Jack Savoretti on making new music and a baby during the pandemic

After scoring his first number one album in 2019, Jack Savoretti swapped classic songwriting for European disco grooves. Alex Green finds out more.

The Big Feastival (PA Archive)

Holidays abroad remain uncertain. But Jack Savoretti has created an album that transports listeners to balmy Mediterranean beaches filled with upbeat European pop.

With an Italian father, German-Polish mother and UK upbringing, the dashing, rough-voiced singer-songwriter is well placed to do so. The 37-year-old has even invented a name for this new genre – Europiana. “I was definitely trying to recreate that feeling of being on holiday,” he explains over Zoom “I was trying to create this kind of escapism – this world that we weren’t being allowed to be a part of because of Covid and because of lockdown.”

Written at the rural Oxfordshire home he shares with his wife and three children, the album helped Savoretti stay connected to his roots during the uncertain early days of the pandemic. This meant capturing the music of his youth – French tenor Charles Aznavour Spanish singer Julio Iglesias, disco pioneer Giorgio Moroder, Daft Punk and Chic.

“I got really swept away by the idea of shining a spotlight on the music that has influenced me, but predominantly to shift it from me to a certain degree. I wanted to shine a light on the European music of the last 60 years – and how varied it’s been and how good it has been.” Savoretti also had a less noble motive. “I wanted to tap into that and brag about it as a European,” he jokes. “I wanted to celebrate it – not brag, but celebrate… I occasionally brag, but that is not always met with charm.”

Europiana was recorded at London’s famous Abbey Road Studios with a fittingly mixed group of musicians from Denmark, Spain and even England. “There’s a familiarity with the album that I really wanted to create,” he offers. “I wanted it to be like when you walk into a bar and you’re like: ‘I’ve been here before. I’m sure I had a great night here. I don’t remember it because it was a great night. But I’m sure I have been there before.’ I want people to have that feeling when they hear the album.”

Savoretti – whose Italian family hails from Genoa – knows the pain of being separated from loved ones during the pandemic. The early months were especially tough, when Italy suffered a devastating first wave of the virus and Savoretti could only watch on from the UK. “It was sad, it was scary,” he recalls sombrely. “It was very frustrating for me because I felt very far away from my father and from my cousins. It seemed very reserved to Italy. I remember having arguments with friends of mine here saying, ‘Don’t think we’re immune to this, this is going to come here too’.

“But I remember not everybody felt that at the beginning. Everybody thought it was just an Italian problem and that was quite frustrating.” Lockdown was not all bad though. For an artist used to spending months each year living out of suitcases and sleeping in anonymous hotel rooms, being at home with his actress wife Jemma was a blessing. The working week would end with Fabulous Fridays where Jack, Jemma and their three children (one a new arrival during lockdown) would sit down for a themed meal – Mexico and Greece were among their dinner table destinations.

“We made the best out of it,” he says, chuckling deeply. “It was amazing to have this quality time at home with my family. We made an album, we made a baby. We had a busy year!”

Europiana by Jack Savoretti is out on EMI on June 25.