Springsteen: “I’m a soul miner”

Reflections on the craft of songwriting from New Jersey’s own upon the release of 7 new albums.

A week or so ago, I flagged this New York Times interview: Bruce Springsteen Reveals His Path Not Taken.

“The past always weighs heavy on me,” Bruce Springsteen said on an April afternoon, sitting in the anteroom attached to Thrill Hill, his home studio in New Jersey, where he can make music at any time. “Our pasts have a lot to do with shaping who we are now and the things we’re pursuing. So that is a theme that constantly recurs to me, and I’m always rewriting it, trying to get it right.”

Next Friday, Springsteen will unveil a huge, almost entirely unknown trove of songs from his past on “Tracks II: The Lost Albums.” They reveal musical paths — mostly pensive, occasionally rowdy — that he briefly explored but chose to set aside. Unlike his 1998 collection “Tracks,” a set of demos, alternate versions and unreleased songs dating back to the 1970s, “Tracks II,” with 83 songs, 74 of them previously unreleased in any form, is organized as seven distinct albums.

The article delves deep into Springsteen’s approach to writing songs which to him really is about storytelling. I thought this observation was particularly insightful.

He has gone through yearslong stretches of not writing songs at all, he said. Then he has written whole albums in a matter of weeks. “I’m a soul miner,” he said. “So I’m down in the mine and I’m chipping away. And very often I’m getting nothing, nothing, nothing — more often than not. Nothing, nothing, nothing. And then you hit a vein. And when you hit that vein, Bang! Things come pouring out. And you’ve struck some gold, musical gold. And then you’ll play through that vein. And then you’re back. Nothing, nothing, and you’re looking for another vein.”

It’s a job that he still doesn’t control. “Nobody can explain that moment when you breathe life into the characters in your music, in your songs,” he said. “It comes up deeply from your subconscious and your life experience. And the alchemy of that moment remains a mystery of the mind, soul and heart.”

“I’m a soul miner … the alchemy of that moment [of inspiration] remains a mystery of the mind, soul, and heart.”

I can relate to that experience. I’ll bet all writers can.

You’re digging for inspiration.

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

Then … BANG!

You hit a vein!

After you strike gold and pound out that scene, those pages …

It’s back to nothing, nothing, nothing.

Those outbursts of creativity …

How to get there …

It’s a mystery.

It’s alchemy.

Of the mind, soul, and heart.

Happy mining, fellow writers!

Here’s a new song from Springsteen.

For the rest of the NY Time interview, go here.