Robert Smith has teamed up with rock band The Twilight Sad on the collaboration Waiting For The Phone Call.
The Scottish duo – now comprising James Graham and Andy MacFarlane – have shared a stage with the Just Like Heaven hitmakers in the past, and Robert previously covered their track There’s A Girl In The Corner in 2015.
The vital new song helped frontman James cope with the devastating loss of the “most important person” in his life.
He explained: “Waiting For The Phone Call is about grief, love and mental illness.
“These things took over my life and I became ill. I lost the person most important to me in one of the cruellest ways. I’ve always used writing as a method of processing and coping with my emotions. My emotions became a problem and I couldn’t control them, writing music with Andy… especially the past seven years had been both the escape and the opportunity to process and try and make sense of life.
“We’ve all been waiting on a phone call that can change our lives at some point. This unfortunately focuses on a phone call that you never want to have.”
On how the goth rock icon came to cover their tune, guitarist Andy told The Guardian at the time: “After we recorded [album] Nobody Wants to Be Here and Nobody Wants to Leave, I sent it to Robert to have a listen, and he said it was ‘BEAUTIFUL’.
“We wanted to do something special for the It Never Was the Same single, as it was going to be the last release from the album. I knew it was a pretty far-fetched idea, but thought I might as well chance my arm and ask Robert if he’d be up for covering one of our songs to feature as a double A-side. I couldn’t believe it when he replied, saying he’d like to cover There’s a Girl in the Corner.”
He continued: “He sent it over when we were playing San Francisco in March, and we listened to it over and over in the van, driving out after the gig. Hearing someone that we’ve all looked up to for so long sing and play one of our songs is definitely one of the most surreal moments we’ve ever had.”
There is every opportunity that Robert could perform the track live with The Twilight Sad, as they are due to embark on a 2026 UK and European headline tour.