Alana Springsteen’s social media conjures up the image of a country singer living the rock star lifestyle on the road, but she promises that not everything is as it seems.
“You probably look at artists and bands on stage and think, ‘Gosh, they must be so wild,'” she tells PEOPLE. “But we’re a bunch of nerds. We got back on the bus listening to Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter, pumped.”
After a monumental year of multiple premieres, including her debut on the CMA Awards red carpet on Nov. 20, Springsteen — one of PEOPLE 2024’s Ones to Watch — says she’s built “such a family environment” with her band.
“We have each other’s backs,” she says. “Now we’ve been through some things together and we really feel like a family and I’m very grateful for that.”
Indeed, in October, Springsteen and her crew faced a major setback when their tour bus caught fire, destroying their equipment and personal belongings.
“It was definitely a scary situation, but at the end of the day, I think it brought us closer as a team,” Springsteen says. “When you go through something like that, you come out the other side even stronger. And I saw how amazing this community was. I had so many artist friends and people just offered me their gear for the rest of the year saying, ‘We’re done with the tour, let me know .'”
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Although they had to cancel several tour dates in Texas after the fire, Springsteen and her crew were able to get back on the road the following week.
“It was healing to get back on stage and be where we wanted to be,” she says. “We bounced back grateful that God is watching over us.”
Until March, when he heads to Australia for some shows, Springsteen has little time off the road to spend at home.
“I’m already ready to get back out there because I just love touring, but I’m trying to slow down and learn to rest as much as I can,” she says. “It’s always a strange transition when you leave with go, go, go, go, go to be at home and go grocery shopping and just do all those domestic things.”
“I think the biggest thing for me lately is that I’ve learned to be present and create a sense of peace in the midst of chaos,” she continues. “This year has been absolutely wild, but in the best way. I’ve learned so much about myself and had so many amazing experiences, but this time of year is always a really special time to just slow down, reflect and prepare for a whole new chapter.”
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Springsteen gave a taste of her next era with the release of her songs “Cowboy” and “Hold My Beer” on October 18.
“I wanted to introduce this new chapter to my fans and kind of kick it off strong with these two songs, but that’s just the beginning,” she says. “There’s a lot more to come next year and I can’t wait to peel off those layers and get into it.”
With “Cowboy,” “that song, every bit of it is rooted in truth, and maybe at some point I’ll dig deeper into the story behind that because it goes deep, but that song just comes along with the fact that I fell into a falling pattern to the wrong people,” Springsteen says. “It was really just because I didn’t know myself and I was looking for validation in the wrong places.”
Alana Springsteen on stage in June.
John Lamparski/Getty
As for the cowboy in question? “We’re not in touch anymore,” she says with a laugh, “which is great and okay. No relationship is perfect, but I’m not giving up.”
“Hold My Beer,” on the other hand, is “kind of on the stronger side of it,” she says. “That’s my confident side. I was raised by a really strong woman. My mom is a firecracker and taught me all my life, ‘Don’t take no for an answer. There’s nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it.'” And that’s a big part of why I am where I am today.”
Springsteen grew up in Virginia Beach, Va., and knew she wanted to be a singer from the time she “could talk.”
“I grew up in my grandfather’s church — both of my grandfathers are actually pastors,” she says. “Growing up in that environment, being on stage all the time with my dad leading worship and learning harmony from the people sitting next to me, music was just in my blood. My dad was also just into music in general, he always listening to music in the car, in the house, whether it was Michael Jackson or Shania Twain or Van Halen, it was just such an eclectic mix.”
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When she was 9 years old, Springsteen wrote her first song called “Fairy Tale”.
“It suits me very well; I’ve been a romantic all my life,” she says. “I was writing songs about love and breakup before I even knew what those words meant. But that particular song was about my parents’ love story, about how they met and how they fell in love.”
At the age of 10, Springsteen moved with her family to Nashville in pursuit of her musical dreams. “I knew enough to know that country music was here and that this was where I needed to be if I wanted to be an artist and be a country music artist,” she says.
At 14, she signed her first publishing contract.
“I started writing songs five days a week, as a job,” she says. “Learning from songwriters who wrote hits was just amazing. I learned that the most important thing is to convey your truth in the most honest way possible. That was a turning point for me: When I started being really, really personal and honest and not chasing what other people work, I was just writing my truth, that’s when I started really connecting with people and finding my community.”
In August 2023, Springsteen released her debut album Twenty somethingconsisting of three meals: Mess up, figure it out and Correctly. Springsteen says it’s been “so healing” to hear fans sing her songs to her on tour.
“It’s like therapy,” she says. “We have our party songs and our fun songs and we like to keep the energy going, but a lot of those songs were so personal.”
Take, for example, her song “Chameleon,” inspired by her mother’s nickname for her.
“My mom called me a chameleon as a joke, but it’s deeper than that,” she says. “My whole life I’ve kind of been a shape-shifter and I learned to fit into the mold of what people needed me to be, wanted me to be. I wrote that song about that truth and learning to just be myself and be okay with that whether they’ll accept me or not. Singing that song live is still one of my favorite moments on set, because I look out and see the girls with their eyes closed, singing the lyrics like it’s their anthem.”
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Alana Springsteen performs in June.
Alex DeBuhr/Billboard via Getty
Twenty something also features hits like “Ghost in My Guitar” with Chris Stapleton and “Goodbye Looks Good on You” with Mitchell Tenpenny. Over the summer, Springsteen was surprised by tour mate Luke Bryan with the news that “Goodbye Looks Good on You” had been certified RIAA GOLD.
“I think it was one of the first nights of the tour last year, and he just walked into the room and said, ‘I have a surprise for you,'” she recalls. “He always brought me the best news. He was the one who surprised me with my Opry debut long before we even met. So it was really fun to experience that and celebrate that and then get on stage that night and announce it crowd.”
Since then, more milestones have followed, including a #1 on Billboard’s Dance/Mix Show Airplay chart for her Tiësto collaboration “Hot Honey,” which was released in July.
“It was definitely a pinch-me moment,” Springsteen says. “It’s so funny how life surprises you. If you’d asked me, I never would have guessed that my first radio No. 1 would be on the dance charts. But I think that just goes to show you how far-reaching the country music genre is and how people are in all different genres around the world inspired by it.”
In fact, it was Tiësto’s wife, Annika Backes, who suggested Springsteen for the song’s vocals.
“His wife was actually a big fan of my voice and my music and had followed me for a long time, so when he was looking for someone to do this song with, she said, ‘You should ask Alan.'” she says. “So he sent it to me earlier this year and I fell in love with it. I immediately connected with the story. I’ve been known to ignite my love life on a regular basis, so I immediately found myself in this song.”
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Springsteen says they shot from 6 p.m. until sunrise for the fire-heavy music video, and she “almost got set on fire more than once, but it was worth it.”
On Friday, December 6, Springsteen announced his latest project, Alana Springsteen: Live from NPR’s tiny desk. The four-song EP was recorded live from her summer session on NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert series.
“I’ve never been intimidated by a table before, but walking inside, it was definitely one of those moments,” she says. “But really the stars of it were my band. There’s no editing. They don’t even amplify instruments or voices, so you just have to play as a band and make room for each other, which is part of the reason it’s so special and what it is.”
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Alana Springsteen at the CMA Awards on November 20.
Michael Buckner/Variety via Getty
While Springsteen can’t definitively say when he’ll release his next album, he promises “a lot more music to come in 2025.” He’s also going on tour with Keith Urban in the new year.
“He’s been my hero since I was 9, sitting in front of my CD player, trying to learn his guitar riffs, and he’s one of the kindest human beings,” she says. “I just know it’s going to be such an amazing tour. Next year I’m also making my Stagecoach debut, which is going to be great. It’s been a goal of mine for a long time, so we’re going to try and really bring it for that show, it’s going to be a crazy year!”
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Source: HIS Education