Not for the first time today,Zach Bryanis making his new friend laugh.
Do I look pompous with my legs crossed?
He was all of six years old whenThe Risingcame out.
On Bryans first two albums, hes backed mostly by acoustic guitar and harmonica, following theNebraskatemplate.
Watch the video interview below
Springsteen:You started playing when you were 14.
Thats young, if Im right.
Bryan:Fourteen, yes, sir.
Springsteen:And you enlisted in the Navy at 17.
Bryan:I still dont!
To this day I have really bad impostor syndrome.
I never had anything else to express myself.
You work so much you never really have time to talk about these things.
Because we would hear your songs, and theyre beautiful and poetic and genius.
Or do you still have the same goal you used to?
Springsteen:Same goal as from when I was 15 to now.
So thats 60 years.
And its basically, Hey, we come out onstage at night, we give everything we have.
This is the last night we may play.
This is the last audience we may see.
Been doing that for 60 years.
Now, let me get this straight.
You didnt do your first public performance till 2019?
Bryan:This is funny because when I was in the Navy … theres a Potbelly subs.
Its like a franchise sub place.
They call me and theyre like, You should come play all day, for nine hours.
So I remember playing that nine hours.
I was just playing covers.
And they gave me a $60 check.
I got it, and I was like, Oh, Im a professional musician now.
Bryan:To us too!
Cause the guys in my band are the same dudes I went to high school with.
So when we see the tour, were like, What happened?
When it comes to your music, its Oh, he wrote Born to Run.
He wrote Dancing in the Dark, like, thats whats going on with Bruce Springsteen.
With us, its like all these random songs that we just threw at a fan.
Springsteen:Its just not reading like that, man.
Bryan:How have you stayed in love with music after being Bruce Springsteen all these years?
Springsteen:Music is not hard to love.
You gotta contextualize and keep the rest of the things that come with it in the right perspective.
Springsteen:Thats the key.
Music is powerful, man.
Bryan:Ive learned that on my journey.
I didnt know how powerful it was until I started.
I didnt want to lose touch with who I was, where I came from.
I thought that these things were essential to my sanity.
Thats my favorite record ever written.
Springsteen:Nebraskahappened as an accident.
I was just trying to save money in the studio.
I had the biggest success Id ever had in 1981.
We had a hit single, Hungry Heart.
Bryan:Im in the exact place right now in my writing and career.
Im like, Oh, wow, I really came out of the gate fast.
Springsteen:You did.
Bryan:Ive really risen fast.
But now, at this point, I cant even catch my own back wind.
Not in a bad way, either.
Springsteen:You gotta listen to your inner voice thats really important.
The strange thing is, I was makingNebraskaandBorn in the U.S.A.at the exact same time.
Ive got the cut Born in the U.S.A.
I know this thing is lightning in a bottle.
Bryan:To the murder, to the serial-killer murderer!
Bryan:Did you feel as dark in your life at that point as those songs sounded?
Or were you more happy about how dark those songs sounded because you were a songwriter?
Ive had to wrestle with depression in my life.
And it was really when I hit a wall at a certain moment, personally.
Springsteen:I was feeling that conflict myself, of being two different people.
Bryan:But that makes you good at it, is whats hilarious.
Springsteen:It gives your work a breadth that is unusual.
Well go in, and well put Born in the U.S.A. on repeat 200 times.
And well see who leaves.
The people who stay around, well hang out with them.
Springsteen:This is crazy, my man.
Bryan:TheNebraskamovie thats coming out, are you part of it?
Are you excited about it?
Springsteen:Ive seen the scripts and Ive talked to the director.
Itll be an interesting story.
Springsteen:Yeah, its an interesting story, and the script is really good.
I feel good about the whole project.
Bryan:Me and the guys [in my band] are geeked, too.
Its all we talked about for two weeks.
Springsteen:The band is really good.
So I was curious where your band came from.
Bryan:So we have the same story, essentially the hometown thing.
It was a really hard process getting out of the Navy.
I didnt even want to get out.
I trust you guys.
You guys can barely play a few instruments.
One of my best friends quit his job as a teacher.
Another quit his job as a metal technician.
We got in my truck and drove to the Iowa State Fair and played our first show.
It was the most terrifying experience of my life.
Because we didnt even rehearse.
Were just like, Lets do this.
Im sure thats not how you got your band members tweeting, right?
Springsteen:I put an ad in the newspaper!
The interesting thing that you said is that you needed people you could trust.
More than you needed somebody who was a professional.
That was the same thing.
My guys all came out of Asbury Park.
It was the guys Id known for years.
They were people I felt comfortable around.
They were people who I knew I could be myself around.
Bryan:My boys call me out all the time.
Springsteen:How deep into your new record are you?
Bryan:Theres 14 songs, but Im not sure how I wanna record a lot of em.
You have a lot to do with it.
Other musicians have a lot to do with it.
Im like, How did they do this?
Springsteen:Where have you been recording the new stuff?
Bryan:Thats whats funny.
Some of them are on my phone and some of them are at Electric Lady.
And some of them are full productions here, and some of them are [recorded in] fields.
Springsteen:Everything youre doing so far is right.
Bryan:Hopefully, it stays that way.
Springsteen:That was literally a song I wrote in two minutes.
Didnt even think about it.
Didnt think it was ever going to be on a record.
And in the studio, theres me playing that Johnny Cash Tennessee Three guitar.
And then theres the synthesizer, and theres Max [Weinberg] playing a bass foot.
I think thats all thats on that record.
Theres nothing on that record.
Wrote it in two minutes.
And if you go to iTunes now, its the number-one favorite song out of every song Ive written.
I wrote that in two minutes!
Bryan:Thats whats crazy about songs.
People will just like what they like.
Springsteen:Do you take a long time to write?
Because the songs are very detailed.
Do you edit out verses?
Bryan:Probably the same as you.
Do you go back and forth between both?
Springsteen:I do.
Bryan:Me too.
Sometimes Ill write a song in two minutes and its Oh, this is going to be great.
And then Ill write a song in three months.
Springsteen:Oh, you will?
Bryan:And then Ill throw it away.
Springsteen:Yeah, thats just the way it is.
I have so many good Zach Bryan lines here that we should get into.
Oklahoman Son: I love that song.
That kind of detail, that night-crawler blood.
Where did that come from?
Bryan:Do you ever think Asbury Park is a small town?
Springsteen:Yeah, I do.
I felt like that last year at a point.
And I wanted to go home so bad after being in New York and Philly for years.
I was like, I gotta go back to Oklahoma.
But theres something really beautiful about Oklahoma, like in the summertime and the green grass.
Same as out here, probably.
Id missed that for a long time.
Thats what Oklahoman Son is about.
I dont want to be a country musician.
I want to be a songwriter.
Springsteen:Once again, the level of detail and the maturity in your writing is just amazing.
Bryan:In Used Cars, you were talking about your mom, shes fingering her wedding band.
Thats where I get stuff like that, is lines from men like yourself.
Did that really happen?
Do you remember being a kid and looking at your mom like kind of messing with her finger?
Springsteen:Where that came from is we always had used cars.
We never had a new car.
The touching of the ring, thats just writing.
Springsteen:Hey, youre a writer.
Thats how it happens, thats how you process information.
That kind of writing for me started when I wrote a song called The River.
OnNebraska,I ended up writing all those detail-filled songs.
RS:Its connected to the country-music songwriting tradition for both of you.
Bruce, youve said in the past that The River came directly from listening to Hank Williams music.
Bryan:Thats where Im at in my own career right now.
Springsteen:you might do whatever you want, man.
Youre in the right place.
Bryan:Thats insane to hear from you…. Theres a lot of country in it.
Bryan:Thats why I dont want to be a country musician.
Springsteen:Thats fascinating.
Bryan:I dont want to be a country musician.
Everyone calls me it.
I want to be a songwriter, and youre quintessentially a songwriter.
Youre all these things encapsulated in one man.
And thats what songwriting is.
Springsteen:No, its interesting.
You bust all those different genre boundaries down.
You were the only person in my head that has ever done that.
Springsteen:Youre carving your own space out.
Youre not going to get locked into one genre or another genre.
Bryan:Were you ever locked in a genre when you first started?
When you first went to Columbia, were they like, Oh, this is a rock musician?
Springsteen:Well, I got signed because I was a singer-songwriter.
The singer-songwriter was huge in 1972.
I got signed to be one of those guys.
Bryan:I love all of those guys.
But did you ever feel a little bit of resentment when you started becoming the, like, guy?
Was there a moment where people were like, Screw this guy?
Springsteen:Whenever you have that level of success, you see everything.
You see it all.
Thats just part of the job description; you got to live with that.
Bryan:Thats beautiful advice, man.
RS: Zach, are you feeling that Fuck that guy energy out there?
Is that why you asked?
I used to, like a year or two years ago.
I was really in my own head.
Im, like, Im less angry with the world now.
I never really understood what I was mad at.
I always had that chip on my shoulder.
People would be like, Whats your deal?
Because I thought everyone was out to get something from me.
Springsteen:Youve got good people around you.
Youve made good choices.
Did you ever combine the two?
Springsteen:All the time.
I mean, you use everything youve seen.
My dad, he was troubled and really hardscrabble blue-collar.
For me as a son, there was something about his pain that I felt I needed to communicate.
I wrote so many songs coming from that place.
Bryan:Thats why I releasedDeAnn; its for my mom.
She had passed away.
I was like, How do I keep her name alive?
I thought songs would keep her name alive forever.
So when you said that, thats beautiful.
The way you just put that is something Ive always searched for.
But you, Zach, have written many of them.
Bryan:Yeah, because moms make the world go round.
I dont care how old you are.
Like, are you serious?
Mothers are the best thing thats ever happened to the world.
They are just as strong as the dudes, and 10 times as smart.
Springsteen:Thats exactly right.
Bryan:Dude, if you cant commend that, youre a coward.
Springsteen:My mother was the strength of our house.
Bryan:Mothers are the strength of every house.
And they always will be.
And its, if our moms didnt exist, none of us would.
I love singing songs about my mom.
If it wasnt for who she was, I wouldnt be who I was.
Same with your father probably, writing all those songs about him.
Youre like, Oh, if I sing this about him, it feels like he might be around.
Springsteen:It was a way that centered our relationship.
He heard things we couldnt talk about, but I could write about in a song.
And then, amazingly enough, I remember I said, Hey, Pops, whats your favorite song?
The ones about me.
Thats what he told me.
RS: There is so much pessimism and division in the U.S. right now.
Springsteen:Big question.
My take on it is its bad, but its going to get better.
Of course, I went all across Europe saying that the last time, and I was wrong.
Its hard to read because sometimes I think, Gee, I led my life a certain way.
It rolled out a certain way, and maybe that has something to do with why I remain hopeful.
And I just think that generationally, I still feel hopeful.
Springsteen:I have absolutely nothing brilliant to say about this, so Im bailing.
Bryan:So, Im 28.
I dont have that much experience.
Im neither one way or the other.
I served my country for eight, nine years.
I think America ebbs and flows, and it always has.
Im tired of everyone arguing.
Its about time people were just thankful to be American.
Cause personally, Im so grateful I get to wake up in a country thats free.
Theres people that have died defending our rights.
Men and women have died for these things, and we just are, like, pissed about what?
Bryan:Being free enough to say everything we feel?
It blows my mind all the time.
And Im just thankful.
Springsteen:Thats as political as were gonna get!
