Jack Savoretti: ‘People started opening up about how they were feeling’

Holed up with his young family in Oxfordshire, singer-songwriter Jack Savoretti is philosophical about the Government’s coronavirus lockdown. “Nothing much has changed that drastically for us,” he says. “My wife [Jemma Powell] is an actress and an artist, I’m a musician, so we’re very used to very long periods of time of unemployment.”

There is, however, more time for their two children at the moment. “We’re trying to see the silver lining of it, we’re trying to enjoy the stillness as much as possible,” he says. “I feel like I’ve never been busier, even though I’m at home. Between home schooling, writing and everything, it’s full-on but it’s wonderful. We’re very lucky that my kids are here, we’ve got two dogs, there’s a lot of love and energy in the house.”

In confinement the 36-year-old, who is of Italian descent, has written a song called Andra Tutto Bene – or Everything Will be All Right – inspired by a slogan of reassurance that has appeared all over Italy during the current crisis. Its lyrics were co-written with fans from conversations on Instagram.

“I think at times of struggle all your senses spark up and you start to notice things again,” he says. “This song was not planned. I was not intending to write a song during the quarantine, I’d never even thought of writing a song with fans before, but I was talking to all these wonderful people in Italy two or three weeks ago and I was just trying to see how they were doing, how they were coping.

“We weren’t there yet [in the UK], even though a lot of my friends thought it was going to happen. Italy was saying the same things that we were saying, ‘oh it won’t happen here, it won’t be the same thing’. [The messages] were all wonderful. I felt like I was in a personal situation where I was sitting a people’s dinner tables with them, while they were cooking, and I thought, ‘What can I bring to the table for fun? Why don’t we try writing a little song?’ But I thought it was going to be something silly, just to pass the time. What I noticed immediately was people were telling me how they were feeling, how they were coping.

“I was a bit naïve, thinking I was going to go into this and it would all be fun and games when actually people were going through something very serious. They were very scared, sad and isolated and people started opening up, telling me how they felt, and before I knew it we started writing about the situation and we ended up with what I think is a magnificently genuine song about what people are feeling like in this incredibly unique time.”

Savoretti feels everyone involved the arts has a responsibility to lead “in the department of connection” during this crisis. “It’s our responsibility to entertain first of all, that’s essentially our job,” he says. “If teachers are still teaching and doctors are still being doctors, entertainers should still be entertaining people – and when I say entertain, I mean trying to connect people, trying to make people feel connected.

“I don’t know if consider myself necessarily an entertainer but every time I make music I want it to connect, I want people to feel connected to it. That’s something I feel people need now more than ever. There’s a lot of people that are struggling with this, whether it be through solitude or they’re overwhelmed, and I think it’s always good to have something there saying you’re not alone going through this.

“People don’t have to listen or be entertained but it’s our responsibility to make sure that if people need escape, if they need something to hold onto, then we are providing [that for] them.”

It’s the first time that Savoretti has written a song in this way. He says he was “shocked how spontaneous” people’s responses were. “I’ve always been of the opinion that anybody can write a song,” he says, “the magic is actually doing it, not the craft itself. It doesn’t mean it’s going to be a good song, but anybody can, in the same way that anybody can write a poem or paint. Doing it skilfully takes time and hard work, but I really think that what this shows is that if you actually just ask people how they’re feeling it’s amazing how people want to tell you. That’s what was so moving about this experience.

“I didn’t really want to go in there and [ask] people ‘what’s it like living in quarantine?’ or ‘let’s write a song about the coronavirus’. I said ‘let’s write a song’ and immediately people were just telling me how they felt in that moment. It ended up being a very genuine, truthful reflection of what it’s like to live in these times. But I don’t think I will ever be able to recreate that.

“If we’d planned it, I don’t think it would have worked. It’s that spontaneous moment that happens when you’re with your friends with your guitar, you just start making up a song and everybody sings along and it just flows, and that’s what happened. Nobody was prepared, nobody was sitting there with notes, nobody was trying to be clever or say the right thing, they were just saying how they felt.”

Proceeds from the song will go to San Martino di Genova hospital in Genoa, a city in northern Italy that has been badly affected by the virus. It’s a place with which Savoretti has close family ties – there is a monument there to his grandfather, Giovanni, who was a partisan leader fighting against the fascists during the Second World War. “He was an unbelievable man, he was a doctor as well, so it would have been lovely to hear his opinion on everything that’s going on now,” the singer says.

“It’s a city that I have an incredible attachment to. I think it’s one of the most beautiful cities in the world. It’s one of the last kept secrets of Italy, it’s kept its identity and its character, and I think sometimes it’s overlooked. It’s a city that’s been through a lot in the last few years with the bridge [collapse in 2018, which killed 43 people] and now this. I thought if I’m going to put this to a good cause I want it to have real purpose. I also wanted it directed to one hospital, I didn’t want it to get lost, I didn’t want this to be a pebble in the ocean. I really wanted it to go to one hospital so I can get everybody who’s been involved, all of our fans and everybody who’s donating and buying the song, to be aware of what their money is going to.”

Last year Jack Savoretti scored his first No1 in the UK, with his sixth album Singing To Strangers. He was due to perform at the Piece Hall in Halifax in May, but the gig has now been postponed to September 18.

After the drastic changes to everyday life in recent weeks, he is expecting live performances later in the year to be an emotional experience for himself and his audience. “I think people are going to be very much looking to reconnect,” he says. “It’s going to be different and difficult to begin with. I think there is going to be an element of fear, there is going to be an element of fighting your instincts, it’s going to take some while before we go back to how we used to all gather together, but I think it’s important that when the time is right and it’s safe that we do remember our way of life and hold onto something that has taken centuries to create.

“I think understanding and connecting and being with each other is why our society does progress. There is going to have to be a time when we’re all going to have to be very patient with each other and accept different regulations and different ways of doing things. I don’t thing things will look the same for a long time, but I think people will be in great need of art. If you look through history at most pandemics, out of the great plague in Siena we got the Renaissance period, so I think art is going to be really important in reminding people of the dark side and the beautiful side of life.”

Andra Tutto Bene is available to download on a pay-what-you-feel basis from www.jacksavoretti.com/andratuttobene