Donovan Woods To Release ‘Without People (Deluxe)’ On March 26

Donovan Woods is releasing a new deluxe edition of his 2020 album, Without People, featuring four bonus tracks, including two new originals and two alternate mixes, on March 26.

The album includes a new piano rendition of “Grew Apart,” and an acoustic interpretation of “Whatever Keeps You Going” that pairs Woods with the voices of the J.P. Robarts Public School Music Project in London, Canada. The school’s choir (consisting of grades 3-8) formerly sang with Woods in 2019 at one of his concerts in London. Woods always wanted to feature the choir on a project, but during the pandemic, he learned that while the schools had reopened, the children were only allowed to hum during choir practice due to the nature of health and safety protocols. He then, with the help of their parents and choir director Jane Kennedy, enlisted the children’s choir to individually submit homemade cell phone videos of themselves singing the song.

“This deluxe version is really in place of what live shows might’ve been like if the pandemic hadn’t happened,” says Woods. “Among my favorite parts of playing live are presenting songs in a different context and introducing new material, and this deluxe version is doing that type of work.”

Since its release on Woods’ own Meant Well label in 2020, Without People has racked up 10 million streams and counting.