Jack Savoretti talks ahead of V Festival appearance

Unlike X Factor stars, who are here today and gone this evening, he’s paid his dues. He’s built his career to last. He’s in it for the long haul and is glad that success didn’t beckon him too soon.

Jack will be a main stage player at V Festival on August 19 and 20, at Weston Park. He’ll line up on the same stage as Jay Z, Ellie Goulding, Stormzy, Jason Derulo, Clean Bandit and Scouting For Girls.

And he hopes that playing to a younger crowd will bring new recruits to Team Savoretti.

“We do enjoy the festivals. It’s a tough one because we’re not a regular festival style band.

“But we’ve been around for a long time and it’s something that we look forward to. There’s nothing better than playing to your own crowd, it’s like playing at home. But there’s something equally exciting about playing away and I hope we pick up new fans. That’s definitely why we do it. With some festivals, the reaction is more immediate than others.”

It’s not just the chance to play to 50,000 fans that Jack is looking forward to. He’ll also hang around and meet a few of the other V Festival stars, such as Second Stage artists Pete Tong, Dizzee Rascal, The Wombats and more.

“I’d love to see George Ezra, though he’s on the opposite day. Plus I’d like to see Dizzee Rascal. I’m a big fan of George and his producer, Cam Blackwood. George’s new album will be unbelievably good. I’ve heard on the grapevine. It’s one to listen out for.”

Jack spent the best part of 10 years in the wilderness before Written In Scars became a breakthrough hit. It peaked at number seven on the chart in 2015 as it secured a gold disc. And Sleep No More went one place higher in 2016 as it enjoyed success across Europe. While some might have been new to Jack – missing out on his delightful first three albums, Between The Minds, harder Than Easy and Before The Storm – the singer wasn’t surprised.

“I wasn’t shocked by how well they did because we’d seen it growing quite gradually while we’d been on the road for so many years. You could smell the audience growing. Every show, more people were coming, so it was a really new experience releasing the album, knowing that the audience was there. We made the records with that very much in mind, especially Sleep No More. it was really nice to go into the studio knowing people would hear the album. In the past we didn’t have that audience.”

There were times during his wilderness years when Jack thought about packing it in. His music failed to find an audience – though perhaps because he had no direct link to a new audience. Radio, the press and record companies seemed reluctant to promote him.

“This is the only thing I know how to do. After I released Harder Than Easy, I thought I’d stop. I got very cynical about the industry. Then I got angry that the industry was stopping me from doing something that I wanted to do. That anger fuelled me. I got really resentful because I wasn’t allowed to do it. The only thing I know how to do is this but I wasn’t getting a chance. So I decided to do things my own way. I knew it would be harder and it was – but I knew I’d get there.”

The reason for Jack’s breakthrough was his team. He surrounded himself with like-minded people who were willing to work hard to build an audience and take things forward. “The people on the shift changed. I hand-picked every single body on the crew, even if they weren’t experienced. It was all about picking people who were up for the ride, for the rocky waters. People who weren’t into that were left at home.”

And it’s his crowd and his crew that please him most. Jack looks at them as being part of his extended family. He’s toured with lots of bands and lots of different set-ups but the one he has now is far and away the best.

After so many years of chipping away, Jack found it thrilling to finally break through.

“It was crazy because we actually got the mainstream media. We got the TV shows and the radio and the magazines and the papers writing about us. It came from a good place. They were hearing about us because of word of mouth. We didn’t have people bombarding them with press and marketing. But it was amazing to see how powerful that machine is. It was shocking to see what three minutes of TV could do against 10 years of touring.”

Jack is looking forward to a summer in the sunshine and has started thinking about his next album. He’s in no rush. Sleep No More still has legs and there’s more shows to look forward to. “I want to let the album live a little. My fourth album went top 10 a year-and-a-half after it was released. I don’t have a massive machine putting everything into place for the first week or month. I like the album to get a life. Right now, I’m still living the songs that are written in Sleep No More so we’re riding this one. We’ve been invited on the road with John Legend to do his UK and European tour so we’ll see that through and then decide what to do.”

Playing alongside John will be a learning experience and Jack’s keen to see how one of the world’s best does it. “We headline our own shows, but I don’t mind being support. The first tour I ever went on was with Corrine Bailey Rae. She had such an amazing work ethic. She had humility and elegance with everybody she worked with and everybody she met. I’ve been on many tours with people who shall remain nameless who were very disrespectful and horrible.”

When the tables are turned, and Jack is headlining, he makes sure he treats people well. “We always try to look after people when we take them on the road.”