AI-generated interview qa format analysis of the interview
Explore songwriting, timeless music, and career journeys. Hear insights on creative processes, family influence, and genre boundaries from established and emerging artists. Discover the art of authentic expression.
Published October 16, 2024
Upload your interview recording and get the same detailed AI analysis.
Upload Your InterviewThis interview qa format was automatically generated by AI from the interview transcription. The analysis provides structured insights and key information extracted from the conversation.
Zach Bryan
Complete analysis processed by AI from the interview transcription
Interviewer: Songwriting's hard. Interviewee: No way. I'm just kidding, me too. I don't think I felt really comfortable with the idea that I was writing good songs until I was about 22 or 3 when I came coming up with the songs for my first record, a record called Greetings from Asbury Park.
Interviewer: Do you ever think Asbury Park is a small town? Do you ever feel like no matter where you go, like you were saying earlier, you're always going to have that in your heart and your soul? Period. Period. I feel like everything is trying to be on top of other music, competition-wise when it comes to like awards and things like that. But when I listen to your music, it's like it seems timeless. And I wonder when you were 23 or 24 if you knew that was going to happen, you know? Because that record, Greetings from Asbury Park, we still listen to it to this day as like 20, 25-year-olds and we're like, I still feel like this.
Interviewee: I was acting like I thought it was going to happen, you know, because I didn't have a plan B. I only had plan a which is I'm gonna be a musician our course was our courses were opposite. Because I didn't even want to get out of the Navy. They were making me get out of the Navy and I was like I can't do this.
Interviewer: That's what I've been really curious about is how I didn't have Another life. I had no other real experiences as a musician since I was 14 years old and playing performing live since I was 15, you know, so I was kind of like I was in invested in writing the best music I could and okay with whatever that outcome. That's how I still feel. Yeah, to this day and it's mind-blowing to think like the more you think you're okay with whatever's like happening and you're content with where you're at it seems the bigger it gets and I'm not saying that arrogant it's weird. Columbia Records came to me while I was in the Navy and they're like, hey, you want to go to a steak dinner? And at that point I was in the Navy and I couldn't afford a steak dinner and I was like, hey, at least I get a steak dinner out of this and that sounds like you're stone pony. You're like, ah, whatever happens it.
Interviewee: It was like, hey, I'm gonna do this and whatever the outcome is is what the outcome is going to be but I knew I had to play, I had to write and and whether it was like, you know, we were doing three nights a week in a club in Asbury Park and, you know, bringing home $150 a week or $250 a week and living on that, you know, quite a bit back then.
Interviewer: Yeah. Interviewee: I remember like I was happy, you know, I was happy at the I was like, gee, I was making music for a living, which I didn't know if many other people who were. Now let me get this straight, you didn't do your first public performance till 2019?
Interviewer: This is funny because when I was in the Navy one time, there's a Potbelly Subs, it's like a franchise sub place. They call me and they're like, hey, we do like live music, you should come. Oh, I got it. You should come play all day for like nine hours. So I remember playing that nine hours. I was just playing covers and they gave me a $60 check. I got it. I was like, I'm a professional musician. Oh, I made it. Cool. And that was it for me. That was the only time I performed. And outside of the 2017 maybe?
Interviewer: And you never publicly performed except? Interviewee: No, they threw us into the fire. We played at the pageant and it was like 2,000, 2,500 people and I was like, I can't. There's no way I can do this. And then I did and I was like, oh wait, maybe I can further myself a little bit more and we went a little bigger and bigger and bigger. Now we're here. So it's interesting to hear your mindset on it because
Interviewer: It feels well, what I got mind-boggling is if your first public performance was like 2019 or 2017 and you are selling out two nights at Barclays and in Newark and and you have some stadium gigs coming, don't you? Interviewee: Yep. Interviewer: This is crazy. Interviewee: It's us too, because the guys in my band are the same dudes I went to high school with. So when we see the tour and we're like, what happened?
Interviewer: How long have you been touring? Interviewee: Touring, well, I was signed in 1973, so that's 50 years ago. That was when I got my record deal. Interviewer: It's insane. Interviewee: To think about that, we've been doing it for like four years now. I'm 28, and I'm like, there's no way I can continue on, man. I'm dying. Interviewer: There's no way I can carry on. Interviewee: There's no way, yeah.
Interviewer: There was a quote, I think, in your book. I know with Nebraska, I was interested in making myself as invisible as possible. I just wanted to be another ghost. On that record, it spoke to some need in me. As a result of the success that I had, I needed to know if I could go back and be nobody. Interviewee: Right. My idea was, I'm going to slow this down a little bit.
Interviewer: I'm in the exact place right now in my writing and career. Yeah, I'm like, oh wow, I've really came out of the gate fast. Interviewee: You did. Interviewer: I've really risen fast, unbelievable. But now at this point, I can't even catch my own back wind. Yeah, not in a bad way either. Not like it just feels like I put so much music out, people have read into it so much. But in reality, I was just writing music and these characters and now I gotta slow down and hone in.
Interviewee: You gotta listen to your inner voice, you know, that's really important. And so when Nebraska came along, initially it was just like, I just want to put some songs down. And so I ended up with these, my demos, you know, and then I kept trying to make them better. And every time I tried to make them better, they got worse. Every time I tried to make it sound better, it was worse. I have this, the cut Born in the USA. I know this thing is lightning in a bottle because I can tell. Interviewer: Oh, we know. We know.
Interviewee: Then I have my demos from Nebraska. There's an audience. What my main thing is, I want to do right by them, you know? And, uh, and so I just, the more I kept listening to these to my quote demos, the more I said, this is my next record. And it also, but it also gave me a sense of control over where I was going.
Interviewer: So you wanted to put out a record that you knew wouldn't be a hit to the masses, right? Interviewee: That's right. I felt like that with my last album. Interviewer: That's right. If I produce this pretty kind of weird, people are going to really hate it. And they didn't. No arrogance either. I wanted to slow. Interviewee: That's good. I know it is. I know it is. Interviewer: But I wanted to slow things down enough. And I was inspired by Nebraska and all those things. And I was like, oh, if I just do something weird, all of my country fans, all of my indie fans would just be pissed and be like, who's this guy? And I could control my own life for a second, you know? Did it work with Nebraska? Did it slow things down? Or did it just build that cult?
Interviewee: Well, it did a little bit of what you're both of what you're talking about. It did kind of slow things down in the sense we just put the record out. And I let the record. I said, no, I just want this to be what it is. Had its own voice. I didn't want to put whatever my public persona was at that moment in front of the music. That's right. And so in a way, I always think your records are premonitions.
Interviewer: This is crazy that you're saying that. Interviewee: Yeah, they're premonitions of what's going to be coming up in your consciousness and you're coming up out of your subconsciousness in the immediate aftermath of of what you created. So I did struggle a lot during that period of time and
Interviewer: It probably wasn't normalized because the American bravado attached your music. Interviewee: Yeah, like that. Interviewer: Like manliness attached to all your music. You probably didn't feel like you were you could be comfortable on your own, like mental to... Interviewee: Know. I was feeling that conflict myself of being two different people, you know, and so but that makes you good at it. It's what's hilarious. Well, it it gives you a it gives your work of breath that is unusual, you know, I mean, it was unusual to go from a record like Nebraska and then Born in the USA, which which I knew I knew was gonna be a popular record, but I had no idea it was gonna be what it was, you know, the one thing I say is your band, the band is really good. So I was curious where your band came from.
Interviewer: So we have the same story essentially, like the hometown thing. My music wasn't really that big yet. I hadn't played one live show. So I was like, I was in such a transient moment of my life and I'm like this. Interviewee: Blows my mind. Looking back, I was like, to be here right now is even more mind-numbing. But I, I get home and I call all my best friends from high school who had put all their instruments down, their drums, their guitars, their, and I'm like, hey guys, I need a band. And I don't trust anybody. I don't trust anybody. It's Interviewer: Good, I trust you guys. You guys can barely play a few instruments. And one of my best friends quit his job as a teacher, one of my best friends quit his job as a metal technician, one of my like everyone just quit their jobs and we went, we got in my super duty truck and drove to the Iowa State Fair and played our first show. Oh my god. And it was to this day, I still have PTSD from it. It was the most terrifying experience of my life because we didn't even rehearse. We're just like, let's do this. And there was 1500, 150,000 people there and I'm like, I'm gonna make a fool of myself. And and they only got better and better and my fiddle player, I tweeted out one day in all caps, I go...
Interviewee: Well, it's just I put an ad in the newspaper. Really? Same thing. Interviewer: I tweeted out, I need a fiddle player. This guy's wife sends me DMs. This guy plays a fiddle. I'm like, sure, come along. He's good. Best.
Interviewee: Yeah, the interesting thing that you said is that you needed people you could trust. Interviewer: Oh, we've been we talked about it. Interviewee: Yeah, more than you needed somebody who was a professional. This talented professional. That was the same thing. Hey, my guys, they were people who I felt comfortable around. They were people who I knew I could be myself around and they were people who I knew would keep me being myself.
Interviewer: I bet you have this with the E Street Band too, but every single one of those guys know that I put their friendship and their trust before I put what we're doing on the stage. Interviewee: Yeah. Every night. I find this interesting when I went and came and saw you at the Wells Fargo Center and your band was performing and I have all this history with my band, all these deep stories that are so important to us and like matter so much. Interviewer: Yeah. Interviewer: Like I wonder if you had the same stories outlining all of y'all's relationships and then to see you guys 30, 40 years later. I'm like, this is just how it works.
Interviewee: Yeah, it is how it works. And I'll tell you the first thing that happens, the first thing we do when we get together, we haven't been in a while, you tell stories. Oh, Interviewer: Yeah, that's that's a point of life on the bus. This guy, that guy, what happened to you? You know. Interviewee: And that's been going on for the entire 50 years we've been together because those are the those are the things you have in common.
Interviewer: That's our dream. And at this point, we're like at this quitting tour time. I, I, I wish you as much joy and uh, and adventure and success as we've had. How have you come to sort through what you want your record to sound like now?
Interviewee: Me and the guys, we're always, we're still experimenting. We're like, how do we make something that resonates with us but also will be enjoyed by other people, right? When I first started making music, it was me and my best friend, my best friends in the Navy. And I'd been putting videos online, which is probably different from back in the day, but I was putting them on Twitter and I woke up one morning and had all these shares and I'm like, oh no, what I do. And my buddy Alba, we were on a plane one day and he goes, hey, you have to record these songs. And I'm like, says who? Why me? And like six guys were like, what are we even doing? And, uh, we get into this Airbnb. We obviously were like, six beers in, all of us. We think we're geniuses. We're like, we're gonna be, we're gonna be the next Springsteen. Let's do this. At the time it was a joke. And that's not how we feel now. But like, it was like we were listening to your stuff on the, we're like, so we get into this Airbnb and there's all these beds and couches and we're taking an Airbnb's cushions and like nailing them to the walls and we're like, taping these, we're taping all these mattresses to the walls. And I had nothing to do with it. These are all my friends. They know that I went viral on Twitter and they're like, no, we have to do this. And I'm like, you guys are fucking crazy. And, uh, I end up sitting on this stool in between like a cushion here, a mattress here, a mattress here, and we record 12 songs straight across for 48 hours. We were just drinking beer, smoking cigarettes, and like recording music. And the next day we had all these recordings and, uh, I had them on my phone. I'm like, okay, so what do I do with these? And so I put all this music on the internet, not knowing what was about to happen. And the next week of my life was like, just absolute chaos.
Interviewer: That's mind-boggling. And it Interviewer: was like above all these these number one hits on like on the Apple Music charts and things. I had all these people following me on like social media. I had all these people calling me. I had, I had Columbia Records calling me a week after. Interviewee: Really? This all happened within a month, two months? Interviewer: Yeah.
Interviewer: This is like something I've never heard of. And I went, so we had all these, we had all these cushions and mattresses nailed up on this wall, this Airbnb. We had caused permanent damage to this place. And I'm recording like, um, Godspeed or something. And the owner of the Airbnb walks in. He's like, what are you guys doing? And we're like, nothing, don't worry about it. And to this day, you can go online and look at the Airbnb review. Interviewee: Oh, really? Interviewer: It says, uh, yeah, ZB's a kind, kind guy. Messed up cushions.
Interviewee: There's 14 songs, but like I'm not sure how I want to record a lot of them and I just don't know right now. But this is the first time of my life where I've given my time, myself time, not to know where I'm really thinking about it, you know?
Interviewer: That's what's 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 in fields and some of them are I don't have the, I don't have the, uh, I want to have the state power to be like, I'm gonna make this a studio album and go record it like Born to Run. Or like, uh-huh. Interviewee: Well, you're doing everything you're doing so far is right, so. Interviewer: I know, hopefully it keeps it, hopefully it stays that way. But
Interviewee: Oklahoma's son, I love that song. And what you can't hide where you're from with nightcrawler blood on your cast and thumb. That's good. I appreciate you can fight and fiend and sell your guns, but you'll always be in Oklahoma. But that kind of detail, that night crawler, where'd that come from? Where that, where those lines do?
Interviewer: Do you ever think Asbury Park is a small town? Interviewee: Yeah, I do. Interviewer: Do you ever feel like no matter where you go, like you were saying earlier, you're always going to have that in your heart and your period? Period. I felt like that. I felt like that last year at a point.
Interviewee: The level of detail and the maturity in your writing is just, it's just amazing, you know? And used cars, this guy's, you were talking about your mom, she's, yeah. She's fingering her wedding band. Well, that's, you know, that's where I get stuff like that is is lines from men like yourself, you know? Is that real? Did that really happen? Remember being a kid and looking at your mom like, kind of? Well,
Interviewer: The finger, I mean, some of the detail just came out of being a writer, I think. The the the touching of the ring, that's just it's just writing, you know? Interviewee: It's hard to explain that to people sometimes.
Interviewer: That's where you came up with something like the... Interviewee: Hey, you're a songwriter. You're a writer. That's how it happens, you know? That's how you process information.
Interviewer: When I listen to your music, it's they're pretty much, I'm not insulting your your genre, but when I listen to your music, I'm like, if you put different production to this, it's a country song. All right. Interviewee: Right. There's a lot that's why I don't want to be a country musician. That's fascinating. Interviewer: I don't want to be a country musician. Everyone calls me it. I want to be a songwriter. Yeah. And you're, you're, you're quintessential songwriter. Like no one calls Bruce Springsteen, hate to use your name in front of you, but like no one calls Bruce Springsteen a freaking rock musician. Interviewee: Yeah. Interviewer: Which you are one, but you're also an indie musician. You're also a country musician. Like you're all these things encapsulated in one man. And that's what songwriting is. Yeah. So
Interviewee: It's it's sorry for no, it's it's interesting because I know that you've been connected to the country genre, which I which I can hear. But if you go and see the show, there's so much, and I don't want to call it rock energy, just energy in your performance that you really bust all those boundaries, those different genre boundaries down, you know?
Interviewer: How much was Born in the USA, my hometown, and things derived from your dad, and how much was it derived from, like, paying attention to the people around you? Well, I... Did you ever combine the two? Just kind of... Interviewee: All the time. I mean, you use everything. Everything you know and everything you've seen and have seen. My dad was troubled and lived a really sort of hardscrabble blue collar. There was something about his pain that I felt I needed to communicate. Wow. The body of my work really comes out of a feeling I had for my father's life and my mother's life.
Interviewer: That's why I released Deanne. That's for my mom. Interviewee: Yeah, it's a beautiful song. Gorgeous song for you. Interviewer: But the whole record, she had passed away. And I was like, how do I keep her name alive? Interviewee: Right. Interviewer: That's why I thought songs would keep her name alive forever. Interviewee: That's lovely. Interviewer: Which was cool. And it's not like a sympathetic thing either. I was like, how do I keep her name around my own life forever? And it was that.
Interviewee: That's nice. It was cool. So when you said that. Really lovely. Interviewer: That's beautiful. Yeah. The way you just put that is something I've always searched for. I love singing songs about my mom. So I'm like, if it wasn't who she was, I wouldn't be who I was. Interviewee: Beautiful. Same with your father, probably, writing all those songs about him. You're like, oh, if I sing this about him, it feels like he might be around for, he will be now. Interviewer: Yeah, he is, you know, and it was a way that centered our relationship. And she heard things that we couldn't talk about, but I could write about in a song. And then amazingly enough, you know, I remember I said, hey, Pops, what's your favorite songs? Hmm. The ones about me. That was what he told me.
Interviewee: What were your dad's favorite songs? Interviewer: That's what he said. No, he said the ones about me. That was my dad.
Interviewee: Apart from you, did he ever, when you got when you became a... musician? Interviewer: Yeah. Interviewer: They didn't listen to rock. I mean, they didn't like Sinatra and, you know, uh, and, and my music. Well, as Martin was just saying, really, when I was right about your age, I started to listen to country music, Hank Williams, a lot of Johnny Cash. Interviewee: Because it was huge, right? Interviewer: Yeah. Dylan too? Interviewee: Of course, yeah. Interviewer: Wow. He was an enormous influence, you know. But all these guys were. And really darkness on the age of town, the river, the song, red on the highway from that record. And then Nebraska were really a result of me finally processing my country influences in a way that I felt comfortable with.
Interviewee: Wow, you know. Interviewer: That's that's where I'm at in my own career right now. Interviewee: Yeah, I love country music and I want to like. Interviewer: You can do whatever you want, man. You're you're in the right place. You bet. That's insane to hear from you. Interviewee: We're great, man. It's fucking awesome. I can talk to you all day, man. Easy day.
Upload your interview recording and get the same detailed AI analysis.
Upload Your Interview