Photo via Fidelitorium Recordings
Faye Hunter, the founding bassist of the Mitch Easter-led jangle-pop outfit Let’s Active who played on the band’s 1983 debut EP Afoot and follow-up full-length Cypress in 1984, died Saturday night in Advance, N.C., of an apparent suicide, the Raleigh, N.C., News & Observer newspaper reported tonight. She was 59.
According to the paper, she posted the following quote on her Facebook page Thursday night in what “was to be her final message to the world”:
What you had yesterday is only memories; what you will have tomorrow is your dreams and what you will do today, let it be love.” ~ Santosh Kalwar
A friend of Hunter’s told the newspaper that she had “been talking about this for quite some time. The past three or so years were really bad,” as Hunter had “become physically worn down, very thin and having physical problems from the stress of working and caregiving.”
Hunter formed Let’s Active with Easter and drummer Sara Romweber in 1981, and the band signed to IRS Records that same year. The group was closely associated with and performed alongside R.E.M., and Easter rose to fame producing that band and others, including Pylon.
Hunter left Let’s Active following the release of the band’s debut album, Cypress.
Tonight, Easter’s recording studio, Fidelitorium Recordings in Kernersville, N.C., posted on Facebook: “Today’s news has broken our hearts. Faye Hunter, you will be missed and loved forever.”
Below, in Hunter’s memory, is the original video for the “Every Word Means No,” the opening song of the Afoot EP, as well as footage (via bosstime41) of Hunter’s final public performance, also of “Every Word Means No,” filmed this past May at a celebration of Winston-Salem music.
Let’s Active, “Every Word Means No”
Vagabond Saints Society featuring Faye Hunter, “Every Word Means No” (May 10, 2013)
This is just impossibly sad news.
Every word means love and peace to you, Faye.
My wife and I saw her play with Let’s Active at Snug Harbor, New Orleans, 1984 Mardi Gras. Me and my wife-to-be had been in a car wreck a few days before and were rather miserable. Many times throughout their entire performance, which was great, she caught our eye, both of us, and smiled in a extraordinarily sweet, empathetic way that we still talk about 29 years later. She knew something wasn’t right with us and she felt it. An unusually lovely person.
Just absolutely brokenhearted. She was a good and kind human, always.
Faye ~ here’s to you and all that you were to us…you helped us stay excited..living in N.C. was not an easy thing to do – you helped keep that protective bubble around us!! R.I.P. ~ you SO deserve it, sister!!
reading this makes me feel sad and old. What a loss.
I knew her during the Friday’s era in G’boro NC. It was always a great time to see her onstage with Let’s Active, knowing that throughout the evening I would get to hear a few of the comments, quips, ect., that were truly unique to Faye. I remember that she could be a bit nervous about going onstage & everyone would reassure her that she had nothing to worry about. A few years later, in NYC, I saw her perform with them again and was thrilled to see that she had gained a lot of confidence. She was a slightly shy, funny, talented, and wonderful
woman. The world needs more people like her… Here’s to you Faye!
Just awful. I only heard about this
tonight, somehow, and only because I checked
the FB page for Don Dixon and Marti Jones
to see what they were up to, and someone
had posted in July about this happening.
Really sad. I never met Faye but was always
a Let’s Active fan from day one and saw phase
two LA in 1986 at (old downtown) The Ritz in NYC and it was a radical show! But the early LA is the best, really, to my mind, plus Big Plans.
So whatever happened to Sara Romweber
and her awesome hair, anyway? And Angie
Carlson from the next phase of LA?