Sam Fender released his third album, People Watching, in 2024, with the title track as its lead single. Fender first previewed the track during his live shows. When it came time to record it, he tapped Adam Granduciel of The War on Drugs to serve as producer. Like the album itself, the track was critically acclaimed. It became a hit for Fender and helped make People Watching a hit.
What Is “People Watching” About?
Fender wrote “People Watching” as a tribute to his “friend and mentor” Annie Orwin. She ran an acting class Fender attended as a child. He saw her as “a surrogate mother in a lot of ways.” She died in November 2023.
“It’s about what was going through my head, to and from that place and home,” Fender wrote in an Instagram post about the song.
Fender opens “People Watching” by describing how the people around him make him feel. To him, their lives contain some hope. And although he’s jealous, they also make him feel less alone and pull him out of his own thoughts and feelings.
I people-watch on the way back home
Envious of the glimmer of hope
Gives me a break from feeling alone
Gives me a moment out of the ego.
The song’s second verse directly addresses Orwin’s declining health. Fender paints a vivid but bleak picture of her circumstances and surroundings, from the state of the building itself to the people running it.
I came back home after seven years
Wide awake, tracing tracks of her tears
Cornered the nurse to get the gist of it
I promised her I’d get her out of the care home
The place was fallin’ to bits
Understaffed and overruled by callous hands
The poor nurse was around the clock
And the beauty of youth had left my breaking heart.
Fender also sings about staying with Orwin in her final moments as an act of love. It’s something he was willing to do without question.
But it wasn’t hard when you love someone
Oh, I stayed all night till you left this life ’cause that’s just love.
For the chorus, Fender tweaks the song’s opening lines.
I people-watch on the way back home
Everybody on the treadmill, runnin’
Under the billboards, out of the heat
Somebody’s darling’s on the street tonight.
The scene Fender describes is one where the world moves on around someone who has just experienced a major loss. It is a familiar scene to anyone who’s lost a loved one.
The song’s video stars Irish actor Andrew Scott. It perfectly echoes the lyrics, as Scott encounters a variety of characters as he travels to an unknown destination. All the while, he thinks of his childhood and sketches a portrait of his mother.
Photo by Matthew Baker/Getty Images