How The Lumineers’ Jeremiah Fraites Stayed Away From “Overly Polished Sound” For His ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’ Score – Sound & Screen Film

How The Lumineers’ Jeremiah Fraites Scored ‘Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere’

Jeremiah Fraites, pianist and co-founder of The Lumineers, explained his approach to scoring the biopic Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere, a film directed by Scott Cooper and starring Jeremy Allen White.

Connections to Bruce Springsteen

Fraites shares a New Jersey background with Bruce Springsteen, having lived there for 24 years. Before working on the film, he covered Springsteen’s song “State Trooper” for the launch of Warren Zanes’ book, which inspired the movie. This connection brought Fraites to the attention of both Cooper and Zanes.

Approach to the Score

At the 2025 Sound & Screen Film event at UCLA’s Royce Hall, Fraites discussed his process and vision for the soundtrack. He focused on capturing the raw, minimalist feel of Springsteen’s album Nebraska rather than creating an overly polished musical score.

“I had expressed a great deal of interest in scoring this film. I had written some demos, and I thought a lot about how I want to attack the score. I think I thought more about what I wanted not to do versus what I wanted to do, and I wanted to stay away from an overly polished sound.”

Using a Unique Instrument

To achieve the desired sound, Fraites used a "crummy upright piano" nicknamed “Firewood” located in his home in Denver. He described the piano tuner who works on this instrument:

“Long story short, I have a piano tuner in Denver, Colorado. He’s originally from Los Angeles, and many years ago, he was tuning my piano. And I said, ‘Michael, what do you think of this piano?’ It’s my favorite piano.”

This choice helped maintain the authentic, raw tone that reflects the spirit of Springsteen’s Nebraska album throughout the film’s score.

Author’s summary: Jeremiah Fraites crafted the Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere score by embracing minimalism and an authentic sound, avoiding polish to honor the spirit of the original Nebraska album.

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Deadline Deadline — 2025-11-07

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