Former Woman’s Hour guitarist returns as Person People with debut single “Half Light”
PERSON PEOPLE
Release debut single ‘Half Light’
Announce debut album ‘Ever Your Life’
Out 7 November via Practise Music
Album Launch at SJQ Dalston on 4 December
Photo credit: Gem Harris
Person People is the new project of William Burgess, the guitarist in the fondly remembered dream pop band Woman’s Hour who released two albums last decade; 2014’s ‘Conversations’ and 2019’s swan song ‘Ephyra’. Following the break up of his band, William thought that his music making days were behind him. Melodies and lyrics would still come into his mind and occasionally became a voice memo, but it wasn’t until the birth of his daughter that he started to formalise these fragments into songs. Gradually over the last few years he has recorded, produced and mixed the album himself at home in a small town in Hertfordshire where he now lives.
On the new single he says: “I wrote this song in about half an hour at the piano on the Sunday morning of Glastonbury a few years ago whilst my daughter, who was 6 months old at the time, was having a nap. We then drove to the festival to hang out for the day and I listened to it a few times on the way there and I suppose in some way at that point, having not written a song for years, I realised something had been missing. I had recently had a few life changes and felt like I was becoming a new version of myself. When I listen to this song, it still transports me back to that liminal time.”
Alongside the new music, Person People will perform their debut live show at SJQ in Dalston on 4 December – the same venue his old band performed their first headline gig almost 14 years ago to the day (6 Dec 2011), shortly after releasing their debut single.
Album artwork by Dolores Mills-Burgess. Hi-res available here.
‘Ever Your Life’ tracklist
1. Things Fall Apart
2. You’re The Alarm
3. Tourniquet
4. A Spirit Adrift
5. The Echo in the Absence That You Leave
6. Half Light
7. A+E
8. A Pyrrhic Victory
9. The Beautiful Sky
10. Perfect Forms of Divine Shapes
More information about Person People / William Burgess
William Burgess was born and raised in Kendal, Cumbria. In the early 2010’s he was a founding member of the band Woman’s Hour with his sister Fiona Burgess who took lead vocals and schoolfriend Nicolas Graves on bass. They were soon joined by multi instrumentalist Josh Hunnisett and went on to release a handful of critically acclaimed singles through boutique London labels (Dirty Bingo, Parlour, Luv Luv Luv) before signing to Secretly Canadian for their debut album.
They recorded their debut album ‘Conversations’ at the 4ad studios in Wandsworth with producer Tom Morris, and released it in 2014 to more plaudits before embarking on a headline tour and hitting the festival circuit. The band then decamped to Cumbria where they rented a barn for a few months and stuffed it full of their equipment to write their second album. The sessions were positive with lots of new material created, but the second album would never arrive—at least not how they expected.
The quartet became a trio after Nicolas left the band amicably, but the lack of commercial success for ‘Conversations’ left the band questioning their direction. There were a few false starts with producers and recording dates dropped for a second album which just seemed to drag on endlessly. After turning 30, William was stuck in part time jobs waiting for a band that was offering no financial security so, after a period of reflection, he made the tough choice to leave the band ultimately causing it to end in 2017.
From those months in Cumbria and further work at their London studio up until 2017, there were about thirty different songs left in different levels of completion. With the blessing of their old label, Josh polished the best of the demos and they self-released a collection of these as their second album ‘Ephyra’ in 2019 with William and Fiona embarking on a farewell tour as a duo shortly after.
In a state of shock and disillusionment, William all but gave up on his dreams of a career as a musician. For the next few years he would barely pick up a guitar or sit at the piano, let alone write new songs. Occasionally an idea would come to his mind whilst out walking or late at night and he would stick it in a voice note, more out of habit than anything else. Upon leaving London for Hertfordshire in 2021 and welcoming a daughter to the fold, he gradually built a small but functioning home studio as much out of routine as intent. Then, during the Christmas and New Year breaks as the outside world slows down, William started recording some music and without pressure or expectation, he fell back in love with it again.
After the festive recording period of 2023 into 2024 he found that he had a clutch of songs that he was beginning to be really happy with and thought about getting guest singers to help him finish it. And then the year began and with a bit of distance from the songs his self confidence grew and a choice was made to try and complete the songs with his own voice, stepping into lead vocalist duties for the first time. And then, as 2024 became 2025, the album was all but finished—completely self written and recorded with the only other fingerprints on the record coming from his friend and mastering engineer Rupert Clervaux who did so in early 2025.