Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere Filmed at Berklee NYC's Power Station

Berklee NYC is on the big screen. Power Station, the iconic recording studio, is featured in Scott Cooper's Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere, a biopic that stars Jeremy Allen White as Bruce as he works on his sixth studio album, Nebraska. The film opens in theaters today.

As one of the last remaining large-format recording studios in NYC, Power Station has played a significant role in music history, hosting sessions for so many iconic artists including Chic, Diana Ross, David Bowie ’99H, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, John Mayer ’98, Tony Bennett ’74H and Lady Gaga, Norah Jones, esperanza spalding ’05 ’18H, and the Hamilton cast, among countless others. The studio also played a part in Springsteen's history—it's where the Boss recorded Born to Run and The River, cornerstones of his storied career. 

Production initially reached out in August 2024, says Hayley Isaacson, Power Station studio manager, to gather inspiration for recreating the space on a soundstage. "They were shocked to find out that the studios had been basically untouched since the ’80s, and looked almost identical to as they would have looked when Bruce was recording Nebraska." After swapping out some modern technology for more period-appropriate options, the production took over the building's four floors and five studios for a week over winter break in December. 

Studio operations lead Matthew Soares ends up on screen as a "tape op"—the person who runs the tape machine—in the recording scenes. He calls the experience "surreal," sharing how he was there to also assist with actual production audio needs, like changing patch cables between takes "in costume . . . to then sit back down right there in the scene instead of hiding like I normally would."

In a scene where the group is celebrating getting a good-sounding master, Jeremy Strong (who plays producer Jon Landau) "was actually playing random songs for us to evoke a more natural response, rather than hearing the same song over and over and trying to 'act' like something is new," Soares recalls. When Strong put on Toto's "Africa," Soares "100 percent ruined the take . . .  I air-drummed the solo going into the first chorus because I didn’t realize why that song was playing, and how can you not play along to that solo?"

Watch a behind-the-scenes look into the production of Deliver Me from Nowhere:

While its musical legacy is long, Power Station is also relevant and critical to the NYC music ecosystem today, hosting large-scale recordings from film scores to Broadway cast albums to big bands, as well as album productions leveraging the legendary room acoustics, sight lines, and unique capabilities. Recent projects include Big Thief's Double Infinity, David Byrne’s Who Is the Sky?, Stella Cole’s It’s Magic, and music for the global megahit KPop Demon Hunters. It's also been host to other film crews, including the just-released concert video with Spotify to celebrate the 30th and 20th anniversaries of Shakira's albums Pies Descalzos and Oral Fixation volumes 1 and 2.