Oxfordshire project Waiting For Smith tap into that witty, eccentric English spirit.

The band’s songwriting is frequently tongue in cheek, but always has an emotional hold, a bittersweet quality.

New song ‘Monkeys In My Head’ is a lilting return, with Waiting For Smith matching that jaunty, instantly catchy chorus to some fine word play.

Singer Harry explains that it’s actually about dealing with mental health issues, and doing so in a creative manner. He explains:

“At a very young age I was introduced to the idea that your emotions are separate from yourself. They seemed to arrive like a storm and leave as quickly as they came. We all have a voice in our head if you think about it. It can feel like our own 24-hour radio station of anger, anxiety and fear. All seemingly trying to prevent us, by any means necessary, from fulfilling our potential.”

The solution was simple, he recalls: “The trick I was taught, when negative emotions swept over me (as they do all of us), was to imagine the voice as an actual monkey that lives in my head.”

“The song is about not letting my Monkey get a grip on me, with its endless instructions, or yelling at it to leave me alone (as I once did). Instead I like to tuck it up in its cosy bed with some cartoons and a manuka honey sandwich… the little bastard.”