{"id":435537,"date":"2026-05-06T18:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T18:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/435537\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T18:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T18:22:14","slug":"noah-kahan-became-a-superstar-by-being-himself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/435537\/","title":{"rendered":"Noah Kahan became a superstar by being himself"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m fishing with\u00a0Noah Kahan<\/a>, and things are looking pretty bleak. We\u2019re at a farm an hour west of Nashville, standing in front of a pond, casting our respective rods and waiting patiently. It\u2019s a perfect day for fishing \u2014 an afternoon in early April, not too windy, the sky so clear and blue its reflection bounces off the water. But so far, nothing\u2019s biting. Still, Kahan remains hopeful, as a camera crew looks on. \u201cIf we catch tilapia,\u201d the 29-year-old songwriter says, \u201cwe\u2019ll go viral as fuck.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the minutes tick by, that seems less and less likely. Kahan works the line firmly, wearing faded blue Levi\u2019s, a button-down flannel, and suede boots. \u201cI feel like my team\u2019s been dressing me more and more in cowboy-looking stuff, and they\u2019re eventually going to have to accept that I\u2019m not even close to a cowboy,\u201d he says. His shoulder-length brown hair matches his rugged beard. If you were thinking about poking fun of Kahan\u2019s look on social media, rest assured he\u2019s beat you to it. \u201cJesus Christ,\u201d \u201cDepressed Keanu Reeves\u201d and \u201cJewish Capaldi\u201d are just some of the nicknames he\u2019s given himself over the years. (Kahan took a break from Twitter, but recently returned, which he likens to \u201cLeBron coming back to Cleveland.\u201d)<\/p>\n

This self-deprecating charm is part of Kahan\u2019s appeal, and one reason among many that millions of listeners fell hard for the Vermont-raised songwriter back in 2022. That\u2019s when he broke through, seemingly out of nowhere, with \u2018Stick Season\u2019, written after he\u2019d moved back home to his parents\u2019 property in Strafford during the pandemic (he now splits his time between Vermont and Nashville). The highly addictive folk-pop song \u2014 which grapples with heartbreak amid that grim, lifeless in-between period in the Northeast, after the fall foliage and before the first snowfall \u2014 blew up on TikTok.<\/p>\n

\u2018Stick Season\u2019, and the album of the same name, earned Kahan a\u00a0Best New Artist Grammy\u00a0nomination and a musical guest spot on\u00a0Saturday Night Live. Soon, he started selling out arenas, where fans would shout and sob along to his songs \u2014 deceptively simple melodies with intricate lyrics that are simultaneously ultra-specific and highly relatable, often about love, mental-health struggles, and the joys and frustrations of growing up in a small town.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s refreshing to me that someone like Noah has become a superstar, because he\u2019s the anti-idol,\u201d says producer (and co-founder of the National)\u00a0Aaron Dessner, who\u2019s worked with Kahan. \u201cHe\u2019s not seeking it. He\u2019s far more gifted than anyone might really know unless you\u2019ve been up close to hear him sing. He\u2019s one of the most brilliant songwriters we have today, and we should make a lot of records.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Noah<\/p>\n

Noah Kahan on the digital cover of Rolling Stone UK (Picture: Danny Clinch)<\/p>\n

\u2018Stick Season\u2019 helped turn Kahan into a big name and a hero throughout New England (in addition to his native Vermont, he\u2019s also lived in New Hampshire and, later, Massachusetts, and even has a collaboration with L.L. Bean). But he\u2019s a different kind of superstar \u2014 a down-to-earth and delightful human who exudes everyman energy, and whose idea of a good time is hanging out with his two German shepherds and smoking weed. It\u2019s almost as if your sweet, stoner neighbour accidentally got famous but still invites you over for Taco Bell on Tuesday nights (specifically to consume the Crunch Wrap Supreme, \u00adKahan\u2019s favourite). So it\u2019s not totally surprising that Kahan found that fame took some getting used to, and that success doesn\u2019t fix everything. \u201cEvery clich\u00e9 about music has proven so true for me,\u201d he says. \u201cLike, \u2018You can get everything you want, and it\u2019s still not going to do it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

It was here, on the 183 acres that make up Fire Tower Farm, that Kahan recorded a portion of his new album,\u00a0The Great Divide<\/a>, which just debuted at Number One on the Billboard 200 chart. The record \u2014 produced by Dessner, Kahan, and Kahan\u2019s\u00a0Stick Season\u00a0collaborator Gabe Simon \u2014 shows off his knack for visceral storytelling, while offering a front-row seat to Kahan\u2019s inner monologues about, among other topics, his relationships, from childhood and now, and his forever ties to his home state. The time he spent making the album wasn\u2019t entirely tranquil; it was, in fact, a bit terrifying.<\/p>\n

But before we get to any of that, Kahan wants to reel one in. It doesn\u2019t help that the first two rods I used were dysfunctional, or that an island of moss is barricading us from the vertebrates (each time I reel in soggy greens, Kahan says something reassuring like, \u201cYou do the salad, I\u2019ll do the protein!\u201d or \u201cIt\u2019s called fishing, not catching!\u201d). Kahan has been fishing for most of his life, but he got more into it during the pandemic, when his brother Richard bought \u201ca shitty old boat.\u201d Drinking beers and catching fish with family and friends, Kahan was able to do something he finds more and more difficult these days: relax.<\/p>\n

After nearly an hour, we concede that it\u2019s just not going to happen. The crew stops filming, preparing to relocate to another area on the farm. But Kahan lingers behind at the pond, determined to win. \u201cForget the interview,\u201d he says. \u201cI want to see you catch a fish.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Noah<\/p>\n

Noah Kahan (Picture: Danny Clinch)<\/p>\n

To be well-versed in Kahanology, you should know that it\u2019s pronounced\u00a0Kahn, not\u00a0Ka-han. \u201cI just say one of the A\u2019s is silent,\u201d Kahan says. \u201cYou can choose which one.\u201d Secondly, you should get acquainted with some of the imagery in his songs. Kahan loves to write about porches (\u2018Porch Light\u2019, \u2018American Cars\u2019, \u2018We Go Way Back\u2019, \u2018All Them Horses\u2019), ghosts (\u2018Halloween\u2019, \u2018Your Needs, My Needs\u2019, \u2018The Great Divide\u2019) and drinking (too many to name).<\/p>\n

On\u00a0The Great Divide,\u00a0bugs creep into everything. Kahan teased the record back in December 2025, with the TikTok account The Last of the Bugs, which is a line from his 2022 song \u2018The View Between Villages\u2019. The Last of the Bugs almost became the title of the new album, but Kahan felt it was a little too esoteric (he did use it to title the expanded edition). The insects appear as a motif in the new songs, particularly the slow-burning opener, \u2018End of August\u2019 and the tender finale, \u2018Dan\u2019, a bookend for the 17-track journey.<\/p>\n

Bugs have always been a good omen for Kahan. His mom, Lauri, used to call him her \u201clittle bug,\u201d and he kept finding ladybugs around Fire Tower Farm while making\u00a0The Great Divide,\u00a0which reaffirmed his belief that he was in the right place after some rough patches early in the process for\u00a0The Great Divide. \u201cBugs represent these things that go away but return,\u201d he says. \u201cIn the winter, I was in that cold feeling, where there\u2019s nothing around and nothing\u2019s alive. And when I started feeling happier and creative again, I felt like I could hear the beetles and the crickets. They started to return for the spring, so I see them as a metaphor for what I\u2019m going through in my life.\u201d (As we\u2019re having this conversation, a ladybug appears on my shoulder.)<\/p>\n

Bugs also appear on \u2018Downfall\u2019, a devastating, soulful plea for a loved one to fail so they return home. \u201cTell me when you miss the climb from a hole that has no bottom\u201d is a line that resonates with Dessner. \u201cThere\u2019s these phrases that he says which capture human suffering in a way that is so relatable and also clever, [but] feels uncontrived,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can just tell it just comes out of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of Kahan\u2019s musical heroes,\u00a0Bon Iver\u2019s Justin Vernon, contributes backing vocals and banjo on the track, and plays electric guitar and more on several others. They met at a music festival in Iowa in 2023, but Vernon sent his contributions remotely. \u201cHe\u2019s such a mythical figure in my head that it\u2019s cool to have him just float into my songs,\u201d Kahan says. \u201cIt\u2019s like a mysterious wood person will lay down guitar and I won\u2019t see it, but it\u2019ll come through email and I\u2019ll be like, \u2018Oh, my God, this is him\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vernon famously made Bon Iver\u2019s 2007 indie classic\u00a0For Emma, Forever Ago\u00a0while secluded in a cabin outside his hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin. After \u2018Stick Season\u2019 changed his life, Kahan craved that kind of isolation and focus for himself. \u201cIt felt like the way I\u2019ve always wanted to make music,\u201d he says. \u201cHaving him be a part of this process made me feel more connected. [Because] there were more eyes on all of it, and more pressure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Noah<\/p>\n

Noah Kahan (Picture: Danny Clinch)<\/p>\n

This pressure nearly prevented a new Noah Kahan album from happening at all. Ever since his tour wrapped in September 2024, the idea of following up\u00a0Stick Season\u00a0consumed him. \u201cRight after the tour, I was just sick of it,\u201d he says. \u201cThis thing that\u2019s supposed to be so fun and so rewarding is becoming tiring and making you anxious all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kahan started to rethink his career, searching for other ways to spend his next few years while he figured things out. He thought about enrolling in psychology classes at a community college, and even got fingerprinted to be a substitute teacher. At one point, he considered becoming a groundskeeper at a golf course, repairing divots. \u201cI thought that would be such a therapeutic thing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

In late 2024, Kahan made the first of four visits to Dessner\u2019s Long Pond Studio. Located in upstate New York, it\u2019s a woodsy, cosy spot that Dessner describes as \u201ca weird combination of a church and garage.\u201d Dessner\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9, which includes co-founding one of the most prominent indie bands of this century and production credits for several A-list stars, made Kahan nervous. \u201cI was Wikipedia-ing it before I got there,\u201d he says. \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh, my God, this guy\u2019s such a legend. He\u2019s done Bon Iver and Taylor and Gracie and all these artists that I really admire. But Aaron is the coolest dude ever. He understood where I was at, and how I was struggling and feeling burnt out. He was really receptive to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Noah<\/p>\n

Noah Kahan (Picture: Danny Clinch)<\/p>\n

The sessions were productive, even if Kahan wasn\u2019t necessarily expecting them to be. \u201cThere\u2019s something about the energy [at Long Pond],\u201d Dessner says. \u201cAnd maybe it\u2019s because I\u2019ve been in the band forever and made a lot of other records with other people [who] have been struggling, but when he came, I felt that he was where he needed to be.\u2026 The first thing he said when he walked in was like, \u2018Hey, I\u2019m excited to hang out, but I really don\u2019t think we\u2019re going to make any songs because I don\u2019t know what I could possibly say. I\u2019ve just been so burnt out and kind of lost.\u2019 But within less than an hour, we\u2019d written \u2018Porch Light\u2019. It felt instantaneous in that way \u2014 this river of ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n

But everything came to a halt in March 2025, when Kahan headed out West, to Joshua Tree, California, to write. He\u2019s taken to calling the trip \u201cmy infamous Joshua Tree OCD meltdown.\u201d Kahan found himself in an Airbnb completely made of glass, lonely as hell. \u201cJoshua Tree was horrible,\u201d he says, now sitting beside a fire in the farmhouse\u2019s backyard. \u201cI can\u2019t even tell you how\u00a0not\u00a0better I felt after going there. I was trying to live in a romantic comedy, where I would find myself ingratiated in a small town and I could just \u00addisappear, Dave Chappelle-style. Not at all how it happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kahan struggled to get through each day, let alone write any new material. He had what he describes as a \u201cpretty severe episode\u201d of terrifying intrusive thoughts. \u201cI was convinced something was happening that was not happening, or that I had said something that I just didn\u2019t say,\u201d he says. \u201cI could convince myself that I ran somebody over, knowing for a fact that I didn\u2019t see another person on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kahan found the thoughts even too horrifying to Google, for fear that his searches would ring alarm bells. And he didn\u2019t vocalise them to anyone. \u201cThe stigma of even saying, \u2018Oh, I think I might have run somebody over last night,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThe first response would be like, \u2018Oh, my God, maybe you did!\u2019 It was a really tricky feeling and really isolating, because I didn\u2019t want to sound crazy.\u2026 I couldn\u2019t remember conversations and days of my life, because I had been so caught in this tangle of thoughts.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a virtual session with his therapist, Kahan was diagnosed with OCD. I tell him that I\u2019ve suffered with this for most of my life, and that being diagnosed with it can be jarring at first. Kahan says his \u201cstrain\u201d consists mostly of intrusive thoughts rather than physical compulsions. \u201cIt was surprising,\u201d he says. \u201cI was under the influence of the idea that OCD was like, \u2018I need to wash my hands a hundred times.\u2019 But I didn\u2019t realise how much more there was to it. I started putting all these pieces together from my childhood, and these different rituals I\u2019ve had my whole life. It wasn\u2019t just anxiety or being stressed. It was this real insidious disorder that I was struggling with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still out in Joshua Tree, Kahan called his manager, Drew Simmons. \u201cI was like, \u2018Dude, I just don\u2019t know if I can do this,\u2019\u201d he remembers saying. \u201cHe had just signed Chappell Roan. So he was very familiar [with artists facing pressure] and really kind in that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking back, Kahan acknowledges that the Joshua trees themselves \u2014 many over a century old \u2014 are pretty cool. But he knew he had to get home. \u201cWherever you go, there you are,\u201d he says. \u201cYou cannot leave behind what\u2019s going on in your head no matter how far away you travel, or how beautiful your surroundings are. I felt more trapped in those settings because I was searching so desperately, instead of just allowing life to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gabe Simon has a memory from 2022, when he and Kahan were tracking \u2018The View Between Villages\u2019, the closer on\u00a0Stick Season.\u00a0\u201cHe was depressed and stressed out and OCD on TikTok about getting \u2018Stick Season\u2019 to go viral.\u201d\u00a0 Simon had to resort to drastic measures, especially when Kahan wanted to go into the control room. \u201cHe wanted to delete everything,\u201d the producer\/co-writer says. \u201cI told my engineer, \u2018I need you to lock that room right now.\u2019 I wasn\u2019t trying to be a dick \u2014 I\u2019m doing my job. And my job is to help him be the best version of himself.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unsurprising that Kahan\u2019s OCD also showed up while making\u00a0The Great Divide.\u00a0He worried his new album would suck, and that his fans were starting to forget about him. (He was wrong on both counts, thankfully.) He\u2019d ask his wife, Brenna Nolan, and his mom for reassurance that he was on the right path. Golfing, once a peaceful hobby for Kahan, had become what he describes as a \u201csadistic thing\u201d he began to do compulsively.<\/p>\n

But following his disastrous trip to Joshua Tree, Kahan got back on medication. \u201cProzac and I did not have a good relationship,\u201d he says. \u201cZoloft and I had an OK relationship. But Lexapro and I fell in love.\u201d He felt instantly happier, and he was able to finally put aside his longtime fear that meds would blunt his creativity. \u201cI was like, \u2018Music aside, I just need help,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I felt more creative than ever before, and had new energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s in the healthiest place he\u2019s ever been,\u201d Simon says. \u201cAnd all these mental-\u00adhealth challenges, they\u2019re his superpowers. It\u2019s what connects him to people in the world. Not that he\u2019s perfect, but because he\u2019s so absolutely fucked in many ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Noah<\/p>\n

Noah Kahan (Picture: Danny Clinch)<\/p>\n

With more trips to Long Pond and Fire Tower Farm throughout 2025,\u00a0The Great Divide\u00a0began to take shape. At Fire Tower he could fish, ride dirt bikes, hike, and visit the animals \u2014 a Great Pyrenees dog named Buttermilk, two Scottish Highlander cows called Bessie and Clarabelle, and three donkeys \u2014 and get in a good headspace to create. It wasn\u2019t exactly like his parents\u2019 property in Vermont, where he grew up with his three siblings and wrote \u2018Stick Season\u2019, but it would do just fine. (Kahan noted the serendipity in the fact that the dirt bike he rode at the farm happened to have the number plate 802, Vermont\u2019s area code.) \u201cComing here made it seem like I was making music as a hobby again, which was how I always did it,\u201d he says. \u201cI couldn\u2019t get back to myself in the same exact way. I knew that that was over. But this allowed me that middle ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

You can feel Kahan finding himself again on uptempo rockers like \u2018American Cars,\u2019 a standout he wrote for his sister, Sasha, about how she\u2019s the problem solver in the family. It\u2019s Kahan dipping his toes into heartland rock, like John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen. (It\u2019s not crazy to envision a future in which Kahan plays Farm Aid.) \u201cHeadlights, your plates\/4CB3A\/Didn\u2019t know you drove American cars,\u201d he sings. \u201cRay-Bans on your face\/You\u2019ve been drivin\u2019 all day\/But you\u2019re here, and we\u2019re so grateful you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Simon, it highlights Kahan\u2019s strengths as a songwriter. \u201cEverybody knows what a license plate is, but not everybody needs to call out all the numbers on it,\u201d he says. \u201cBut he does. He feels the need to give you those details. It\u2019s like listening to an audiobook. I don\u2019t know how he does it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later that afternoon, we\u2019re walking around Fire Tower, feeding the donkeys \u2014 \u201cMr. and Mrs. Donkey, but I think they\u2019re both men,\u201d Kahan offers, referring to two of them \u2014 and petting Buttermilk. Kahan wrote \u2018We Go Way Back\u2019, one of the album\u2019s most stunning moments, here. It\u2019s an ode to Nolan, as he sings about their love over delicate acoustic guitar, with harmonies inspired by Paul Simon: \u201cSaw the world from up close, it ain\u2019t much to look at\/Compared to you in your work clothes, waving hello from the driveway.\u201d It\u2019s not often Kahan writes a love song, but he\u2019s learning to lean into the good stuff, while being intentional about what he keeps private.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I\u2019ve given everything to everybody,\u201d he says, \u201cI was like, \u2018Who am I actually behind all of it, when I log off or when I step offstage?\u2019 I understand people want to go deeper, and they want to know who [my songs] are about. I just have to create some boundaries. My wife is very private and really desires that privacy, and doesn\u2019t like having her life become something that everyone can look at or talk about. That\u2019s something that I\u2019ve always respected about her, and it\u2019s something I try really hard to maintain. It\u2019s a work in progress of finding how much I want to share.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nolan appeared in Kahan\u2019s recent Netflix documentary,\u00a0Noah Kahan: Out of Body<\/a>,\u00a0directed by Nick Sweeney. The film captures Kahan\u2019s rise to fame with \u201cStick Season\u201d and its aftermath, from how it affected his loved ones to his realisation that he was suffering from body dysmorphia. He\u2019s still trying to navigate it. He recently saw a brutal comment online that read \u201cWe\u2019re here for Chubby Noah.\u201d In the past, he might have responded with another joke about himself,\u00a0 but self-deprecating humour can only go so far. \u201cThey just cut me so deep,\u201d he confesses.<\/p>\n

The documentary captures Kahan in some vulnerable moments \u2014 trying to work out (\u201cAfterwards, I\u2019m always like, \u2018Why don\u2019t I have abs yet?\u2019 And it was, like, 10 minutes ago,\u201d he tells me) and pointing out a section of his closet with clothes that no longer fit. Watching himself onscreen was hard enough, but then he had to discuss it in interviews promoting the film. \u201cI worry so much that people are just going to be like, \u2018Now, it\u2019s time for the body-dysmorphia section of our interview!\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cI can barely even watch the documentary. It\u2019s complicated for me to think about those things, and I really have to be in the right space to talk about them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kahan\u2019s struggles with mental health make him question whether he wants children. \u201cSomeday,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019m just so worried about passing all these problems onto somebody else. But all my siblings struggled with that, and they\u2019re all such funny, kind, smart people. Those harder experiences did shape them as well. And knowing I could be there for a kid who was going through that, it\u2019s an exciting idea.\u201d Whenever it happens, he wants to be as present as possible: \u201cI don\u2019t want to be the dad that\u2019s bouncing in and out all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023, Kahan started the Busyhead Project, an organisation that promotes mental-health awareness and provides resources in local communities. Named after his 2019 debut,\u00a0Busyhead,\u00a0it has so far raised more than $6.6 million, and has even provided mental-health care for his touring band and crew. His biggest dream is to do the same for people in the state of Vermont.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I would write music and I\u2019m like, \u2018Am I just glorifying this? Am I just dangling this care of therapy over people\u2019s heads without actually helping make a difference in that space at all?\u2019\u201d Kahan says. \u201cI hope people don\u2019t think that I have this solved, just because I raise money and sing about mental health. I see these people out there, and they\u2019re like, \u2018I finally quit drinking,\u2019 or, \u2018I finally confronted my parents.\u2019 And I feel genuinely jealous of these people. Because I can\u2019t do it for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

These days, Kahan prefers weed to alcohol. He jokes that he\u2019s \u201csmoked every day for 15 years and never once enjoyed it,\u201d but admits it\u2019s good for his creativity. We both acknowledge how drinking only increases symptoms of OCD, and that as you age, the hangovers just last longer. \u201cI almost prefer the first day, where I\u2019m just in pain,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd not the second day, where I can\u2019t fucking count to 10. Ultimately, I think drinking is just a negative for me. It\u2019s just stealing joy from the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Kahan says he\u2019s \u201cin a really good place with substances overall,\u201d drinking has always found its way into his music. That\u2019s not just because of his own history with it, but because of where he grew up. \u201cDrinking was a big part of the culture,\u201d he says. \u201cThe amount of drinking I was around, the amount of people I know that drank, the amount of drinking I\u2019ve done in my life. These are things that I put into characters, because of how toxic it can be.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the documentary and during our conversations, Kahan wrestles with his relationship with Vermont. He sometimes feels like he exploited his home state with \u2018Stick Season\u2019, and felt guilt for leaving. \u201cSometimes I feel like a tourist,\u201d he says. \u201cI come home and I\u2019m like, \u2018Did I adulterate this place? Did I misrepresent it? Did I change my relationship with it because I\u2019ve shown it to everybody now?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

One person who thinks Kahan has done his home state proud:\u00a0Bernie Sanders. \u201cNoah\u2019s impressive talents have gained national and global recognition, but he\u2019s never forgotten his roots in Vermont,\u201d says the senator, who spoke onstage at Kahan\u2019s benefit concert in September 2024. \u201cAmid the major crises facing our country, it is very easy to fall into despair and helplessness. That\u2019s exactly why we need musicians like Noah to bring people together. He\u2019s made Vermonters proud.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vermont comes up frequently on\u00a0The Great Divide,\u00a0as in the magnificent barn burner \u2018All Them Horses,\u2019 about Kahan\u2019s inability to be home when devastating floods hit in the summer of 2023. \u201cThis ain\u2019t mine anymore,\u201d he sings. \u201cI made too much goddamn noise.\u201d He doubles down on that viewpoint during the meditative \u2018Spoiled\u2019: \u201cWhere I\u2019m from and what I\u2019m worth have gotten too damn intertwined.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Kahan isn\u2019t the kind of superstar to buy luxurious items \u2014 it\u2019s hard to imagine him splurging on a yacht. But once he became successful, he joined a golf course and bought property in Vermont. \u201cI am so intent on spending the rest of my life quietly in Vermont,\u201d he says. \u201cI could see myself in the future just waking up, going to play golf, going to get dinner at my parents\u2019 house, and then going home for 50 years. I\u2019d be happy to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Noah<\/p>\n

Noah Kahan (Picture: Danny Clinch)<\/p>\n

\u201cAre you afraid of heights?\u201d Kahan asks me. He wants to climb the farm\u2019s 110-foot fire tower, but instead we opt to sit on the porch in rocking chairs. Kahan cracks a can of Celsius, and places it on the arm of the chair, next to a tin of Zyn nicotine pouches. \u201cYou should totally get addicted to these,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re in that grace period where doctors don\u2019t know if it\u2019s going to kill you yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kahan has a tattoo of a fire tower on his right forearm, in honour of his late friend Carlo. The last time they saw each other, before Carlo died from a sudden illness, was when they climbed up a fire tower in Norwich, Vermont. Smoking cigarettes and listening to music, they stared at the fall foliage of the Upper Valley region, not realising it was their last hang. Kahan memorialised him on \u2018Carlo\u2019s Song\u2019 in 2019, and he sings about him again on\u00a0The\u00a0Great Divide\u00a0closer, \u2018Dan\u2019. It\u2019s a heartfelt, intricate portrayal of longtime friends who revisit dark memories. \u201cEverybody\u2019s asleep, let\u2019s talk about him,\u201d Kahan sings. \u201cLet\u2019s talk about high school, talk about death.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was my first really good friend that I lost,\u201d Kahan says of Carlo. \u201cI didn\u2019t handle it very well. I was spiraling, and a little bit self-destructive. I remember messaging him on Facebook for days and days afterwards. One of the last messages he sent me was to hang out, and we didn\u2019t end up getting to. It changed something in me, and it made me remember that every moment is fleeting.\u201d<\/p>\n

From the beginning, Kahan knew he wanted to be a musician. He was born on Jan. 1, 1997, to Lauri Berkenkamp and Josh Kahan, the third of four kids. His dad was a musician and a triathlete, who made T-shirts of their family motto (\u201cHave fun, try hard, be kind\u201d); a brain injury he suffered when Noah was in eighth grade was a major trial for the family. His mom wrote parenting guides, from\u00a0Talking to Your Kids About Sex\u00a0to\u00a0Teaching Your Children Good Manners. The family valued openness \u2014 about their feelings, and otherwise. \u201cWe were always very open about what\u2019s going on with our bodies,\u201d Kahan says of his upbringing. \u201cThere was nothing off limits. We loved to talk about our poop, about weird scabs we had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kahan has a great relationship with both of his parents, who divorced during the pandemic. \u201cIt was really hard with my parents splitting up,\u201d he says. \u201cI feel like it was the first time in my life where the fairy tale crumbled a little bit. [But] they\u2019re like superheroes. I feel like I\u2019m in awe of them more than I used to be as I get older.\u201d<\/p>\n

Around nine, Kahan was given a red Stratocaster and began writing songs. He describes himself as a \u201cweirdly anxious\u201d child, obsessed with punk rock and Green Day. In the third grade, he started a band called Twisted Metal. \u201cMy first album was called\u00a0Death to the Lord,\u201d he says. \u201cMy family was like, \u2018What the fuck is wrong with this kid?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

When Kahan was 15, he began uploading his songs to SoundCloud, where Simmons first messaged him. Kahan was a senior in high school and had been accepted into Tulane, but Simmons convinced his parents that this was a real opportunity. \u201cHe talked my parents out of sending me to college,\u201d he says. \u201cThey were so supportive the whole time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2015, Kahan signed to Republic Records (he transitioned to Mercury Records when it was relaunched in 2022). \u201cI really did think it was going to be like the movies,\u201d he says. \u201c\u2018Go to LA and you\u2019re going to be a famous musician.\u2019 The truth is it took me a year to sign [the deal]. I was living at home, telling people this ambiguous career I was going to have. Everyone was like, \u2018Sure, buddy, hopefully you\u2019re doing OK.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2019, Kahan released\u00a0Busyhead. It features the single \u2018Hurt Somebody,\u2019 with Julia Michaels, which was a hit in Australia. The sugary pop duet feels like something you heard once in an Uber. If you think that\u2019s a diss, Kahan would agree with me. \u201cI really wasn\u2019t the biggest fan of that song,\u201d he says. \u201cHaving to play that over and over again was pretty torturous.\u2026 It was a song that was in the culture at that time. Everyone always says, \u2018Oh, I remember that song.\u2019 They\u2019re never like, \u2018That\u2019s a Noah Kahan song.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Kahan describes\u00a0Busyhead, and its follow-\u00ad\u00adup,\u00a0I Was\/I Am, as \u201cThe Noah Kahan pop experiment.\u201d \u201cI was being guided by what I thought I was supposed to do and what I thought being an artist was,\u201d he says. \u201cInstead of what I wanted, which was just to go home and write about my dad.\u201d<\/p>\n

I Was\/I Am\u00a0arrived in 2021, but not before Kahan took a left turn that would dictate the rest of his career. In May 2020, after moving back to his parents\u2019 home at the height of the pandemic, he dropped the bedroom EP\u00a0Cape Elizabeth. Recorded in a week, with little else than Kahan\u2019s voice and an acoustic guitar, it remains a fan favorite for its DIY minimalism, inspiring tattoos of lighthouses like the one on its cover. Six years later, his fans \u2014 the Busyheads \u2014 are still hoping for a sequel. Kahan says he\u2019s just waiting for the right time: \u201cIt\u2019s just a matter of finding ways to make sure it speaks to my current feeling, so I\u2019m not making a concept record just for the sake of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Following\u00a0Cape Elizabeth,\u00a0Kahan wrote \u2018Stick Season\u2019 in 2020. When the song went viral, his sound was compared to the 2010s folk pop made famous by bands like Mumford & Sons and the Lumineers. The sound, often described as \u201cstomp clap hey\u201d or \u201cfolk stomp,\u201d was massively successful. Later, many saw the music as dated, but not Kahan. \u201cI always thought the millennial 2010s thing was brilliant, and I never stopped loving it,\u201d he says. \u201cI\u2019ve always felt very defensive of their sound.\u201d A lot of times people [hear my music] and are like, \u2018This is just some Mumford & Sons shit.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018I love Mumford & Sons! Thank you for the compliment!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Lumineers\u2019 Wesley Schultz tells\u00a0Rolling Stone,\u00a0\u201cYou try to ignore stuff and stay the course and believe what you\u2019re doing matters to you, and the rest of it\u2019s out of your hands. But, yeah, it\u2019s really nice when it boomerangs and comes back. You\u2019re like, \u2018See? I wasn\u2019t crazy.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Marcus Mumford reached out to Kahan while he was working on\u00a0The Great Divide. \u201cI was trying to make this process perfect and to be exactly like the last thing,\u201d says Kahan, who\u2019d met Mumford in 2023. \u201cAnd he was like, \u2018It\u2019s not going to be. You\u2019re in a new place, and it\u2019s OK for it to be different.\u2019\u201d As Mumford tells it, \u201cI remember seeing him in a photograph at the Grammys or something, and he didn\u2019t look as happy as I know he can look. I was like, \u2018What the fuck are you doing at the Grammys, man? Go and write some songs.\u2019 I called him, in the same way that I\u2019ve had people in my life a\u00a0few years down the road from me call. I said, \u2018You cool, bro?\u2019 We talked it through in really helpful, intimate ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unlike \u2018Hurt Somebody\u2019, Kahan says he\u2019ll never not love \u2018Stick Season\u2019, and he\u2019s perfectly content to play it at every show for the rest of his life. \u201cI\u2019m here for the fans,\u201d he says. \u201cIf they want to hear \u2018Maine\u2019 50 times or \u2018Stick Season\u2019 100 times or me doing a bunch of Jason Mraz covers, that\u2019s what it\u2019ll be.\u2026 I\u2019m at peace with whatever that song means for me, for the rest of my career.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back at Fire Tower Farm, Kahan finally catches a fish \u2014 after the cameras stop rolling. \u201cWe\u2019ll make them add an amendment,\u201d he says joyfully. \u201c\u2018They actually did catch a fish later on!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The following day, I meet Kahan again at the farm. This time, he\u2019s abandoned his cowboy look for his regular attire: hunter-green gym shorts, a white hoodie, black Birkenstocks with white socks, and a navy-blue Tecovas trucker hat. The Zyn pouches are back, along with an iced coffee.<\/p>\n

This summer, Kahan will kick off a massive, sold-out stadium tour, including a stop at\u00a0Rolling Stone\u2019s Stateside Festival<\/a>\u00a0on July 4. He says he\u2019ll continue to rock his Willie Nelson-style French braids from last tour, which his assistant does for him. \u201cWeirdly enough, when I look at photos of myself in braids, I feel like that\u2019s the look I was supposed to have,\u201d he says. \u201cOr maybe I\u2019ll get a mullet, and get Country Central to post about me more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kahan is content with where he is, and proud of the album he\u2019s made \u2014 despite how difficult it was to get there. \u201cYou find out who you are in the moments when you\u2019re alone,\u201d he says. \u201cIn the moments things are quiet, and you don\u2019t have 30,000 people screaming that they love you. I needed to be brought back down to earth, and I think the process, as hard as it was, really did bring me back.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he can\u2019t just leave it at that. As we stand up to say goodbye, Kahan has one request. \u201cCan you make sure to say that I\u2019m six-two and jacked in the interview?\u201d he says. \u201cBecause that\u2019s the image that I\u2019d like to project.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I\u2019m fishing with\u00a0Noah Kahan, and things are looking pretty bleak. We\u2019re at a farm an hour west of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[190140,106894,93,61,60,190139,278,133182],"class_list":["post-435537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-kahan","tag-danny-clinch","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-josh-kahan","tag-music","tag-noah-kahan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}