We all have those moments in life that make us realise what we’re passionate about, or that provide us all with an opportunity to follow that passion and head down a new, exciting path. For Harry Lloyd, AKA Waiting For Smith, that moment came after he broke his back in the French Alps, and since then, for him, life has been ALL about music. New single “Lines of Love” is perhaps Waiting For Smith’s strongest release to date and PopWrapped caught up with Harry to find out about the story behind the track and what his ultimate ambition as an artist is.

Prior to pursuing music, you were a ski instructor in the French Alps and broke your back during a training session. Post recovery, you could have chosen several career paths, so what is/was it about music and the industry that made you realise that you wanted to be a part of it? Were there any bands or artists you were particularly inspired or influenced by when you decided to start leaving your own mark on the business?

I remember from an early age being obsessed about dancing and performance. As a kid I acted to varying degrees of professionalism and success. A few commercials here and there, school plays and I also auditioned for some big films too. Auditioning with Emma Watson for the part of Draco Malfoy, I didn’t quite fit the brief for Hermione. I also came up against Alex Pettifer for the part in Stormbreaker alongside one of the boys playing in Narnia. Because I was so dyslexic, I was terrible at auditioning, reading the lines right on the spot wasn’t one of my qualities. I had to be given the chance to learn the lines beforehand, otherwise I’d freeze up.

I thought by age 10 I’d been in Hollywood, hard at my graft and I’m thankful that didn’t happen because I’d probably be a misguided and very lost soul by now. Though it did lead me to start my first band age 11 with my best friends. There was something about music that I kept coming back to, nothing compared to the feeling of performing songs in front of people. If we could make them feel good – it became so addictive to me.

What made you take the name Waiting For Smith as an artist? 

I started my first band, Jester, when I was 11, which actually later formed the foundation for Waiting for Smith. They were all guitarists and I was the drummer. But I was also the co-songwriter and lead singer. So, unusually, I sang from behind the kit. By the time we reformed about ten years later, I’d learned piano and guitar, so we needed a drummer to fill in. A friend suggested a guy called Smith.  He was a great drummer, but he was consistently late or never seemed to show up at all. So, we spent hours hanging around asking ourselves: “Why the hell are we always waiting for Smith?” Then one day someone said: “That’s a great name you know…” and it stuck. He still hasn’t showed up. Guess I’ll be Waiting For Smith for the rest of my life.

Tell me about your new single “Lines of Love.” Where did the idea for it come from?

Walking around Kings Cross, late at night. I got off the tube and got into a quite intense phone call with a friend. I’m such a bad multi tasker, that instead of walking back home, I just circled the station for hours on the phone talking. I thought she really needed a listening ear, so I wanted to be fully there for her. I left the city for a few days and one night the conversation came back to me with a melody attached to it, so I started playing it on the guitar. I love a quote I found by Ekhart Tolle which says: “Love is to recognise the other as ultimately yourself.” That sums up the message of the song perfectly for me.

You’ve been championed by the likes of Jo Whiley and Huw Stephens and been featured in several publications including British GQ – how does it feel to have such strong support behind you and what’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said/written about you and your music? With that in mind, how do you handle any negativity that might be directed your way?

The support from anyone is always incredible and to hear someone say your name on the radio is a real buzz; I still find it slightly surreal when I receive a message from someone somewhere in the world saying they heard a tune in a shop, got recommended my music by a friend or heard it on their favourite new Netflix series like Vis a Vis.

Most recently I received a message from an old school friend, I haven’t seen the guy in about 16 years and out the blue he messages me saying: “I came across an artist who I thought was rather good. After noticing a striking similarity to a bloke I went to school with 16 years ago and doing some googling I realised it was you…Congrats man – the music is great – my dad also likes it – and he heard it playing in restaurant in Sardinia last week!” A guy in Indonesia messaged me saying: “I heard your song on TV but it was only a few seconds, I try to search and could not find it. Finally found ur song and guess what. I looooovee your voice” and a school teacher in Spain said she’d be playing and teaching the lyrics to kids in her class to learn English and philosophy. Stuff like that is kind of like reading your favourite childhood book again; it’s really magic.

I’m fortunate though to have not had to deal with huge amounts of horrible messages, but you do get the occasional one and of course I was criticised and rejected from gigs, festivals, labels, managers, producers, friends and family up to this point so you kind of develop a tough skin and learn to listen to what you know to be right. Luckily, I did have an early few people that really believed in me.

What are your thoughts on the power and influence of social media? Are you much of a Twitter user, and how have such sites impacted your career and allowed you to build a fan-base/reach an audience? 

Well I think everything has the potential to be used for the good. I’m trying to use social media to be as honest about who I am, in the hope that it will help others find it easy to be honest about who they are. And of course, show what it like to do what I do, what’s the process of making things and the occasional stupid sketch – I like to make people feel better in any way that I can.

The Corona Virus has all but ground the music industry and the artists within it to a halt – certainly in the genuinely live sense – so how have you been keeping creative and busy, and connected with fans, during this crisis? What are you most looking forward to doing when ‘normal life’ eventually resumes, and do you believe the industry can and will indeed recover from the hardship and damage that’s been pressed upon it as a result of the crisis?

Well I just accepted it when I realised that was the new reality – that’s all you could do. My accident really taught me that in life the only thing you can really have control over is how you look at your life, you have to see where the opportunity lies within the situation. I made more videos, wrote more music, made business deals that otherwise wouldn’t have been possible, reconnected with family and had a couple of meltdowns…you gotta have at least a couple of meltdowns in a pandemic.

I don’t think life will ever be the same again though, because if you look at some of the big events over the last few thousand years which involved most of the world like the fall of the roman empire, the enlightenment period, the invention of the telephone, the Spanish flu, WWII ,the civil rights movement and now Covid..something as a whole always shifted but the individuals seemed to stay the same strangely – I really believe that we seem to be in this big cycle. For example

I went to Pompeii recently and was amazed to see the systems they had which were already in place over 2000 years ago like: running water, drainage, pavements, zebra crossings, food storage, art and election campaigns. Our wisdom hasn’t really shifted since then, sure our science has developed and we now build with glass but we’re still scared like they were back then, we still want to be loved and we all have dreams which we may or may not pursue. I sometimes look up at the sky and am blown away by the thought that some poor barbarian did the same thing a few thousand years ago; maybe he said: “What the hell am I doing here?” The first thing I did when I realised I could go out was have a proper pizza – you can always return to the simple pleasures.

Every artist goes into music for a particular reason or with a drive behind their passion, so what’s yours and, many years from now, what do you want to have achieved as an artist? If people were to eulogise your career decades down the line, in a couple of words or sentences, what would you like them to say? 

Well my accident gave me a moment of pure clarity. Looking up at the sky with a broken back and laid out on a stretcher; It was obvious to me, without any question that I should pursue music. I’ve always enjoyed making people feel good I guess; whether it was through making them laugh, dancing, acting, listening, philosophising, singing and playing songs. In music I’ve managed to combine all my passions into one. I can express the whole of myself and I want to bring that out in others – I want them to experience all their sides and emotions; as there is a punk in me, there’s a punk in all of us! There’s also a romantic, a poet, a depressive, a jester and philosopher – I believe we all have many sides and I want to help people realise their potential as human beings.

My ultimate aim is to make people feel as much as they can through a varied performance. I want people to walk away saying “Fuck! You know life is actually pretty incredible.” I want people to feel hopeful for their future and the future of others.   

Watch the video for “Lines Of Love” below and for more information on Waiting For Smith, visit his website, give his page a like on Facebook or follow him on Twitter.