Virginia Beach native Alana Springsteen, an accomplished country singer-songwriter, visits the Oceanfront for a free concert April 25 before heading back home to Nashville for the Grand Ole Opry and jetting to the United Kingdom to headline a tour this summer. Her sophomore album, I Hope This Helps, releases May 29.
By Butch Maier
Alana Springsteen
Who she is: Country singer-songwriter from Virginia Beach, now a star in Nashville
Free concert: Saturday, April 25, 7 p.m., 24th Street Park, Virginia Beach Oceanfront
New album: I Hope This Helps, releases May 29
Website: alanaspringsteen.com
Coastal Virginia Magazine: I first interviewed you when you were 14 years old…
Alana Springsteen: “Oh my gosh, was it that long ago? Wow.”
CVM: …after I saw “Springsteen concert” on a Virginia Beach church sign.
Springsteen: (Laughs.) “That’s right! I remember this. Wow. Throwback. That was right before I moved to Nashville. Crazy.”
CVM: You are now 25, which is mind-boggling. How have you changed in the past 11 years as a singer, songwriter, and performer? And are there any ways in which you are the same?
Alana Springsteen: “Oh, my goodness. That is a really loaded question. I feel like a lot happens in those 10 years from 15 to 25. It’s both. I think, in a lot of ways, I’ve changed, and there definitely are some ways I’m still the same. Growing up, I was raised in a bubble. Both my granddads are pastors. Virginia Beach is a super small town—especially the area I grew up in, but I always had these big dreams. I wanted to travel. I picked up the guitar when I was 7, started writing songs when I was 9. And there was always this tension of staying true to who I was and my roots, but also, I always felt like a little bit of a black sheep. I felt like I didn’t always fit, and I wasn’t always understood by the people around me.”
CVM: In what ways?
Springsteen: “Aw, man. Well, several ways. I grew up in a loud, chaotic family that was full of love but also full of a lot of unhealed personalities and people who weren’t super emotionally self-aware, and I was a very empathetic kid in the midst of all of that. My parents had me when they were 20, so they were babies making a baby. And I learned really early how to put other people’s needs before myself. I had a really hard time processing emotions. Nobody ever taught me what that looked like, so the only way I could do that was through music. But the past couple of years—specifically, in between my debut and this record, I Hope This Helps, coming out this summer—I think I’ve done the most growth. And that looked like a lot of therapy. It looked like, kind of reparenting myself, going back into my childhood and looking at the ways I was set up for success in life and the ways that some of the things I was taught also held me back. So, I have learned to trust my gut a lot more. I’ve learned to not be afraid to express emotions, to ask for needs, to set boundaries, and this record has really helped to heal a lot of that.”
CVM: Tell me about the meaning of the title.
Springsteen: “So, I called it I Hope This Helps because truly, I just hope it helps, and I went through, probably, hundreds of other titles that it could have been, but, you know, it was really tough to make this record. I felt like I had to fight to write this music. I could have taken the easier route and just stepped into this fun era and written these lighthearted, easy songs. But once I started writing, I realized that this chapter of my life was going to ask a lot more from me, and if I was brave enough to do the work and say ‘yes,’ it was gonna take me on a crazy journey. And so, I ended up with these songs like Note to Self and Love Me Anyway and Black Sheep that are about embracing curiosity and openness and loving yourself through the mess. And I’m just so proud of it. My hope for this record is that it encourages other people to ask the hard questions, to love themself—even if they don’t fit in—and to choose themself. I think it’s really easy to just play a role and fit into the life you were handed and stay where it’s comfortable. But I think the true growth and strength is on the other side of the hard work. So, I really just hope it helps people feel less alone, feel seen, feel inspired to go on this healing journey for themselves.”
CVM: What are some of the hard questions you hope it helps them ask?
Springsteen: “I love this. We’re getting deep. (Laughs.) It’s awesome. Right into it. Man, where do I begin? I think some of the hardest questions I had to ask were, ‘Who am I when I’m not trying to make everybody else happy? Who am I when I’m not in relation to somebody else?’ Being the oldest of four kids and the first granddaughter and the oldest daughter, I felt like there was a very specific moral roadmap that was kinda laid out in front of me, and I learned really young how to be the strong one and how to take care of everybody else. And a lot of times, it was at the expense of my own needs. So, one of the questions I had to ask was, ‘What do I need, and who am I if I don’t have to be anything for anyone else—and what do I want my life to look like?’ I think growing up in Virginia Beach, it was like I always felt inspired. I think the culture and the people and just the environment teaches you how to dream. But I also felt pulled between, you know, there’s this almost peaceful, slow pace of life and these expectations that I didn’t always see myself in. So, it’s this really interesting contrast. And I feel like Virginia Beach taught me how to dream—the people there taught me how to dream. Even though I’ve changed a lot, and I’ve grown up a lot, every time I come home, it still welcomes me with open arms, and I still feel like the girl I used to be. Just a little more self-aware and a little more mature.”
CVM: On your first album, Chris Stapleton was featured on Ghost in My Guitar. Are there any featured artists on your second album that you can reveal a little early?
Springsteen: “Actually, there are no features on this record, as of right now. I may come back around and do some different versions of songs with people, but this album is still incredibly personal. And anytime I do features, anytime I do collaborations, I want it to feel like there’s a reason and a purpose behind it—and that it really adds to the narrative, the story of the song. And for this record, it felt like something that I needed to get off my chest and something that I needed to say, so, yeah, it’s a very personal story.”
CVM: What percentage of your songs are autobiographical? Or is it all of them?
Springsteen: “A hundred percent are autobiographical. There’s a song called No Man’s that’s on the record that I guess isn’t exactly my story, but I see myself in that character. I was able to pull different pieces from family members’ stories or people I was close to’s stories, and kind of create this character that I saw a lot of myself in. That song is all about realizing that true love should never ask you to be small, it should never hold you down—it should just be a soft place to land and the fuel to go chase your wildest dreams. So, that is one of the few songs that I was able to channel my country music storytelling and kind of tell someone else’s story, but for the most part, all these songs are incredibly autobiographical.”
CVM: Do you have any dream collaborators for the future? Someone that you haven’t worked with, and you think, “It would be amazing to do a song with them.”
Springsteen: “Aw, man. I have so many. Someone that I have been recently reinspired by a lot is Sheryl Crow. I grew up loving her music, but just recently, I’ve rediscovered some of her albums and gotten to analyze them and deep-dive into it, and I’m just not only inspired by the music but who she is as a person. You know, she produced most of her music herself. She wrote pretty much 100 percent of everything. She’s an incredible musician—just kind of a trailblazer—and I am just so inspired by that, so I would love to collaborate with her in some capacity.”
CVM: Have you met her?
Springsteen: “I’ve never met her. No. I would love to meet her. Manifesting that.”
CVM: Every day is a winding road. You never know where it’ll lead.
Springsteen: (Laughs.) “That’s right. Well done.”
CVM: So, any others you want to mention?
Springsteen: “Hayley Williams is also somebody that I’m deeply inspired by. I look up to her songwriting a lot—the way that she is unafraid to have hard conversations and to address difficult topics in a very empathetic way. As far as vocals and artistry, she’s top tier. And we come from pretty similar backgrounds. She got into music really early, was raised in a similar environment to me, so I feel like musically, we’d really get along, but also, I think we have a lot in common, so it would be a dream to work with her.”
CVM: You once performed I’ll Fly Away with your family at church. I absolutely love that song. My apologies for going a bit dark, but that is the song my wife knows to have people sing at my funeral.
Springsteen: “Oh, wow.”
CVM: If you were to record a cover of I’ll Fly Away for a future album, who would you ask to sing it with you?
Springsteen: “Oh, my gosh. Wow, what a question. Um, I think I would need to put some thought into that. I don’t know. I love the song, too. I grew up singing it since I was a kid. Somebody like Dolly Parton would be a dream come true. I would have to put some thought into that because the song really means a lot to me, and I’d want it to be right.”
CVM: Now, have you met Dolly?
Springsteen: “I have not.”
CVM: All right, there you go. Another one for the manifestation list.
Springsteen: “Aw, man. For sure, for sure.”
CVM: Speaking of flying away, you are gonna be flying away to the United Kingdom this summer. Tell me about that tour.
Springsteen: “I’m so excited. It’s pretty surreal that I’m getting to do my own headline tour in some of these countries that three years ago, I’d never even visited. Pretty crazy. I always wanted to travel as a kid. I had all these mood boards of different places that I wanted to visit and a list of all these places I wanted to go to. I’m so lucky that I’ve been able to visit several of them and that music has been the thing that’s connected me with these people. I think I’ve realized that the world is so much smaller than we even realize, and I’ve been able to connect with people from London and Scotland and Ireland over similarities in our human experience, even though we have very different backgrounds and different stories. We’re still able to relate over these emotions and these milestones in life. A lot of them connected to my album Twenty Something, and I was just there for C2C [the Country to Country festival], getting to perform on the big stages, playing some of the new music. And it’s really cool to hear how it’s already resonating with them. So, I can’t wait. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love playing in the O2 and these massive venues, but there’s something really special about being in an intimate setting, knowing that every single person there is there because they connected with you. They see a part of them in your story, and that’s just surreal.”
CVM: After the United Kingdom, where do you want to go next?
Springsteen: “We have plans for more dates to be added. I can’t get into details too much. I’d get in trouble with my team. But there are a lot more dates coming, so stay tuned for that.”
CVM: You are putting out great music. Continue doing that and getting your name out there. I hope this helps.
Springsteen: (Laughs.) “Thank you so much. I’m so excited to get back to my hometown. Man, there’s just something so full circle about playing a show in the place I grew up dreaming about doing exactly what I’m doing. To play for my people in my hometown—I’m really looking forward to it.”
Butch Maier
