition of Nick's song "Which Will."