Bruce Springsteen is, of course, the musical focus of the newly released film Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, adapted by director and screenwriter Scott Cooper from Warren Zanes’ book, with Jeremy Allen White starring as The Boss. But astute viewers will see some other familiar, and perhaps surprising, rock ‘n’ roll faces in the production.
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Scenes depicting Springsteen joining a “local” band at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, New Jersey, feature an all-star lineup assembled by the film’s music producer, Dave Cobb. The band is led by Jay Buchanan of Rival Sons and includes Greta Van Fleet’s Jake Kiszka on guitar, Sam F. Kiszka on bass, keyboardist Bobby Emmett from Jack White’s band, and Nashville drummer Aksel Coe.
Their gut-bucket renditions of Little Richard’s “Lucille” and John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom,” both performed with White and recorded at New York City’s Power Station, are featured on the soundtrack, set to release Dec. 5, along with a non-movie rendition of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You.”
It captures the Greta guys during a bit of down time for the band. Sam Kiszka has been producing, working with artists like Langhorne Slim and Hannah Wicklund, while Jake launched a new group, Mirador, with Chris Turpin of Ida Mae. Their self-titled debut came out in September, followed by a tour, with a European leg starting Nov. 3 in Amsterdam.
The random casting begs the question: what are these guys doing in a film about Bruce Springsteen? Luckily, Jake Kiszka was on hand to tell Billboard how it all came together.
Have you seen yourselves on the big screen yet?
I haven’t, man, but we want to get back to Michigan and take my grandma to the cinema that she took us to as kids to watch it. I can’t wait for that.
So how did it happen?
It’s interesting. It began through Dave Cobb; he produced the last Greta album (2023’s Starcatcher) and was helping me produce this current Mirador record. We were sitting around on the dock out by the water at his house in Savannah (Georgia) and he said, “I’ve just been working on this Deliver Me From Nowhere film about Nebraska and Springsteen,” and he said the director, Scott Cooper, was looking for a young band who could be the house band for the Stone Pony during this era of Springsteen. And Scott said, “I’m really looking for a young, sort of hop rock ‘n’ roll band like Greta Van Fleet.” And Dave’s like, “Well, I know someone… Why don’t we just ask those guys?” He as me and then he needed a bass player and guitar player, so Sam and I sort of stepped up to the plate. That’s how it began.
Not something you say “no” to.
Definitely. It was completely unexpected, but there’s been so many opportunities like this that come across through the grapevine. A lot of this stuff it’s like, “OK, that’s cool, but we’re touring” or doing a record, whatever we’re busy with at the time. This came through and it was like, you definitely can’t say no to this because Bruce Springsteen is such a big influence on us. This is definitely not something we had foreseen happening, but it was irresistible. It was a fascinating thing to do, the intersection between film and cinema meets music.
What was the sequence of events as you got into the project?
The first step was recording. We went to the Power Station in New York, where (E Street Band attempts at) Nebraska and a lot of the Springsteen stuff was recorded, and we did the whole thing there. Jeremy came in as well. It was really rough and tumble; we maybe got two or three passes on each song. The idea was we were gonna record (more) at the Stony Pony while we were filming, so we were under the impression of, “OK, let’s give this a go, git it our best, and ultimately have another go at it when we’re on the set and filming.”
Which wound up not being the case?
What happened is Bruce heard what we had recorded (in the studio) and he was so enamored with it and loved it so much that Scott Cooper decided we were gonna use those recordings from the Power Station in studio, which is quite cool.
What were your impressions of working with Jeremy on a musical level?
It was interesting for him because he’s an actor, so this was a totally different world. And he blended into it so well. I think he had reservations about stepping onto that (music) world, maybe some subtle level of intimidation. I know I was certainly intimidated when I walked onto the film set, and he was probably just swimming. But he did some live vocals, which is incredible; Jay is obviously just a remarkable rock ‘n’ roll singer, so Jeremy came in and stood next to jay, and it was impressive to see him step up to the plate fearlessly like that.
Did you give him any pointers during the process?
Being able to show Jeremy how to play harmonic was really interesting and cool. I was kind of asked by (Cobb) if I could teach Jeremy a bit of harmonica for the film, so I bought him a chromatic scale of harps to use. I’m not entirely proficient as most harmonica players, but I knew enough from my father playing blues harmonica, so I was able to show him some stuff.
What was filming at the Stone Pony like?
That was really incredible. What was really interesting was we had played the Stone Pony; Greta had done the outdoor summer venue (May 18, 2019), so it was interesting coming back and knowing the place and history. We’ve done late-night television and stuff like that, but this was a very different experience. Being there on this major motion picture set, this big production with Bruce Springsteen hanging around on set and Steven Spielberg coming by and Danny Clinch shooting (photographs), it was like an alternative universe. Ultimately it was quite overwhelming.
You got to hang with Springsteen?
He was just there on set. He was going to catering and stuff, hanging out with everybody, with the extras and us. It was a really casual experience. He was really humble and sort of exceeded expectations of meeting one of your heroes… just the most beautiful and incredible human being. There was a lot of time on the set I got to talk to him… about Nebraska and his career and early life. It was an unreal experience.
Were there any nuggets of wisdom or insight you took away from it?
I suppose so. We talked about Nebraska a lot. It’ s my favorite Bruce Springsteen record, so I was talking to him about recording demos… and how they tried to re-record (the songs) with the E Street Band and they couldn’t recapture the magic of the demos. That was really fascinating, that the record is just that demo. It’s just unbelievable. So certainly a takeaway for me was that they don’t all have to be polished records. You don’t need to get something perfect; sometimes it’s about the humility of it, the purity of it. That stuck with me.
Sam has a speaking line in the movie. Did you play rock, paper, scissors for that?
That was interesting. Scott was like, “Hey, we’re gonna shoot this scene, you’re leaving (the Stone Pony) with Bruce. You want to hang out, maybe play next week. Just shoot the shit. Make up the lines” — improvise, basically. We had no idea what we were we gonna say. It was me and Jay and Sam, and (Cooper) was like, “Action! We’re rolling,” and we were just flying by the seat of our pants. Whatever came out came out. I don’t know what made the film yet.
You’re going from the film to back on the road with Mirador in Europe. Are you happy with the way things are going for that band?
It’s been really incredible. I’ve been somewhat overwhelmed by the response — and so immediately as well. The shows are sold out. There’s that kind of intensity and fuel that has fanned the fire of Mirador in someways that’s really elevated the band and the performances. It’s happening with leaps and bounds rather than inching its way forward. So I’m quite happy with it — astounded, actually. We’ll probably record another record within the year, or next year. Definitely between Greta and Mirador, there’s a lot going on.
What’s next for Greta?
This next year is going to be exciting and filled to the brim with surprises. There’s something stirring. The curtain will fall and the black smoke will rise and… that’s all I can say right now.
