Over the past few years, Virginia Beach native Alana Springsteen has steadily emerged as one of country music’s most compelling young voices, pairing sharp songwriting with a fearless sense of emotional honesty. Her critically acclaimed debut project ‘TWENTY SOMETHING' introduced that perspective in bold fashion, a three-part, 18-song album she co-wrote in its entirety while also contributing guitar, piano and production. Praised by outlets including NPR Music — which named the title track among the best songs of 2023 — the project established Springsteen as a thoughtful storyteller capable of blending country roots with modern pop instincts. Since then she’s continued to broaden her reach, from scoring a dance chart No. 1 alongside Tiësto on the genre-blending collaboration ‘Hot Honey' to delivering a widely praised appearance on NPR Music’s coveted Tiny Desk concert series.
Now entering what she calls her most emotionally revealing chapter yet, Springsteen recently returned with the introspective single ‘note to self,' a soul-searching ballad that reflects on the struggles of her early years while pointing toward a brighter future. The song offers an early glimpse of her anticipated sophomore album, due in 2026, and arrives following a whirlwind period on the road that included supporting Keith Urban on his world tour, a sold-out debut headline run across the United States and a breakout Stagecoach Festival appearance. Next week she brings that momentum to the UK as part of the C2C: Country to Country festival in London, Belfast and Glasgow, re-connecting with British audiences and introducing a rapidly evolving next chapter in her story.
Thank you for your time today, Alana, we do appreciate it.
No, thank you, it's lovely to speak to you, I'm buzzin!!! (said in a fancy British accent!)
You're stepping out onto the main stage at the C2C festival next week to deliver a set at one of the biggest Country music events outside of the USA. How do you feel?
(laughing) I cannot wait! I've absolutely fallen in love with the fans over there and the way you guys approach music. We get along so well because in the UK, the songwriter comes first. I wouldn't be an artist if I wasn't a songwriter so I think that's why we clicked from the get go. It was about three years ago now, the first time I came over to the UK and I played C2C in that Friday night ‘Introducing Nashville' songwriters segment. I will never forget how shook I was because it was definitely the biggest stage I had ever been on as a songwriter and those fans showed up early and were so locked in to people that they, probably, didn't know, listening to songs that might not have even been out yet and yet they were hanging on every word.
It's going to be a full-circle moment for me to hit that main stage again next week but take everything up a notch with a full bandf set.
For people seeing you next week for the first time – what version of Alana Springsteen are they going to get?
Man. I think they are going to get a much more healed, confident and empowered version of me. I can say that because the past two years have utterly changed me. I got re-wired writing this next batch of music. In a lot of ways I had to go back to the beginning and re-learn some different behaviours and patterns. It started with my inner child and I honestly feel like, coming out of this journey, I am a completely different person now.
I'm able to show up now and be unapologetically me, I'm not looking for validation, I'm just here to connect with people, that's who people at C2C are going to get.
Your NPR Tiny Desk performance felt like it was a pivotal turning point in your artistic journey. What did that experience teach you about yourself and your music?
Wow. First of all, I'm the biggest fan of the Tiny Desk shows, I grew up watching it, some of my favourite artists have been on there. What I loved most is that you can't hide behind anything doing that session, it's just pure art, pure creativity. Musicians playing together as a band, what you see is what you get.
I wanted to revisit some of my songs and paint them in a whole new light doing that show. I think I learned that the most important thing about live music is the heart behind it. It's so easy to get caught up in the production of a show, the lights, the crowd – and don't get me wrong, I love being a showman – but where my heart lies is with the musicians and that little girl who just started writing songs on a guitar on her bedroom floor. Tiny Desk allowed me to get back in touch with her.
I also really enjoyed your ‘Live from the Ryman' EP last year. Is the live setting where people really see the best version of you, where you really excel?
Hmmmmmm. I don't know whether I would say best……. I think there are different versions of me. Historically, performing live I've always seen as being slightly separate from recording and the studio. The way I grew up…… my childhood was very interesting because my parents were twenty years old when they had me, both my grandad's were pastors and I was their first grandchild. Literally, when I was three or four years old, my grandad was putting me up on tables in restaurants and getting me to perform for the entire room because he was so proud of me. In that moment, as a kid, you are going, “oh my god, I can't let my grandad down.'
Because of that there has always been an element of me disassociating that I carried into performing. To be honest, in the past couple of years I've had to work past that and relearn some new truths. I'm at the place now where I'm showing up more, live. Sure, it's an elevated version of yourself because you are high on adrenaline but I'm so much more present and connected with myself and that allows me to be so much more connected with the fans.
‘The Best Thing' is the oldest song you have on Spotify from 2019. How have you changed as a writer and as a person since then do you think?
(laughing) In pretty much every single way! Sometimes I go back and listen to those old songs for fun! Just to see how far I have come. Not only have I grown up, I think I was 19 or 20 when that song came out, I think my understanding of who I am and my perspective on life is so much more refined now.
At the beginning there is a little bit more experimentation. You're looking to work out how you are and what you want to say, seeing what fits and what makes sense. Now, when I'm walking into writing rooms and going into the studio I have so much more of a clear vision of how I want my music to sound and what I want to say. I want to be the kind of artist that starts hard conversations, that allows people to connect – I want to show a lived in vulnerability and rawness and the more I tap into that myself, the better writer and artist I am.
I've learned a lot of lessons and been through a lot but that has made me more sure of what it is I have to say.
Let's do a thought experiment. As you enter your sophomore album cycle with the release of new song, ‘note to self,' let's pretend you have to burn down and get rid of your whole back catalogue, a bit like people do with their Instagram when they start a new project, but you can take one song forward with you from your ‘TWENTY SOMETHING' phase – which song do you choose and why?
Oh my gosh!! This question is stressing me out! Ok, if I had to answer I think I'd have to say ‘amen.' I'm actually surprising myself right now by saying that but that song was a pivotal moment for me and my life. I decided to end the record with it as it was the closest I'd gotten to being able to say, ‘This is who I am,' at that point in my life.
I still have a lot of work to do to figure out who I was when I wrote that song but it's also one of the songs that people tell me changed their lives too. I've had people say that when they heard ‘amen' they wanted to quit their jobs and start all over again, that they wanted to move to different countries – the song gave them the courage to do that and the fact that I can be part of people's lives in that way is mind-blowing to me! People have had it tattooed on their arms, I was writing it on someone's arm just the other day so that they could have it tattooed, so if I have to pick one it would be that one, but don't ask me questions like that! (laughing)
Grab your tickets to see Alana in London, Belfast and Glasgow next week at the C2C festival and keep an eye out on socials for some major announcements about her and her music coming your way very soon!
