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Jack Savoretti on his new album Europiana and working with his music heroes
Virgin Radio
26 Jun 2021, 13:13
The singing superstar joined the Graham Norton Radio Show with Waitrose to talk about working with the legendary John Oates and making Euro-inspired disco music cool again with the magical touch of Chic.
He told Graham: “A lot of people confuse disco with European music, but something happened with disco music and the reason I also wanted to work with somebody like Nile Rogers was because he has a lot to answer for when it comes to this.
“He changed European music. When Chic and disco music went from the underground clubs in New York and Philadelphia and became mainstream in America, and then they crossed the ocean and collided with Europe and its tradition of songwriting which was melodic, nostalgic, storytelling you got this particularly European thing which has definitely got the disco groove and the soul of disco music, but it's got the European traditional songwriting over it which is like I said, melodic, nostalgic and storytelling.
"I realised nobody's really tapped into this. Nobody's really acknowledged this as a genre. It sometimes gets called Eurodisco but there's so much more to it and so I came up with this word to describe it to myself and to my band which was Europiana.
"That was never supposed to be the title of the album, it was just this kind of genre that I felt hadn't been acknowledged before and it hasn't always had the respect I think it deserves.
"Even I've been snobbish towards it sometimes and I've just delved into the history of it, and realised there's some really good music of this style which I called Europiana from the last 50 years in Europe.”
On collaborating with his music idol, he said: “I got John Oates on the album too - Hall and Oates are one of my all time favourites. After a few drinks, that's my go-to playlist and speaking of having a few too many drinks, it was one of those nights where I had done exactly that and I actually have the original message on my Instagram.
"It was 2.56am in the morning to be precise. I drunk dialled John Oates and basically said how much I loved him and did he ever want to work together.
“I woke up in the morning in a cold sweat and I actually said to my wife, I think I drunk dialled John Oates last night. And she was like oh, please don't tell me you did that. Anyway, I checked my messages and he was up for it. He was like, anytime buddy, here’s my phone number.
“He’s been so sweet since and was so adorable that I asked him to do backing vocals... and there's a particular song on the album that is called When You're Lonely… and he said, 'Hey man, do you mind if I put some guitar down as well?' Man, do whatever you want. Play the triangle for all I like. You're a genius, do whatever you’ve got to do.”
Europiana is out now.
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