Trespassers William was an indie rock/dream pop band known for its ethereal music. Originally from Southern California, they moved to the SoDo/Capitol Hill area of Seattle, Washington.
History
Formed in Orange County, California in 1997, Trespassers William released four albums and two EPs. Anchor appeared on Sonikwire Records and is now out of print. Different Stars was self-released in 2002 and was re-released twice—most recently on Nettwerk Records on October 19, 2004. In early 2004, the band moved to Seattle. Their third album, Having, was released on February 28, 2006. The band toured the United States and Europe several times, including a U.K. tour with Damien Rice and a festival appearance in Spain with Morrissey. The band's music attracted modest press coverage and exposure, most notably in British magazines such as NME and Uncut and was featured on such television shows as One Tree Hill, The O.C., Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Felicity, and movies such as A Love Song for Bobby Long and Annapolis. The band disbanded at the beginning of 2012. A collection of B-sides and rarities called Cast, which also contains an expanded edition of their 2009 EP The Natural Order of Things, was released by Saint Marie Records on September 4, 2012. In 2017, Newsweek named Cast the fifteenth best double album since Prince's 1987 double album Sign o' The Times. Writing for Newsweek, Zach Schonfeld said that though Cast is "technically a rarities compilation, but in all its weird aching melancholy, it has the ebb and flow of a proper album." In 2020, the band reunited to release the non-album single "Winterstorms".
Band name origin
Trespassers William's name is from a Winnie-the-Pooh tale, "Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting and Nearly Catch a Woozle" by A.A. Milne:
Next to house was a piece of broken board which had: "TRESPASSERS WILL" on it. When Christopher Robin asked Piglet what it meant, he said it was his grandfather's name, which was short for Trespassers William. And his grandfather had had two names in case he lost one — Trespassers after an uncle, and William after Trespassers.
