Country Newcomer Alana Springsteen Shares About Her Experience of a Lifetime on Tour with LANY
Alana Springsteen may be new on the Country scene, but her powerful, velvet-smooth voice and soulful lyrics have her on the road to being a mainstay in the genre. With just one listen of her recent EP History of Breaking Up (Part One), her music has a way of connecting with listeners and making them feel as though they’ve made a new best friend. From writing on all seven of the EP’s songs, co-producing on five and playing acoustic guitar on six tracks, the project gives an in-depth look into the life of the wise beyond her years 21-year-old. Springsteen doesn’t shy away from going deep into her feelings with songs like “God Must Be Mad At Me” and “Homesick”, but also shows off her clever, spirited songwriting, as she packs a punch with the EP’s closer “Zero Trucks”.
Shortly after the release of History of Breaking Up (Part One), in September, the Country singer got the surprise of a lifetime when she found out she was going to be opening on her dream tour for one of her favorite bands, LANY. Being a longtime fan of the band, Springsteen originally had tickets to attend the show in Nashville on her birthday, so it is no shock that she was beside herself when finding out the news, which she describes as a “dream come true.”
She had first put her wish of touring with the band into the universe during her first-ever meeting with her agent.
“…[W]e were just talking about big picture dream goals and LANY was a band that I mentioned because I’ve been obsessed with their music since their first EP, hardcore fan over here,” she shares. “I’m fangirling at every single show [and] just love that I get to watch them slay it every single night. I told him that that was one of my dream collaborations and somebody that I’d love to get on the road with and tour and he literally made it happen in less than a year. It’s just a testament to how incredible that team is…”
Playing to huge crowds at amphitheaters across the country on the “gg bb xx tour” is new for Springsteen, but you’d never guess that from the confident she has when performing. She owns even the biggest the stage the most natural way that after watching just one song, it is clearly evident that this is what she was born to do.
“I’ve never played stages this big in my life, so it’s hard to know what to expect but [it] truly just feels like home up there and it’s been an absolute crazy ride…” she says of her leg of the tour that she opened with artist Keshi.
While she may be Country, she finds that LANY fans all over are connecting with her music and that the pop band’s southern ties draw many parallels to her own music.
“There’s kind of two different sides to me and my music, I would say,” explains Springsteen. “Part of me—and this is why I think I make so much sense on this tour with LANY because they have a very similar vibe—is just that night drive, dreamy aesthetic is my thing. Like imagine yourself driving along the coast with the top down, listening to music…I want my music to feel like that, but another side of my music too is just the bangers that you can hear in stadiums. That’s the way I picture it. That’s the goal at the end of the day, so I always feel like it’s a balance between those two sides of myself. For me and my music, the lyric and the story always come first for me. That’s what I love so much about Country music is just the way they write hooks and the way those stories connect, so well that’s why I do what I do. I hope every single one of my songs just carries that and really let’s people in in a really honest and vulnerable way. I also try to make sure production never overshadows that, it just lifts it but never too crazy, never too many tricks. Just really human and raw and leaves a lot of space for the vocal and lyric to kind of do its thing…”
“Close To Me” is a song that Springsteen has been performing on this tour, but it’s one that fans won’t find on her most recent EP. In fact, she just wrote it a few weeks ago, but it thought it would go over so well live that she included it in the set. And her instincts were spot on. The song, which she has been performing live as a mashup with Børns’ “Electric Love” has been an instant hit with audiences.
“I mean the connection that you share on stage in that moment, just the way that music brings people together in a singular moment and you all just feel like you’re trapped in time together, it’s the coolest thing,” she says of the audiences she’s played for on this tour. “Looking out in the crowd and finding singular people and picking them out. Just forming those connections, that honestly has been my favorite part. Just that back and forth with the fans and turning LANY fans into mine hopefully too, it’s really cool.”
While she’s loved the energy of the fans in every city on this tour—especially noting the audiences in Charlotte and Dallas—having the opportunity to kick off her leg of the tour in Nashville was particularly memorable to Springsteen.
“…It was so great that the first show of it was in Nashville, surrounded by my friends and family and just everybody, that’s that home base. It was just such a cool way to kick it off,” she reflects. “…[I]t’s right in my backyard. I’ve seen shows at Ascend [Amphitheater] and I drive by it every day and hear people playing so that was a really cool moment for me, definitely a milestone and a goal of mine to play there…”
In addition to using her music as a way to connect with fans at shows, Springsteen is using her voice to bring encouragement to youth in hospitals as she serves as a Celebrity Ambassador for the Ryan Seacrest Foundation.
“…The Ryan Seacrest Foundation is an organization that does so much good and it’s just close to my heart because the way that music connects with people and the way that music can just bring so much light into somebody’s life,” she explains. “I’ve been in those moments when I feel broken, and a song has pulled me right out of that…What these kids go through every single day is more than I can ever imagine and the way that they still carry this positivity and this light is such a blessing. I honestly feel like I probably get more out of it than they do honestly on these Zooms…I love what music does and I love the light that it brings to people. I’m honestly so honored to be a part of such an incredible organization. I can’t wait to visit some hospitals in person and just to continue doing more with them. It’s one of my favorite things that I’ve gotten to do this past year. Such a blessing.” As her tour dates with LANY have wrapped, Springsteen is busy writing and recording for the second part of her EP, which she plans to release next year.
