Bruce Springsteen's upcoming album, Letter To You was primarily recorded live with the full E Street Band in the studio — thanks to Steve Van Zandt. During a new chat with Uncut, “Little Steven” and the rest of the band shared a private look into the making of the album, which is set for release on Friday (October 23rd).
Van Zandt, who co-produced 1980's The River and 1982's Born In The U.S.A., explained, “(Bruce and I) have an ongoing conversation and one of the regular topics is that if we do make another record, let’s do it the old way. You got a taste of the E Street Band on the recent records, it’s us playing, but it’s not the same as him walking in with an acoustic guitar and saying here’s the song, now everybody contribute ideas and we’ll build it from scratch. That’s quite a different experience. You get it on The River, Born In The U.S.A. — and now you get it on Letter To You.”
Van Zandt went on to say, “It’s the fourth part of an autobiographical summation of his life. . . The book, the play, the films, the albums — they were all fantastic. They were all better than they needed to be. It’s wonderful to see this level of quality of art being made at this age. This rock n' roll generation has changed science. It’s changed the conception of chronological time.”