THE
diary
THE
diary
bring on the
Bohemian
TORSTEN HØJER TALKS TO EMERGING ARTIST JACK SAVORETTI ABOUT LUCK, BOHEMIAN CHARM AND HIS FORTHCOMING DEBUT ALBUM, ‘BETWEEN THE MINDS’ ‘JUST ONE MAN and his guitar. This is pure music from the source’, Jack’s PR people inform me, making it seem something of a tag line for their new-found brand. “Some people struggle a lifetime to get recognition for their art. You may as well know right now, Jack’s not one of those. Jack Savoretti is something special.” Quite an introduction, you might think. But the good news is that so far, the critics tend to agree, already keen to compare the sound of Savoretti to that of Damien ‘Cannonball’ Rice, Jack Johnson and Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft. One thing that is immediately apparent is that at just 22years-old, Jack has already learned the art of making an impact on those around him. 34 | Issue 41
Boasting lineage from a half Italian, half English gene pool, Jack Savoretti is every inch the young Italian stallion, but also an unexpected mix of English poet and New York artist. His shoulder-length wavy brown hair hides chiselled, easy-on-the-eye, masculine features and his voice: well, it’s the stuff that hearts waiting to be melted are holding out for. The words ‘Neil’ and ‘Diamond’ have even been used to describe his raw, emotive vocal talent. Moviegoers everywhere who fell for the romanticism of Ewan McGregor’s character in Moulin Rouge may also be inclined to fall for Jack, who personifies a combination of bohemian troubadour and chivalric charm. He’s obviously a thinking man, devoid (as yet) of media training and ‘celebrity’ grooming, preferring to say what he feels and feel what he says. In contrast to the confidence of his PR machine, however, Jack is refreshingly modest when it comes to selling himself. He’s determined not to be drawn into speculation of future success or,
for that matter, his appeal, simply stating that his audience will be “people who like my songs” and those who “like a good story”. In fact, he doesn’t seem at all worried about living up to people’s expectations, and certainly doesn’t intend to get caught up in the world of ‘pop star’. “One will never know and one should never worry about how one may appeal to others”, he advises me, surely striking a blow to a music industry obsessed with image and commercial appeal. But his cover boy looks must help to sell records, right? “I hope not”, he says, sounding horrified at the notion that high-quality music might not simply sell itself. Born in London, Jack was force-fed a travelling lifestyle throughout his childhood, moving back and forth to Italy from the UK regularly before settling into an American school in Switzerland at the tender age of twelve. “Living out of a suitcase allowed me to realise that travelling and music go hand in hand”, he muses.
Boasting lineage from a half Italian, half English gene pool, Jack Savoretti is every inch the young Italian stallion, but also an unexpected mix of English poet and New York artist. His shoulder-length wavy brown hair hides chiselled, easy-on-the-eye, masculine features and his voice: well, it’s the stuff that hearts waiting to be melted are holding out for... “Switzerland gave me musical aspirations from all over the world, from Senegal to Brazil, from Eastern Europe to the West Coast of the USA.” It was an unsettling lifestyle that Jack admits played a major part in forming the man that we see today. At the time, the only thing that interested him was poetry (something that he tells me is “the basis of good song”) but then, at sixteen, his mother gave him a guitar and suggested he try putting some of his words to music. “I was surprised how much more people listen to you when you are singing than if you read a poem,” he smiles. “After that, I couldn’t stop, it was constant writing, every day. It became almost a form of conversation, the way I interact with the world.” It was a discovery that made the poet a musician – a trade he learned fast, although he speaks of this with characteristic modesty. “The guitar came to me as a tool, I just picked it up along the way,” he shrugs. “At first I was told that I had to get someone else to sing my songs,
which gave me the drive to deliver them myself. I didn’t have any singing lessons. I don’t think I have a great voice. I’m just lucky to find a way to use mine. I have always loved voices with soul but singing for me is just a way of getting in touch with mine.” Learning, playing and singing was clearly a huge part of Jack’s life at this stage. Shortly after picking up his first guitar he moved to LA, and then back to London, continuing constant movement into his adult life as if travelling were an incurable bug. Armed with musical influences from all over the planet, he began composing “a reggae song one day, a country song the next, finding who I was in music. I’m always looking for the moment in a song,” he continues. “It should be a great read, not just a three minute shot but a whole movie with an incredibly complicated twist that leaves you thinking for days.” The result is ‘Between the Minds’, a collection of a lifetime of stories. The album
is scheduled for release in October 2006, and is one of four long-players already penned and planned for the UK market. “This album has come alive thanks to a handful of people’s ideas,” he tells me. “I thought the title was a good reflection of the making of it. It’s taken a long time to get the songs out there, about three years, mainly due to running out of money and sometimes faith.” Luckily, Jack did keep the faith, and it worked. Shortly after completing a demo of the album, he needed a haircut and unwittingly found himself with a record deal. In a ‘you-couldn’t-make-it-up’ stuff of legend story, it turned out his hairdresser also styled Anne Barrett’s hair – the manager of a certain Natalie Imbruglia. And in a bigger stroke of luck, she was in the process of setting up a new label, De Angelis Records. After a short meeting, they signed Jack on the spot. “I think luck has everything to do with it, but the longer you stick with it the luckier you get,” he grins.
The album ‘Between The Minds’ is available now Issue 41 | 35