‘Springsteen: Save Me from the Unknown’, out October 30th, tells the story of how Bruce created his most audacious album, ‘Nebraska’ (1982)
*By Pedro Hollanda |
Every musical biopic carries a dilemma. The characters portrayed are some of the most famous voices in history, impossible to copy perfectly. However, having the actors simply dub can reduce the viewer’s immersion. Springsteen: Save Me From the Unknownfilm starring Jeremy Allen White which counts as Bruce Springsteen created the album Nebraska (1982), opted for realism.
To record the feature film — which reaches Brazilian audiences on October 30th — White needed to learn to play the guitar and sing as The Boss to do all on-scene performances without dubbing. However, as he said in an interview with Veja, this was not that challenging because of the nature of the disc portrayed.
He explained:
“He sings softly in Nebraskaso it wasn’t that difficult to stay in tune. But I tried really hard to emulate the rustic phrasing of the record.”
Jeremy Allen White’s learning process involved listening to a lot of Bruce Springsteen’s work. Furthermore, headphones were his main influences, such as Bob Dylan, Rolling Stones, Otis Redding, Townes Van Zandt and Sam Cooke.
He had help from his vocal coach Eric Vetrowho previously worked with Austin Butler in Elvis (2022) and Timothee Chalamet in A Complete Stranger (2024), other recent biopics.
The result of all the work can be seen in the film’s soundtrack. The album, which comes out this Friday, the 24th, features the actor singing nine Springsteen songs. There are also three blues covers accompanied by the brothers Jake and Sam Kiszkafrom Greta Van Fleetand vocals by Jay Buchanan (Rival Sons) — White features on two of these three tracks.
Jeremy Allen White learning guitar
The guitar lessons Jeremy Allen White took to play Bruce Springsteen were courtesy of the American singer-songwriter JD Simo. In an interview with the Gibson on YouTube (via Guitar World), Simo spoke about having been a kind of mentor to the actor. He also revealed what advice he gave at the beginning:
“It’s an ocean (playing guitar). Relax and take it one step at a time, because the better your foundation is – the better your hand strength and your finger control – the better you’ll know how to use minimal vocabulary and be able to actually make music with it. That’s just going to make you that much better.”
He says he argued to the actor:
“If you start piling a bunch of stuff on top, you’re just making a shit sandwich. You’re not benefiting yourself. In fact, you’re hurting yourself because you’re actually going to have to unlearn something to be able to fix the mistakes.”
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Bruce Springsteen
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Jeremy Allen White
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Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere
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Springsteen: Save Me From the Unknown
Source: Rollingstone
Earl Johnson is a music writer at Gossipify, known for his in-depth analysis and unique perspective on the industry. A graduate of USC with a degree in Music, he brings years of experience and passion to his writing. He covers the latest releases and trends, always on the lookout for the next big thing in music.
