Noah Kahan says he wants to write more songs about joy
In a CBS interview broadcast on October 11, American singer-songwriter Noah Kahan said he wants to draw more often on joyful experiences in his music. Anxiety and personal trauma have shaped much of his work.
Kahan said the breakthrough success of Stick Season intensified the pressure surrounding his next album. Expectations began to interfere with his writing, prompting him to take a break. He said stepping away eventually helped restore his enjoyment of making music.
His fourth album, The Great Divide, arrived in April, nearly four years after 2022's Stick Season. Kahan described worrying that his success could suddenly disappear and struggling with the effort to maintain it.
He now wants to explore happier moments as well. The singer said contentment felt unfamiliar, but he intended to try writing from that perspective and hoped his audience would respond.
The conversation took place in Vermont, where Kahan grew up and continues to find material for his songs. He traced an early turning point to a song fragment posted on TikTok in 2020. Unlike some earlier posts, he left it online, and other musicians and creators began covering it.
Kahan, now 29, writes about experiences that listeners recognise, including lost friendships, divorce, depression and anxiety. He said he tries to preserve an intimate atmosphere even at stadium concerts, without elaborate dance productions or extensive pyrotechnics.
He also discussed difficulties with his appearance. Large concert screens can intensify his discomfort, he said, but talking openly about it and hearing from listeners have helped him feel more comfortable with himself.
Some of those experiences feature in the Netflix documentary Noah Kahan: Out of Body, released alongside the album. Kahan recalled that his family discussed mental health openly, sometimes mixing those conversations with humour.
In 2023, he established The Busyhead Project to help people who struggle to afford mental health support. At a Vermont fundraiser last month, he announced that the organisation had raised more than $13 million.