In early 2013, a confident four-piece emerged from London with an arsenal of haunting, skeletal dream-pop. In less than a year, they had successfully put out singles on Parlour and Luv Luv Luv Records, before signing with Secretly Canadian for the recent release of their debut LP. Woman’s Hour, spearheaded by brother-and-sister duo Fiona and William Burgess, is a dynamic, all-encompassing project with equal nods to both the past, present, and future of indie rock. The UK group has a strong grasp on their brand and creative direction and, while they appear incredibly sparse and mysterious, their lyrics keep them entirely transparent. They’re a band with something to say, so we sat down with lead singer Fiona to unmask a bit of the mystery.
Your band has an aesthetic sensibility that almost meticulously matches its sonic palette. Was that the plan from the beginning?
No, it wasn’t until after we released our first single that we realized we wanted to control the visual side of our work. We felt very vulnerable after that experience and realized we wanted to feel ownership and creative control over every aspect of our work and for everything to reflect our musical style. It was around that time that we were lucky enough to meet and collaborate with the artists Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin who helped us to create our artwork and videos from that point onwards. We’ve loved being able to be playful with our artwork and using it as another way to communicate.
Alex pointed out that the art for your debut full-length, Conversations, almost directly illustrates the themes and narrative of the album deep cut “Two Sides of You.”
Yeah, other people have mentioned this to us as well. It was actually a happy accident. The artwork is inspired by an image taken of a 1970s performance, which has received little attention. I saw the image in a magazine; it showed a woman singing with a microphone surrounded by cardboard pyramids. There was something about her fragility and the pointedness of the pyramids enclosing her that just captured my imagination. But I love it when people find connections between things that weren’t deliberate. That’s the beauty of art.
Can you speak on the inspiration behind the “Her Ghost” video? It’s a very powerful visual.
After seeing two young people signing to each other in the street, I became interested in how deaf people communicate, and particularly how they engage with music. I had conversations with a few interpreters and deaf people who had created “sign singing” videos – a recent phenomenon within the deaf community where people sign the lyrics to songs and post them online. In these videos, the signing becomes a form of dance. The difference between an interpreter and a deaf person is hugely important in this respect; sign language is not an interpreter’s first language, it is a language that is learnt. However, we wanted to work with someone whose native language is sign language. Vilma, the deaf actor in our video, signs the song as a personal response to the lyrics rather than a literal word-for-word translation. The process has enabled us to celebrate this form of engagement with music; language as a form of dance.
When paired with your raw, emotional lyrics, it becomes a very personal form of communication. Do you feel that’s dying in the age of social media and instant gratification?
I think it’s complicated. I can see so many pros and cons about our relationship to social media. There are certain artists now who are using their work to protest against the proliferation of technology and its immediacy. People have been disputing its affect for years. I remember reading Philip Auslander’s book, Liveness,as a student and even then it wasn’t such a new discussion. So I feel conflicted I guess. I feel that on the one hand social media enables us to disseminate our work to a wider audience and to connect with many more fans; on the other hand it shouldn’t replace liveness, that’s a very unique experience that can’t be entirely translated onto film.
How has being in a band together affected your relationship with your brother, William?
It’s definitely meant we see more of each other! And that we can both speak to our mum on the same phone call.
So what’s next for Woman’s Hour?
We’re playing festivals all summer before heading off on tour in September, which we’re super excited about. It’s going be our longest headline tour so we can’t wait! We’ll be heading back to the States too, which will be immense.
Interview by Shea Garner. He actually likes Twitter. No seriously, follow him on Twitter @sheaDUCK.
