Alana Springsteen on Nerding Out to Chappell Roan, Moving Forward After a Tour Bus Fire and Her Next Chapter (Exclusive)

Alana Springsteen's socials paint an image of the country singer living a rock-star lifestyle on the road, but she promises not everything is as it seems.

"You probably watch artists and bands on stage, and you're like, 'God, they're probably so wild,'" she tells PEOPLE. "But we are a bunch of nerds. We are back on the bus listening to Chappell Roan and Sabrina Carpenter, getting pumped up."

After a monumental year of numerous firsts, including her CMA Awards red carpet debut on Nov. 20, Springsteen — one of PEOPLE's 2024 Ones to Watch — says she's built "such a family environment" with her band.

"We have each other's backs," she says. "We've been through some things together now, and it really does feel like a family, and I'm just so grateful for that."

Indeed, in October, Springsteen and her crew faced a major setback when their tour bus caught on fire, destroying their gear and personal items.

"It was definitely a scary situation, but at the end of the day, I think it brought us closer as a team," Springsteen says. "When you go through something like that, you come out on the other side even stronger. I got to see how incredible this community is, too. I had so many artist friends and people reach out just offering their gear for the rest of the year. They were like, 'We're done touring. Whatever you need, let me know.'"

Related: On First Tour, Alana Springsteen Gives Thanks to Her Hero: 'I Wouldn't Be the Artist I Am Without Taylor' (Exclusive) 

Though they had to cancel several tour dates in Texas after the fire, Springsteen and her crew were able to get back on the road the following week.

"It was healing to get back on stage and be where we wanted to be," she says. "We bounced back grateful that God was watching out for us."

Until March, when she goes to Australia for some shows, Springsteen has some time off the road to spend at home.

"I'm already ready to get back out there because I just love touring, but I'm trying to slow down and learn to rest as much as I can," she says. "It's always a weird transition when you go from go, go, go, go, go to being at home and going grocery shopping and just doing all these domestic things."

"I think the biggest thing for me lately has just been learning to be present and create a sense of peace in the midst of chaos," she continues. "This year has been absolutely wild, but in the best way. I've learned so much about myself and had so many incredible experiences, but this time of year is always a really special time to just slow down and reflect and get ready for a whole new chapter."

Related: Alana Springsteen Wants to 'Get It Right' on Part One of Debut Album 'Twenty Something: Messing It Up'

Springsteen gave a taste of her next era with the release of her songs "Cowboy" and "Hold My Beer" on Oct. 18.

"I wanted to introduce this new chapter to my fans and kind of kick it off on a strong note with these two songs, but it's just the beginning," she says. "There's so much more to come next year, and I can't wait to kind of peel back those layers and get into it."

With "Cowboy," "that song, every bit of it is rooted in truth, and maybe at some point I'll dig into more of the story behind that one 'cause it goes deep, but that song is just kind of coming to terms with the fact that I fell into a pattern of just falling for the wrong people," Springsteen says. "It was truly just because I didn't know myself, and I was looking for validation in the wrong places."

As for the cowboy in question? "We are not in touch anymore," she says with a laugh, "which is great and fine. No relationship is perfect, but I'm not settling."

"Hold My Beer," on the other hand, is "kind of the stronger side of it," she says. "That's the confident side of me. I was raised by a really strong woman. My mama is a firecracker, and she taught me my whole life, 'Don't take no for an answer. There's nothing you can't do if you put your mind to it.' And that's a lot of the reason I am where I am today."

Springsteen was raised in Virginia Beach, Va., and knew she wanted to be a singer from the time she "could talk."

"I grew up in my granddad's church — both my grandads are pastors, actually," she says. "So growing up in that environment, constantly being on stage with my dad, who led worship, and learning harmonies from the people sitting next to me, music was just in my blood. My dad was also just a lover of music in general, always had music on in the car, in the house, whether it was Michael Jackson or Shania Twain or Van Halen, it was just such an eclectic mix."

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When she was 9, Springsteen wrote her first song, titled "Fairy Tale."

"Very fitting for me; I've been a romantic my whole life," she says. "I was writing love and breakup songs before I even knew what those words meant. But that particular song was about my parents' love story, how they met and how they fell in love."

At the age of 10, Springsteen moved with her family to Nashville in pursuit of her music dreams. "I knew enough to know that country music was here and that's where I needed to be if I wanted to be an artist and be a country music artist," she says.

By 14, she had her first publishing deal.

"I started writing songs five days a week, like a job," she says. "Learning from songwriters who had written hits was just incredible. I learned that the most important thing is communicating your truth in the most honest way you can. That was the turning point for me: When I started getting really, really personal and honest and not chasing what anybody else was doing, but just writing my truth, that's when I started to really connect with people and find my community."

In August 2023, Springsteen released her debut album Twenty Something, made up of three installments: Messing It Up, Figuring It Out and Getting It Right. Springsteen says hearing fans sing her lyrics back to her on tour was "so healing."

"It's like a therapy session," she says. "We have our party songs and our fun songs and we like to keep the energy up, but a lot of those songs were so personal."

Take, for example, her track "Chameleon," inspired by her mom's nickname for her.

"My mom has called me chameleon in kind of a joking way, but it's deeper than that," she says. "My whole life I've kind of been a shapeshifter, and I learned to fit the mold of what people needed me to be, wanted me to be. I wrote that song about that truth and learning to just be myself and to be okay with whether they accept me or not. Singing that song live is still one of my favorite moments in the set 'cause I look out and I see girls that are just like eyes closed, singing the lyrics like it's their anthem."

Twenty Something also features hits like "Ghost in My Guitar" featuring Chris Stapleton and "Goodbye Looks Good on You" featuring Mitchell Tenpenny. Over the summer, Springsteen was surprised by tour mate Luke Bryan with the news that "Goodbye Looks Good on You" had been RIAA GOLD-certified.

"I think it was one of the first nights on tour this past year, and he just walked into the room and was like, 'I got a surprise for you,'" she recalls. "He's always brought me the best news. He was the one that surprised me with my Opry debut way back before we even met. So it was just a really fun thing to experience that and to celebrate that and then get to go out on stage that night and announce it to the crowd."

More milestones have followed since, namely a No. 1 on the Billboard dance/mix show airplay chart for her Tiësto collaboration "Hot Honey," which was released in July.

"It was definitely a pinch-me moment," Springsteen says. "It's so funny the way life surprises you. If you had asked me, I would've never guessed that my first No. 1 at radio would've been on the dance charts. But I think it just goes to show you how far-reaching the country music genre is and how people in all different genres all over the world are being inspired by it."

In fact, Tiësto's wife Annika Backes was the one to suggest Springsteen for the job of doing the vocals on the track.

"His wife was actually a really big fan of my voice and my music and had been following me for a long time, so when he was looking for somebody to do this song with, she was like, 'You should ask Alana,'" she says. "So he sent it to me earlier on this year, and I fell in love with it. I immediately related to the story side of it. I've been known to set fire in my love life on a regular basis, so I immediately found myself in this song."

Related: Alana Springsteen Leans into Her Country Side by Learning to Fish — and Recently Caught a 'Big' One (Exclusive)

To shoot the flame-heavy music video, Springsteen says they filmed from 6 p.m. until sunrise, and she "almost got set on fire multiple times, but it was worth it."

On Friday, Dec. 6, Springsteen released her latest project, Alana Springsteen: Live from NPR’s Tiny Desk. The four-track EP was recorded live from her summer session on NPR Music’s Tiny Desk Concert series.

"I've never been intimidated by a desk before, but walking in there, it was definitely one of those moments," she says. "But truly the stars of that were my band. There's no editing. They don't even amplify any of the instruments or voices, so you just have to play as a band and make space for each other, which is part of the reason that it's so special and it is what it is."

Though Springsteen can't say definitively when she'll put her next album out, she promises "a lot more music will be coming in 2025." She's also going on tour with Keith Urban in the new year.

"He's been a hero of mine since I was 9, sitting in front of my CD player, trying to learn his guitar riffs, and just one of the kindest human beings," she says. "I just know it's going to be such an incredible tour. I'm also going to make my Stagecoach debut next year, which is going to be awesome. That's been a goal of mine for a long time, so we're going to try to really bring it for that show. It's going to be a crazy year!"

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