Jack Savoretti

0:13Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly. For today's show, I speak with Anglo-Italian singer Jack Savoretti. In his latest album, Miss Italia, he embraces his roots with his first Italian-speaking album. We also discuss his partnership with Bira Moretti's Salle di Mare and Secret Scapes, celebrating the essence of Italian culture.

0:49Jack Savoretti, what a pleasure. Thank you so much for coming here to Monaco Radio. Thank you. It's an absolute pleasure to be here. We have some of your songs on the playlist, just so you know. Brilliant. Jack, it seems to be that this is a year where your connection to Italy... I mean, of course, we have to tell our listeners you're half Italian, right? Yeah, Savoretti is the giveaway. My father was Italian. So was that reconnection, because your latest album is called Miss Italia, and it's all sang in Italia. That's a first for you, right? It's a first. No, I've sang in Italian, but it's the first time I've written an album of my own personal, my own actual songs in Italian.

1:23And it was a crazy experience. Crazy experience. How does it feel for you having this heritage? Did you grow up talking Italian at home or is that something that you kind of rediscovered a bit later in life? So I definitely rediscovered it later in life. My father was Italian, but we grew up in London. So I grew up with a father who was very much an Italian immigrant. So he sort of fantasized and had this nostalgia of an Italy that maybe didn't even really exist. But he liked to romanticize it and he would romanticize it with us through music, especially sometimes cinema, but predominantly music.

1:53and I think that was sort of my first connection with music in general was watching the way Italian music would completely floor my father. I mean, my father was a strong giant of a man, but when he listened to Italian music, I'd find him sitting in the corner on the sofa with tears in his eyes or getting very emotional. It would bring out this nostalgia and this melancholy that an immigrant would have, of course, but I think also that Italian music brings out of people. And I think that's the first time I realized the power of music, that it could do that to my father, And it stays with me today, that sort of mystic wonder about how strong music can be.

2:27And there's something about Italy. It doesn't matter even if you're an immigrant that went to the U.S., to Brazil or any other country. But Italy remains with you. It doesn't matter how many generations after. It's a crazy thing, right? It is crazy. And it is, like you said, multi-generational. It's not just one generation. It can be friends of mine from the States who their grandparents were Italian. They had no link to Italy at all. But I say to them, go back to Sicily, go back to Napoli, go back to Genova, go back to Rome, wherever they're from. and you'll understand kind of why you are the way you are if you think there's something different about me.

2:57Go back to Italy, go back to your roots. And it's such a strong culture. I mean, it's a culture that has changed faces so many times. It's been dominated by so many different empires, by different kingdoms, that it's had to find this strong identity to survive, not to completely always change. And I think that's something very unique about Italy, also because of how geographically it's positioned. It's kind of the bridge between the Alps and Africa. you know so it's got this variation of landscape variation of culture variation of weather climate and i think because of all of that it's had to create a very strong identity so it stays with you for for generations one of my favorite songs from the album como posso raccontare it's such a beautiful song yeah i think you do say like i sing in english but i drink in italian super personal as well very personal and you know it's an even more personal song because this album was very much triggered by my father passed away two and a half years ago.

3:51That was a real, that was a real awakening to how much I needed my Italian culture because me leaning into my Italian culture and being in Italy made me feel very close to my father after he passed away. And I think this is something quite normal with grief. When you lose a parent, you do reconnect with either the memory of them or their family members, their friends or their culture. And for me was very much culture. I remember arriving in Italy and everyone sounded like my father, everyone dressed like my father, everyone smelt like my father. So I felt very much this sort of sense of safety and security and connection with him even after he passed.

4:27The one song he heard, because the whole album was written after he passed away, but there was one song that I wrote while he was still alive, because I never had the intention of writing an Italian album. It was totally a necessity after my father passed away because I became very numb. I couldn't feel anything. Grief is such a powerful pain that it hurt so much I stopped feeling anything else. And the only thing that moved me was Italian music. So I started really relying on listening to Italian music, singing Italian music, and therefore that made me want to write in Italian. But Come Posso La Contare was something I did completely while my father was still alive.

5:02I remember I was just, I had a bit too much wine one night and I sat at my desk, wrote this song, And I phoned him at like two o 'clock in the morning and played him this song. And he laughed. He thought it was brilliant. He loved the chorus, like the line, like you were saying, I'm somebody. I love it too. Well, it's a play on words. It says, I'll always be somebody a little bit strange, someone who sings in English, but dreams in Italian. And he identified with that too. And I think a lot of people do identify with that. I didn't realize when I was writing that, but I think a lot of people, because English is this common language of communication, a lot of us do use it.

5:34but actually how we dream and feel inside is not in that language necessarily. I totally identify with that. So what were the main differences about writing songs or performing in English and Italian? Perhaps it's that emotional aspect that we're talking about, right? On a performance level, 100%, it's open. You know, I always say the word singing. Singing is such a closed word. Singing. Cantare is so open. Yes. Ah, it makes your music go like that. And it's literally the same when you sing in Italian. It's all vowels. It's I, I, U, U. So your body immediately opens up, whereas in English it can become quite introvert, quite impersonal, which is amazing in its own way, but it's a different thing.

6:14Italian singing is very much about sharing, connecting and communicating.

6:34It's not really introvert. Opera is very outward. It's very performative. And that's somewhat where Italian singing, the cantato, comes from. But when it comes to writing, it's been fascinating. And you will know, as someone who speaks a language with Latin roots, the complexity... It's really easy to write a bad Italian song. It's really easy to write a bad Portuguese, Brazilian, Spanish, because the language is so beautiful. There are so many nice words that rhyme and connect that you can do all the sole, cuore, amore, the obvious stuff like that. But to do it well, it's really, it's quite intellectual.

7:08You have to be able to understand the language because one word can have multiple meanings. And it's how you use that wordplay. That's what makes you a good songwriter. That's what makes the craft not just a catchy, but like the clever use of languages. And it's very different to English in that English is very monosyllabic. Blue means blue, now means now. That's what it is, which is why it's so great universally. but Italian in most Latin languages, multisyllabic, attraversare, conquistare, there's all these long words and melodic words, but also they have different meanings. You can play on the meaning of them and there's a lot more craft when it comes to the actual wordsmith of an Italian or Latin, French, Spanish, Portuguese songwriter.

7:47So it's different, very different. You're explaining this beautifully. Thank you for that. You think you know Italy, but this really has been Italy's coast unfiltered. You know, you get the culture. You get the food. but people are the main part of the show. So my name is Jack Savoretti. That's always a good place to start. Good morning, buongiorno. I'm Jack because I have an English mother. I'm going to give that to my daughter. She's going to love that. I'm Savoretti because I have an Italian father. And also, Jack, besides the album, this is a year where you've been to Italy a lot because you're also involved with a project with Peter Moretti and Secret Scapes, right?

8:22I wonder if you can tell us a bit more about that. And how was the experience as well? It was, I mean, I don't want to sound cliche, but it was rather life-changing and it was a real zeitgeist, personal zeitgeist. It was just the right time in the right place. I've been having this sort of spiritual reconnection with my Italian roots. But the main thing that I find fascinating is if you write in Italy, if you talk to people in Italy, if you look for inspirational poetry, the word mare comes up a lot. So when Bira Moretti reached out to me, apart from the fact that I'm a huge fan and it is my favorite beer, they had this new concept, Sala di Mare, a beer that was made with the salt water, seawater and I have a tremendous legame and attachment to the sea because I'm from Genova the minute I see the sea my whole body just changes my whole rhythm my soul my spirit just feels at home and so when they said they were doing this new beer this new thing that had to do with the salt water of the sea the sala di mare I felt this tremendous excitement and connection to it and I think there's something nostalgic there's something sort of a melancholy every time I see the sea.

9:23And when you write, I was saying, sorry, what I was saying before was when you, when you work with Italian artists, whether they are poets or painters, the word sea comes up all the time, all the time. It's used for freedom. It's used for melancholy. It's used for tragedy. It's always the mare. If something makes you feel like the mare, like the sea, then it's serious. It's like a seal of approval. So look how open it is. Mare. Exactly. So when I was asked to do this, I jumped at the chance because it didn't, It also involves traveling through Italy, going to discover parts of Italy that aren't very much known.

9:56And that's what I've always wanted to do with Italy. It's what I've always wanted to do with Italian music. Before I made this album, Miss Italia, if you listen to my previous two albums, Singing to Strangers and Europeana, there's so much Italian music in there, even though I'm singing in English. I've always wanted to introduce people to Italian culture through music as much as possible. And this was an opportunity to go myself and learn more about this beautiful country. I remember the place that really hit me was Calabria. We went to Calabria, which is quite unknown to Italians. It's really difficult to get to Calabria, strangely enough.

10:29So it stops a lot of actually Italians from going there. And that was a real discovery going to Tropea, which is in Calabria, the island of Tropea. Again, a perfect example of how Italy has been conquered multiple, multiple times. If you go to the south of Italy, if you go to Sicily, which we went with Biramoletti, When we're in Palermo, you see synagogues, mosques, churches, cathedrals, you see so many different variations of different cultures, because they've been conquered and dominated so many times, that it's really quite unique to sort of go to this part of the world. So yeah, it was an amazing experience.

10:59And what's cool about this project that you're taking people to places, it's funny because Italy, I mean, everybody wants to go to Italy or have been to Italy. Everyone thinks they know Italy. Exactly. So you're going like a little bit more in depth. Even the restaurants you visited, I see the video, you know, it's the small place that perhaps is not going to be on the Michelin guides or... A hundred percent. Like I learned about the onion of Tropea. There's an onion, la cipolla di Tropea. Like just an onion, like a regular onion, but it's not a regular onion. I mean, it looks like an onion, it smells like an onion, but when you bite this, when you eat, they cook it very lightly with a bit of oil and salt and they put it on a potato.

11:34That's it. One of the most delicious things I've ever had. And it's those little details that makes Italy magic, you know. And having said that, though, even the obvious Italy is magic. People say to me, oh, should I go to Venice? Is it worth going to Venice? Yes, go to Venice. It'll blow your mind. It doesn't matter how many posters you have seen of it. Walk out of Venice train station, and you will never see anything like that again in your life. Go to Rome, and you're looking at 3 ,000 years of architecture. You're not looking at a couple of hundred. You're looking at 2 ,500 years before Christ, and it's majestic.

12:08So even the obvious Italy is wow. but the secretly, the little unknown, there's something magic to discovering it. You feel like you're discovering it, whereas the other ones have already been discovered. Can you cook Italian food? I can. I'm not as good as I would like. I used to cook a lot more because I'm from Genova, so the main things from us is pesto, focaccia, and then you get sort of more intricate with octopus salad and various. But pesto is something that is very, every Genovese family has their pesto, and it was something I was very proud of, but now my wife does it so much better than me that I never really get a chance to do it.

12:41Even my kids do it better than me now. Is she Italian? She's very English. But still. Genovese. Genovese English because now she can make an official pesto. And you're heading back to Italy later this year for a tour as well, right? To several cities. Yeah, beautiful cities. We're doing sort of Torino, Venice, Genova, Rome. We're going to go all over. Milano. We're going to do a very special night in Milano in a beautiful theatre. And I love going to Italy and doing the theatres. It's like the one country that I insist we play the theatres. again because of the history of these theatres. I mean, one of the most amazing nights of my life was in Venice playing La Fenice, which is the most beautiful opera house, if you ask me.

13:19I mean, the Scala is a close competition, but personally La Fenice is unique because it happens to be floating in Venice. And the backstage, you have to take a boat to get backstage to arrive at the theatre door, which is such a unique experience. That's a beautiful theatre. So yeah, we're going to be doing a tour in Italy in December, which is a really particular time but I'm really glad we're doing it because usually that's not when people sort of tour but I think there's something it's got that elegance that pre-Christmas elegance people will be coming and making an effort I like the idea of going to the opera at Christmas or going to musicals going to the theatre at Christmas so I wanted our tour in Italy to have that feeling that sort of a little bit special sense of occasion and it's nice you're going there because the album's a celebration of Italy of your family heritage so it makes sense But you're also back to the UK next year as well.

14:09So people shouldn't. Yeah, I'm going to be in the UK doing something I've never done before. I'm doing a sort of solo tour. Well, I say solo. I might have one or two friends join me on stage here and there. But yeah, I just wanted to do something again. The winters are long in the UK, as you know. They are. And February kills me. And so it was kind of, we've had a pretty bad summer. It looks like the winter is going to be pretty long. And I actually just said to my agent, like about a month, two months ago, I said, can we do a tour in theaters again? Can we just have, this winter's going to be long.

14:38Can we just make it a little bit special? And he sort of said to me, I don't know if we can make this happen with the band. And I said, no, no, I'm just going to do it by myself. Just a couple of dates in the UK, just to sort of go and tell stories and hang out with people and make the winter a little bit shorter. Jake, out of curiosity, I mean, of course, we're talking about Miss Italia, which is all sang in Italian. Do you enjoy listening to Italian artists as well? I don't know, perhaps the classics or even newer artists, perhaps. Yeah, I mean, Italy's gone through a weird transition with music in the last 20, 30 years.

15:08It's getting good again. And I say it's getting good again, because it got lost for about 20 years because of reality TV. It just the only way you could make an Italy was through the X Factor and all that stuff, which has it there's a place for it. But it's a shame when it becomes the only medium and the only way that you can actually break or be heard. That's changed. I mean, streaming, the world technology has really changed that. So you're getting a lot of amazing hip hop coming out of Italy. songwriters are back because songwriters disappeared but the traditional school of songwriting that didn't just happen in italy i think it happened all over the world in the late 50s early 60s and then kind of into the 70s fizzled out in the 80s it was really strong in italy i mean some serious talent some serious artists some serious poets and writers you know not just hit makers nothing against hit makers but these were there was a craftsmanship to it they were real they were writers and amazing musicians as well the intricate music something that would really you have to listen to it you can't just put it on and do your own business um so i do listen to a lot of that luccio dalla luccio battisti de gregori patty bravo mina and also the incredible thing if you listen to mino patty bravo what they do with their voice and it's not like oh they're great singers because you know the world is full of great singers it was so unique there was so much character such a you know it's such a unique character characteristic to their voice and i think that's something that i don't want to say has been lost but it's amazing when you go back to listen to that generation of singers how how personal it was and that's something that's it's difficult to find that these days even a band i don't know mattia bazar i love it i love it so original so it's original and jack finally you know from the project you did with pira moretti Can you, I mean, it's going to be a hard question, just so you know.

16:56Pick one place that was very special to you during all your visits, because I know you've been to quite a few places. So the Egadi Islands are, honestly, we went to Levanse, which is one of the most mystical places I've ever been. We went from Taranto, sorry, from Trapani, excuse me. We arrived in Trapani, this beautiful fish market, and then we took a boat and we went over, I think it's about half an hour, 45 minutes to the Egody Islands. And I've grown up in the Mediterranean. I've been around from the Olean Islands, from Corsica, Helba, the Balearics. They're all stunning. I love them all. But the Egody had this amazing untouched, you know, I'm always searching for the untouched, especially in the Mediterranean, which you can find a little bit in Greece still and Croatia.

17:41But it was so amazing to see this in Italy, so close to Sicily. And the Egody Islands, I highly recommend. Levanso was brilliant, but there's three Egody Islands, if I'm not mistaken. And, yeah, there was something, you know, people say, I wish I could go into a time machine. I wish I could see what it was like. This is that. And even on the island, I mean, I think there's only a couple of hundred of people living on the island. There's only two restaurants, and they're at war with each other. I love it. They're literally 50 meters apart, but apparently the families have big rivalry. And I love this.

18:12It's like just these two restaurants. And they serve kind of the same food, but cooked differently, but the same sort of menu because they're taking the local fish, the local octopus. But I would highly recommend that. However, I would also throw a little twist in this. One of the coolest cities I've been to, not only on this trip, but probably for the last five years, is Palermo. I really recommend people go to Palermo. There is something magic about it. It kind of reminds me of Barcelona in the 90s when I used to go to Barcelona. There's a youthfulness to it. There's some great universities there.

18:45But it's the multiculturalism you see in the buildings, not just in the people. You see it literally in the food, in the fashion. So it's not just about this integration of multiculturalism through the people. It's also in the bricks. It's in the actual, you know, the structures, the statues. You see it in the gods represented on the walls, in the paintings, in the art. So it's really quite special. Fantastic. Jack Savorezzi, grazie mille. Obrigado. Thank you very much. Ciao.

19:20But I miss Italia

19:28Thank you very much, Jack. His album Miss Italia is out now. And for more on his collaboration with Bira Moretti, Sala Elimare and Secret Escapes, head to secretescapes.com. The show was edited by Elliot Greenfield and I am Fernando Gusto Pacheco.

19:49Thank you.