How Savoretti wrote his singing success

Jack Savoretti was once proclaimed as the new Paolo Nutini. The comparisons are obvious. Both are British singer/ songwriters with Italian fathers. The differences are equally obvious. Paolo reached number three on the UK chart with These Streets, his 2006 debut album. He then hit top spot with his other albums, Sunny Side Up and Caustic Love. Jack’s highest chart placing was number 70 with his 2007 debut album, Between the Minds.
“I thought my recording career had begun pretty well,” smiled 32-year-old Jack. “I got my songs played on BBC Radio 2 and my first single, Without, charted at number 90. Some of my songs were used on TV and film soundtracks and I had artists such as Corinne Bailey Rae and Gavin DeGraw inviting me on tour as their support act.”
Things began to go wrong around 2009 before the scheduled release of Jack’s sophomore album, Harder Than Easy.
“It was a difference in expectations between myself and my then management. They effectively wanted me to be the next Paolo Nutini. I wanted to retain my musical style, do more touring and keep learning my trade as a singer/ songwriter. I decided to pull out of my management deal. I was sued, things got a bit nasty and I ended up spending all my money on legal fees.”
Jack became so disillusioned with the business side of music that he seriously considered ending his career and “getting a proper job.”
“I was married and our first child was on the way. I got myself in such a state with all the legal issues that I was anything but a good husband during my wife’s pregnancy. I’d enjoyed my music career but the release and promotion of my second album was badly botched and I’d totally had it with all the legal stuff. I figured I was done with music and, honestly, I didn’t mind.”
It was at this apparent end of his career that Jack suddenly became a prolific songwriter.
“The experience was so weird. I couldn’t stop writing. It was like my decision to quit music had lifted the shackles placed on me by all the legal problems. I wasn’t just writing songs, I was creating the best songs I’d ever written. They were angry and so personal expressing exactly what was in my mind. It was like I’d learned how to write. I couldn’t quit before I’d shared these songs with my fans.”
The resulting album, 2012’s Before The Storm, peaked at a disappointingly low number 109 on the UK chart. But, like his first two albums, Before The Storm was released on a small, independent label and suffered from a lack of promotion. Industry bigwigs took note though. The quality of Jack’s work brought him a major label deal with BMG Chrysalis.
“It’s obviously possible to become successful without the backing of a major label but I’m not sure if this is true for artists who perform my style of music. I’ve been fortunate in that the label believe in me and have supported what I wanted to do rather than try to push me in a different direction.”
This faith in Jack’s ability has paid handsome dividends. His fourth album, Written in Scars, has already spent 29 weeks on the UK chart. A new edition, which includes his latest single, Catapult, plus live tracks and remixes, has further boosted sales and now sees Written in Scars peaking at number seven.
“The songs on this album continue from where I left off on Before The Storm in that most of them are very personal. But I did change the way they were written. I worked with other writers and producers such as Sam Dixon, Matt Benbrook, Pedro Vito and Seb Sternberg. I drew influence and inspiration from them. The songs are also looser, loopier and less structured than my previous work.”
Jack is genuinely grateful for the chart success he currently enjoys. But does he consider himself to be a pop star?
“I’ll leave that kind of thing to people like Justin Bieber and One Direction. My career has been a slow, uphill climb. I’ve learned lessons along the way and now feel like I know how to climb higher at least in terms of the quality of my songs if not record sales. I love what I do and just want to keep getting better.”

in
brief

Lucid Fly

It’s 15 years since guitarist Doug Mecca and vocalist Nikki Layne joined forces to form melodic rock band Lucid Fly.
They became a hot property on the music scene in their home city of Orlando. The rest of Florida soon followed before Doug and Nikki decided to head for Los Angeles. They teamed up with drummer Aaron Ficca and gained a good enough reputation to be in demand as the support act on tours by a number of major name artists.
The band self-released three critically acclaimed EPs but offers of a record deal did not materialise. They have now taken things into their own hands with a posting on the Indiegogo website to generate financial support from fans to fund the release of their forthcoming debut album, Building Castles In Air.
Having met their original target, the fundraising still continues with further donations being used to improve and promote the album. In exchange for their generosity, fans receive a variety of perks ranging from T-shirts to a concert at their house.
Lucid Fly’s three EPs can be heard in full on Bandcamp. Their latest EP is at (no www.) lucidfly.bandcamp.com/album/stasis. There are links from this webpage to their earlier releases, The Escape Stage and Adapting To Gravity.
If you enjoy their music and would like to contribute to the band’s fundraising effort, their Indiegogo page is at (no www.) igg.me/at/lucidfly

Adele

Another day, another record for Adele.
The video for her smash hit single, Hello, has become the fastest to be viewed one billion times on YouTube. Her mark of 87 days obliterated the previous record of 158 days held by South Korean artist Psy with his 2012 international hit, Gangnam Style.
Adele still has much to do if Hello is to pass Psy’s record for the most watched video on YouTube. The total of more than 2.5 billion views for Gangnam Style is well over one billion more than the nearest challenger, Taylor Swift’s Blank Space.

The Chemical Brothers

The Chemical Brothers have just released a video for Wide Open, the latest single taken from their UK chart-topping and Grammy-nominated eighth studio album, Born in the Echoes. The song features vocals from Beck Hansen, who also co-wrote the track with Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons.
The video, which is posted at www.youtube.com/watch?v=BC2dRkm8ATU, sees dancer Sonoya Mizuno transform from a human to a hollow, latticed being. Ironically, it follows Sonoya’s role as Kyoko in the 2015 sci-fi film, Ex Machina. She played a housemaid who is actually a humanoid robot.

Corinna Jane

Singer/ songwriter Corinna Jane was born to Franco-British parents in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany. But she spent most of her life in England after her family moved to Northamptonshire.
She took piano and singing lessons at the age of five. Songwriting began a year later with her style of piano driven pop rock fully emerging in her teens.
Her four-song debut EP, Hard In Love, was released last September. It features songs taken from Corinna Jane’s forthcoming debut album. One of these, Floodlights, is poised to become her first single. Released on February 29, it is the latest posting at (no www.) soundcloud.com/corinnajane.
A number of earlier songs and covers are also posted on her SoundCloud page. Live performances of the other three songs on Corinna Jane’s EP, Three Faces of You, Echoes of My Mind and the title-track, can be found by typing her name in the YouTube website search box.