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"Melodies and music are just in me": Alana Springsteen on building a life in country music

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Thu, 2 Nov 2023, 12:39PM
Photo / Newstalk ZB
Photo / Newstalk ZB

"Melodies and music are just in me": Alana Springsteen on building a life in country music

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Thu, 2 Nov 2023, 12:39PM

She’s been making music for fourteen years but has only recently turned 23. 

Nashville-based singer-songwriter Alana Springsteen is taking the world by storm, the Grammys comparing her perceptive storytelling and pop-country music to a young Taylor Swift. 

She released her first album in late 2021, and just this year released her deeply personal three-part album ‘Twenty Something.’  

The album is made up of three six song instalments: ‘Messing It Up’, ‘Figuring It Out’, and ‘Getting It Right,’ the full album containing eighteen songs total. 

Springsteen told Newstalk ZB’s Mike Hosking that she’s a big signs person, with eighteen being her lucky number. 

“It’s just kind of popped up throughout my entire life,” she said.  

“My birthday is the 18th, my parents got married on the 18th, and we’ll see it in the most random place.” 

Keeping in line, Springsteen released the album on August 18th. Eighteenth of the eighth.  

“I just tried to pack as much good luck into it as I could.” 

Not only is Springsteen a big signs person, but she’s also a big manifester. 

“I always had huge dreams when I was a kid,” she told Hosking. 

“I just had this blind faith that it was what I was meant to do.” 

Springsteen picked up the guitar when she was seven, started writing songs when she was nine, and started co-writing music with industry heavyweights not long after.  

She told Hosking that it was the first time she found people that spoke the same language that she did. 

“People were calling their friends being like, ‘you’ve got to come meet this girl,’ and it was just such an organic way of finding community.” 

Despite her youth Springsteen has already made songs with a variety of artists including Mitchell Tenpenny and Brad Paisley, and toured with Luke Bryan. 

“I learned so, so much just from watching him,” She told Hosking.  

“The way he interacts with the crowd, he’s so fan focused.” 

Community is a key part of music, country music in particular, and Nashville is where the roots of this community are planted. 

Springsteen has performed twice at what she calls the ‘Holy ground’, the Grand Ole Opry, telling Hosking that it’s hard to find words to describe the experience. 

“It doesn’t really hit you until you step in that circle. Until you’re thinking about everybody that’s come before you, and you feel like you’re officially part of the country music family.” 

Joining the family brought with it advice from the older generations, and for Alana Springsteen, Kenny Chesney had some words of wisdom. 

“Just do it your own way, let it come to you.” 

“The biggest thing he told me that stuck with me is not to be impatient, you know? He’s like, take your time.” 

She says she has to constantly remind herself that a slow rise builds a lasting foundation. 

“The most important thing to me is to have a long career and do this for the rest of my life.” 

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