Jack Savoretti: 'I'm not looking for the perfect pop song – I just want to feel something'

Anglo-Italian artist on the reissue of his album ‘Sleep No More’, supporting John Legend, and how he fell in love with Europe

Jack Savoretti: 'Sometimes I think with mainstream music it’s just about what you see, not necessarily what you're listening to' (Tom Oxley)

Deep in the belly of the O2 Arena – four days into a support tour with John Legend – Jack Savoretti is explaining why he released his album Sleep No More a year after its release.

The 33-year-old artist, who is warm, energetic and has a wonderful sense of humour, has always been “squiffy” when it comes to reissues, and never understood why other acts would put one out almost immediately after the original release.

“The reissue of Sleep No More was because I believe there’s still life in the album, I don’t want to put it to bed just yet,” the Anglo-Italian says. “We’d done two tours with it, had a good festival season with it, and it felt weird to me to give up on an album after a year. We keep going for as long as we can.”

It’s a fantastic album: earnest, varied and deeply personal, Savoretti is poetic in his songwriting and makes the most of that gorgeous, smoky voice.

Coming off another festival season has helped him and his band prepare themselves for audiences of the scale that Legend attracts: “It’s hard not to be overwhelmed by it, but we came from festival season where you’re always out of your comfort zone,” he says. ”You’re not always playing to your own crowd, there’s always something that can go wrong – it keeps you on your toes.”

At first ambitious about the idea of breaking America, Savoretti’s hopes for his music have changed slightly, something he attributes both to becoming a father and to a changed perception of the US.

“My love for America hasn’t gone away,” he says, “but the romantic view I had of it has definitely changed. And now I’ve completely fallen in love with Europe. The older I get, the more I travel the world, the more in awe I am of everything that is European.

“Everything about it, culture, the hospitality... and it’s a part of the world where it feels exciting. I used to go to America and get excited, and now I go and feel like things have really hit a wall. People are in shock, they’re kind of doing their own thing, they don’t have time to welcome new ideas. Whereas when I go to Europe, I feel like there’s a new youthful revolution, kids are staying in the cities where they were born, music scenes are booming. It’s in a good place. It’s younger, it’s more accessible.”

Savoretti was 25 when he decided to pull out of a record deal, uncomfortable with the direction his label was pushing him in, and with the idea being forced into the mainstream consciousness so early in his career. The label sued him, promptly axed his second album, and Savoretti found himself with an empty bank account and a wife and newborn baby to support.

But he hasn’t looked back since: 10 years since the release of his debut Between the Minds, and five studio albums into a flourishing career, Savoretti is doing OK. And he doesn’t begrudge mainstream pop artists their success, either. “In many ways I’m fascinated by it,” he admits. “But it’s purely entertainment... it’s a different reason for cooking.

“It’s very competitive. I used to play sports, and I loved football, but I used to get scared before a match. The reason I liked music because it wasn’t competitive. I definitely have a show-off side to me, but that’s not why I do it. I like the expressive side, and sometimes I think with mainstream music it’s just about what you see, not necessarily what you’re listening to.”

In a way he’s managed to find success in the music industry whilst remaining on the outskirts: an observer as much as a participant. It’s taken a long time, as much as many were quick to call him an “overnight success” (“it was a very long night,” he jokes), but he’s learned a lot along the way.

“I wish I knew the things I know now when I started,” he says. “If you’re going to work your socks off at something – and if you’re going fail at it – make sure it’s something that you want to do.

“When it came to music, for me it was always like... tomorrow I might want to do something else. I might want to write a jazz album. I might want to do spoken word. If I do have that moment, I don’t want to have to explain myself to anybody. I don’t want to ask for permission.

“That took me a while to figure out, I let people tell me what to do and I had a bad reaction to it. It was like an internal pain, I was wondering why I felt so shit. I didn’t realise how much I was willing to sacrifice to get out of it. It surprised me when I put my entire livelihood on the line, my wife’s livelihood, my child’s. But since then that’s how we’ve always done it.”

His Italian side prompts him to go back to that analogy about cooking when talking about the industry. He calls it a “numbers game” and compares mainstream pop music to fast food.

“I love a Big Mac every now and again, but it’s not the reason I learned how to cook,” he shrugs. “Imagine if you thought that was the only way you could make food – that’s kind of how it is in the music industry. So I decided, ‘What if I don’t go on the high street, what if I go to the street behind, and open a little trattoria?’ I don’t get the same traffic as the high street, but I make enough to pay the bills. I’ve earned enough to open another restaurant...

“I’m not looking for the perfect pop song, I just want to feel something,” he says eventually. “Even songs I write, if I don’t feel something when I sing it, it’s out.”

‘I might want to write a jazz album. I might want to do spoken word. If I do have that moment, I don’t want to have to explain myself to anybody. I don’t want to ask for permission’ (Tom Oxley)

For his next album, Savoretti wants to pay homage to the Italian music of the Sixties he grew up on, joking that Lucio Battisti is still the “most contemporary artist in Italy”.

“I want to use all the great talent I have around me, the engineers, take the family I have on the road into the studio. I’ve also moved out to the country, and as a gift I bought myself a piano. I’ve written seven songs in the past few months. It’s a really crappy upright, sounds like a saloon. You walk in and you want to drink whisky and shoot people,” he laughs.

“I really want to pay homage with Italian music. You have to go through a lot of mud to get there, although the music isn’t like that when you visit the country... but the stuff that leaves the country is shocking.

“Reality TV has really cocked up Italian culture,” he continues with a frown. “Unfortunately the fast food industry of music has taken over Italy again. I don’t want to come to Italy to listen to this stuff. They’re trying to copy British and American reality TV, but when an Italian talks to you in Italian, you’ll really get to know that person. It’s what you talk about as Italians, how you interact, and it’s the same with music. The slang, the social observations, it’s all different.”

One of the new songs on the reissue of Sleep No More, “Whisky Tango”, stands out from other tracks on the record because it is noticeably different in both style and tone.

“It’s a bit of fun,” Savoretti smiles. “It’s a very dark song, funnily enough. I try to write happy songs, they don’t really come out very often.

“When the idea of the rerelease came around I wanted to put it on. It’s great fun to play live. Also because on the next album I really want to go somewhere different. I knew if I didn’t put that song on this album, it’d never see the light of day.”

The special edition of ‘Sleep No More’ by Jack Savoretti is out now. See him perform live at the Indigo theatre at the O2 on 27 October