Chances are that if you’re a fan of Noah Kahan, you’ve seen the boy with the guitar strapped to his shoulder and the shaggy brown hair. That’s Berklee College of Music dropout, Noah Levine (name twins, we know), who slipped into the role straight off an internship with Nashville-based producer Gabe Simon (Noah Kahan, Dua Lipa, Jessie Murph). Co-writing hits like ‘Dial Drunk,’ no one needed to uncover revelations under the influence to know that he would inevitably hit the solo music path, coming out with his debut EP, Deceiver, last year, and now carrying it on with ‘Everything I Wanted’ and ‘Big Red.’ We spoke to Noah about the latter, where the track realizes that some blood friendships are meant to end with no bad blood, and so much more.
The music video for ‘Big Red’ is gorgeous—dusk, a pickup truck, the Texas Hill Country rolling past. What were you trying to capture with that imagery?
This video is the second piece in a three-part video storyline. ‘Big Red’ as a song is more about the figurative letting go of a relationship. It’s the love of the experience that was had while not wanting it back. This sort of vagabond road-worn tale actualizes those feelings into the idea of leaving a place you once loved, which, in many ways, is how I feel about leaving Texas as a whole.
Texas almost feels like a muse in the video. Growing up in Austin, how would you describe what that place gave you creatively—and has your relationship with it changed now that you’re further along?
I love Austin so much. It gave me the setting for a childhood that was beautiful and sheltered and nourishing for me as a kid. I think, as people, we like to associate certain emotional periods of our life with the place that we spent them in, so I’ve always regarded Austin as this untouchable memory of my roots. Growing older is also a mixed bag of realization and gaining a clearer lens of the world around you, which I think over time makes my memory and relationship with Austin ever more important to me—serving as a safe haven for my childhood.
What’s something you’ve learned about your own songwriting process through writing for other artists that you might never have discovered going straight into a solo career?
I think perspective is the biggest thing for me. Seeing so many artists’ careers and creativity levels fluctuating with the seasons of life from an outside perspective has proven to be so unbelievably meaningful to me. I like to relate it to any personal turmoil—it’s so hard to know what to do or how to feel when you’re the one in it, but when you’re an outsider talking down a friend or loved one, the answers are so clear. It’s been a good balance of figuring things out on my own and learning from the creative perspectives of the artists I’ve surrounded myself with as well.
Lines like “blood brother” and “GMC pocketknife” immediately paint a picture of young boys’ friendships. Do those vivid details tend to come from your own life, or do they surface once you’re deep inside a theme?
These details in the song are more literal for me as they’re pieces of memories that I have with a friend that served its purpose in its time. My first boyhood type of friendship was so pivotal in my childhood. We were close to the point of calling each other’s mothers “mom” and planning out going to the same colleges (as 10-year-olds). I think learning what it’s like to truly be a boy as a little kid in a healthy and kind way is such a beautiful chapter in life, and I wanted to try and capture that with these lyrics.
It takes real maturity to let someone go when a friendship has run its course. For anyone listening to this song thinking, “Yeah, I get it,” what would you want them to take from it?
Maybe some reassurance. When something was once beautiful and healthy, it can be easy to try and immortalize that in a literal way—wanting to achieve that with someone when so many chapters in each person’s life have shifted. It’s a way of not being bitter, and just having some gratitude that something can be as good as it was, and immortalizing that in your heart and your head.
You co-produced this track with HAFFWAY. What do you love most about the production side—and was there anything about making ‘Big Red’ specifically that deepened that?
As a musician, production used to come first for me. I’ve shifted over time to a more lyrical focus, but production is still such an integral part of my artistic identity. When I first started working with Sam (HAFFWAY), it was clear we had a level of aligned taste that I hadn’t experienced before. He and I have a history of doing some production side by side, and it was a joy to watch him take more of the driver’s seat for this project.
You’ve spoken about those early sessions during your internship with Gabe Simon—being on tracks before credit or payment was really on the table, just because you loved doing it. Now that you’re further along, has your perspective on that shifted at all?
Not an ounce. The moment I start doing this with money being the primary motivation is the moment that I need to find something else to do with my life. I think that’s why I have a limb in every area of music I can put them in—I just love it all. So much. A huge part of making music is believing in things before other people do, and no money is made off of doing that right away. You have to nourish and love the project as your own kid before people will get on board, and THEN the money might follow.
The cover photo for ‘Everything I Wanted’—your guitar tagged with an “anywhere but here” note—ties so naturally into the restless, traveling energy of the ‘Big Red’ video. What’s something you wish you’d known about life on the road before it started, especially stepping into it as young as you did?
As much as I love touring and traveling, I also love having my roots somewhere. During the first two years of touring, I didn’t live anywhere but out of my suitcase, and that took a mental toll that I wasn’t totally prepared to deal with. As time and experience move forward, I’ve learned how to adjust and handle myself, but feeling like you don’t have roots anywhere is a dark place for me personally to be. I really struggled mentally from that, and ‘Everything I Wanted’ is sort of that outlet to say the things I really wanted to.
We obviously have to talk about Noah Kahan—being his lead guitarist, being part of the songwriting process. How has watching his career play out from that close affected the way you approach your own?
NK has been the greatest mentor and role model for me as a creative, but he has also taken on the figure of a big brother for me over the last four years. I could write essays on how he’s always been one to do things the right way as an artist, but it’s the way he treats the people close to him—that’s what I take away from him the most. He’s incredibly loyal, takes care of his people, and will drop anything to help the people that need it. Aside from his masterful songwriting, approaching his career with that kind of kindness and humility is what makes him as beloved as he is, and I hope to emulate that in my artistry as best as I can.
Finally, if someone’s hearing your name for the first time today because of this interview, what’s the one thing you’d want them to know about the kind of artist you’re trying to be?
I think one of the most comforting truths with music these days is people’s gravity towards authenticity. If you’re listening to me talk, sing, or play for the first time, I promise it will never come from a place of trying to be something or someone that I’m not. My music is my lens and perspective of the universal things that happen to me and others every day, and if you don’t care that deeply about my perspective, the music f*cking rocks anyway, so give it a listen.
What’s your favorite lyric off ‘Big Red?’ Think it’s the perfect companion to your friendship breakup? Let us know on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook—we’re collecting testimonials for the heartbreak hall of fame.
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