As Jack Savoretti hits No.2 with new album We Will Always Be The Way We Were – his fifth Top 10 project overall – here's a chance to revisit a classic Aftershow interview with the singer-songwriter from 2020...
Jack Savoretti has been putting his time in lockdown to good use, co-writing a charity song with fans and starring in Gary Barlow’s online Crooner Sessions. Here, he reflects on his Italian heritage, duetting with BMG stablemate Kylie Minogue and embracing his outsider status...
One of the first lessons I learned in this business is...
“That it’s the people who can make and break you. It’s not the label, it’s not the store, it’s actually the people behind those brands and doors, either shining lights or evil figures. I found myself in positions where I wasn’t in control and other people’s mistakes were affecting my career. I’m OK with failure and with making mistakes as long as I am the guy doing it. But if somebody else is doing it on my behalf, that’s annoying. I meet musicians, A&R guys and managers and nobody is necessarily impressed by our record sales or shows, but more about how we did it. There’s a genuine interest in how we pulled it off without jumping on to the circus – and that’s a nice feeling.”
Italy has always been an amazing market for me...
“It was a lifeline when the UK was hard and other parts of Europe were slamming doors in our faces. Our record sales in Italy are very low, but our live business is incredible. We played Teatro La Fenice in Venice, the most beautiful theatre in the world, in the summer of 2018. You can only get to the theatre by water, it’s incredible. It was my wife’s birthday, she was sitting in the Royal Box and the whole theatre sang Happy Birthday to her afterwards. It was a phenomenal experience and a night that I will never forget.”
Kylie Minogue joined me on stage at that show...
“We did Music’s Too Sad Without You, a song we did for an Irish independent movie called Halal Daddy. She asked if I was OK with her putting it on her album [2018’s Golden], which was awesome and of course I said yes. Seeing Kylie in the studio is a privilege. Everybody sees her as a great performer on stage, but in the studio she’s fucking awesome. She’s a proper studio rat; she knows exactly what to do and that was amazing to see. I asked her if she’d mind if I put the live version on my record [2019’s Singing To Strangers], and she agreed.”
I like my collaborations to surprise people...
“I love trying to avoid the obvious. I understand how collaborations can be seen as obvious because a lot of times it’s labels putting them together rather than artists. God forbid, that can totally work too, but I think most of the time it’s better when it comes from artists. I’d never have thought I would collaborate with Sigma, but we met for coffee, had a laugh and within three hours we’d written and recorded a song. Mika is somebody else who I met on a TV show in Italy years ago and we just hit it off. We had very similar, confused upbringings because of culture and identity and were very much brought up on the same references musically and cinematically. I always want to collaborate and I’m always sniffing around for the next opportunity because it allows you to connect to people you otherwise might not connect with.”
Romance is dead in pop music...
“Although there is love song after love song on the radio, I don’t think any of them are very romantic. They’re more descriptive than atmospheric. Romance isn’t about description, it’s about feeling.”
I have never felt under-appreciated because...
“I genuinely don’t do this for recognition. But it’s funny, even with what we did last year, the British music industry sometimes still sees me as an outsider. I was born in London, I’ve made all my records in England bar the last one and I’ve always been signed out of the UK, but I don’t think the UK always sees me as a UK artist. Can I change that? I don’t know. Do I want to change it? I don’t know. I kind of like being the guy from out of town.”
