Bill Fay, the British cult folk singer-songwriter, died Feb. 22. He was 81. Dead Oceans, the label with whom he recorded his last three studio albums, confirmed his death in a statement on social media Saturday.
"It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Bill Fay, who died peacefully this morning in London, aged 81," Dead Oceans wrote. "Bill was a gentle man and a gentleman, wise beyond our times. He was a private person with the biggest of hearts, who wrote immensely moving, meaningful songs that will continue to find people for years to come."
Born in London, where he'd spend his entire life, Fay released his debut single "Some Good Advice" b/w "Screams In The Ears" in 1967. The UK label Deram Records released his two first studio albums: 1970's Bill Fay and 1971's Time Of The Last Persecution. While those albums found an audience, they failed to perform commercially, and Deram soon dropped him. He would go decades without recording music again.
But after those first two albums were reissued in 1998, Fay started to see a renewed interest in his work, now considered overlooked classics from the era. Producer Joshua Henry subsequently tracked Fay down and convinced him to begin making music again. Fay returned in 2012 with Life Is People, his debut for Dead Oceans. “Up until 1998, when some people reissued my albums, as far as I was concerned, I was gone, deleted,” he told Spin at the time. “No one was listening. But then I got the shock that people remembered my music. I was doing some gardening, and listening to some of my songs on cassette, and a part of me thought they were quite good. I thought, ‘Maybe somebody will hear them someday.’” He'd go on to record two more albums for Dead Oceans: 2015's Who Is The Sender? and 2020's Countless Branches.
Fay's songs have been covered numerous times. In 2022, along with a reissue of his first two albums, Dead Oceans helmed a series of 7″ singles of other artists performing his songs, including his repeat collaborator Jeff Tweedy, Steve Gunn, Kevin Morby, and Julia Jacklin.
