Review Fix Exclusive: Waiting For Smith Talks ‘Lines of Love’ And More

Review Fix chats with Waiting for Smith, who discusses his new single, “Lines of Love” and more.

Review Fix: How did you get involved in music?

Waiting for Smith: The moment I broke my back in the French Alps, where I was working as a ski instructor. The minute I realised it was broken (while wondering if I’d ever walk again) I made a clear promise to myself to do music. As an occasionally indecisive person, it was one of the clearest moments of my life.

Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?

Waiting for Smith: Touch wood – it seems to flow quite freely and always has. From the age of 7 or 8 I remember being able to discover my own melodies. I believe true creativity come from somewhere outside yourself. J K Rowling refers to as “The Lake”.

Review Fix: What inspires you?

Waiting for Smith: Just about anything, I’m a naturally pretty curious guy, so I’m often inspired – especially by questions, philosophy, the mind, languages, new places and romance. I think inspiration starts with interest, which develops into excitement, and that makes you inspired. For example, I’ll listen to Oprah Winfrey’s SuperSoul conversations podcast, which I always find fascinating. One of her guests said: “ If you don’t talk to yourself, your Self talks to you”. Stuff like that makes me excited and then I want to write about it and try to express it in my own way.

Review Fix: What does music mean to you?

Waiting for Smith: Wow! Great question. I’m almost tempted to stay silent for a few minutes and then go…. well, that, the silence. You might think that’s pretentious – but there is truth in that. Music to me is the ability to sing about what others want to express but don’t have the means or tools to do so. What I mean by that is: music has the ability to help you through the inexpressible. How can you express the grief one feels after losing a child, the pain of a divorce or the joy of giving birth to new life? You can’t maybe put it into words, but a song can, music can… in under two minutes. That’s amazing, isn’t it?

Review Fix: How would you describe your sound to someone who has never heard you?

Waiting for Smith: Classic songs with a contemporary flavour. At the moment, I’d say you’ll hear a songwriter who uses traditional-sounding songs with soul, yet experiments with a lot of modern vocal layering and electronic sounds. There’s elements of Beck, Gotye, David Bowie, The Beatles and Bob Dylan – and newer artists like Nick Mulvey & Dermot O’Kennedy.

Review Fix: How are your live shows different from your studio work?

Waiting for Smith: In a live show, you get a real sense of the variety and range of Waiting For Smith’s music. You’d walk away feeling like you’d experienced a lot of different genres and emotions and – above all – leave feeling hopeful. I like the idea of taking the crowd on an unexpected journey. At the last gig, we started with Indie-folk, moved to something more groovy, hit them with a punk song, and then brought it right down to a man alone with a piano. I saw people sweat, cry and laugh in about 10 minutes. That’s what I’m looking for. I want people to leave feeling rounded and energised – they should say “ Fuck, life is incredible! Look how much there is to experience. I’m not gonna complain about the traffic now…”

Review Fix: What inspired your latest single?

Waiting for Smith: A long-distance phone call where I thought my girlfriend had basically told me we were too different for it ever to last. I had to really convince her that’d I’d always be there for her and that all the good things come from overcoming difficulty. But mainly I just listened – nothing beats listening. Hold that thought because it’s so hard to remember in a crisis.

Review Fix: What are your goals for the rest of 2020?

Waiting for Smith: Just to enjoy where I am. In music, when you’re breaking through (or trying to) you never really feel like you’ve done enough. You can always work harder, or put in more hours, or do more practice but I’m actually just trying to relax and enjoy the work I’ve done already. You can work as hard as you like but I believe success comes when you’re ready. And when you’re ready for things they sort of just find you – of course you still need to leave the house and get out there.

Review Fix: What’s next?

Waiting for Smith: I’m speaking to managers at the moment – people have started to approach me, which is really exciting. And now that I can manage myself, I think I’m finally ready to be managed.