Jack Savoretti on 'leaning into a midlife crisis'

"There's not much new music based on the afternoon of life."

Twenty years since his debut, Jack Savoretti, who lives near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire, says he was "very prepared for nobody really caring" about his ninth album, We Will Always Be The Way We Were.

But upon its release in April, it peaked at number 2 on the UK Official Albums Chart, building on the success of top-charting Singing to Strangers in 2019 and Europiana in 2021.

Ahead of his autumn tour across Europe and the UK, the singer talks about writing songs for "the mothers and the fathers in the world" and his first collaboration with long-time friend KT Tunstall.

Savoretti compares choosing the theme of the album to "a bit like leaning into a midlife crisis".

"As great as the music is right now, there's not much that I listen to that I relate to.

"I love all these new artists, especially coming out of the UK - Sienna Spiro, Olivia Dean, Sam Fender, Lewis Capaldi - but they're really young, the stuff they talk about is beautiful and romantic and youthful."

The 42-year-old singer lists some of his experiences so far - becoming a father of three, losing his own father and "having the worries you have as a middle-aged man".

"I don't know if there's much music for all the mothers and the fathers in the world, especially for men," he says.

"I felt like as a man, there wasn't much music that I could lean on during these strange times in my life.

"I really wanted to make an album that was useful to anybody in the afternoon of life."

The album name stems from his belief that people do not necessarily change, "but hopefully, they grow".

"This was an album that I did just after an Italian album and ... I was very prepared for nobody really caring about it.

"I was like, is anybody still interested? And I was so moved by the overwhelming reaction we had from our fan base that made that happen."

During the release week, he was in the races for the top chart spot with Grammy Award winner Olivia Dean, who he says is one of the favourite singers of his 14-year-old daughter and his niece.

"They couldn't believe that papa was in this and I couldn't believe it," he shared.

In another milestone, he performed his own shows at the Royal Albert Hall in April and May.

"The first night really surprised me how emotional it actually made me."

He says his wife and children also attended, and his five-year-old daughter looked "really confused".

"It was the first time she was like, 'Why is papa walking on this stage right now?'

"That really choked me up - had a lump in my throat for the whole show, but it was cool."

Savoretti credits his Cotswolds home as having "a lot to do with just me loving life".

"I love where we live. I've met some of the most interesting people."

The area reminds him of where he grew up - the Swiss village of Carona near Lake Lugano.

"Which is why I think I am who I am because I would sit in a classroom [where there were] a chalkboard and a window," he says.

"I always wanted to look out the window because it was so beautiful."

He describes his and his wife's decision to move to the Cotswolds village from London as "quite instinctive".

"We came out here with our two kids and we just saw them in this habitat, in this environment. We just thought, 'What can we do to stay out here?'

"It was very impromptu ... and we said 'Let's try, we'll do it - in six months, if it doesn't work, we'll go back' - that was 11 years ago."

The largest tour of his career starts in Zagreb in Septmeber and ends in Birmingham in November via the likes of Athens, Milan, Berlin, Amsterdam and Paris.

Before that he says he is "super excited" to be doing the State Fair in Chelmsford on 26-28 June.

"It's going to be with Alanis Morissette, Skunk Anansie, and Sierra Ferrell who are three of my favourite acts all on the same line up."

The event also features Scottish singer KT Tunstall, whose single with Savoretti, Tempting Fate, comes out on Friday.

Savoretti says he wanted "a strong, powerful voice" to highlight "the struggle of the male and the female" alongside his.

"I've always wanted to work with KT and I just thought this was the first song I felt confident to reach out to her with."

Tunstall said it was her "first time I've sung on such a soul-inspired track, and Jack's voice just blew me away and moved me to up my game".

"We're both celebrating 20 years of career, so it just felt like a no-brainer," Savoretti adds.

"I think consistency and longevity was something I always craved, so to actually feel like we're achieving that is really rewarding."