Noah Kahan Recruits British Star Sam Fender for New Version of 'Homesick'
Noah Kahan has released various new collabs with stars like Kacey Musgraves, Post Malone and Hozier
Noah Kahan is heading across the pond for his latest collaboration.
Over the past few months, the “Stick Season” singer has been reworking his hits with some of music’s biggest stars — and he called on British star Sam Fender for a new version of “Homesick.”
Kahan, 27, and Fender, 29, released their version of “Homesick” on Friday, with Fender adding a new verse that reflects on his own upbringing in Newcastle.
In a statement, Kahan explained that he became hooked on Fender’s music after hearing his 2018 track “Dead Boys,” a song about the epidemic of young male suicides in the U.K.
“I come from a very different place than Sam did, that much was clear in the lyrics, but it felt like I had grown up the same,” Kahan said. “The nostalgia, pride, bitterness, confusion, and anger that Sam wrote about feeling was so similar to what I was feeling about my childhood and my hometown at the time.”
Kahan said that when he sat down in his native Vermont to record Stick Season, Fender’s “Seventeen Going Under” was the first song he and his crew listened to — and the feelings it stirred in him about his complicated relationship with his hometown directly inspired “Homesick” (Fender’s songs of hometown heartache and working-class struggle on his first two albums have catapulted him to fame in his native England).
Courtesy Universal Music Group
Sam Fender and Noah KahanWhen Kahan toured the U.K., he met with Fender in Newcastle, and the two spent the day together.
“I felt very much like an outsider, but by the end, I did start to understand where these songs were coming from, and just how special of a guy Sam really is,” said Kahan. “He did an absolutely amazing job bringing his experience into my song ‘Homesick.’ He went above and beyond and I truly can’t thank him enough.”
Related: Sam Fender, One of England's Biggest Stars, Is Ready to Break America
Fender, meanwhile, said he’d heard “Homesick” and found it “lush,” and that he and Kahan immediately hit it off after speaking on the phone. During Kahan’s trip to Newcastle, Fender showed him the local sights, and even stopped by Low Lights Tavern, the local pub at which Fender was discovered.
“I loved the idea of the song being a transatlantic call-and-response between two young kids desperate to escape their hometowns,” Fender said. “Chatting with him about things in both of our pasts made me realize how universal ‘Homesick’ is. We’ve all been that kid.”
Fender has been enjoying a wave of success on the back of his 2021 album Seventeen Going Under, while Kahan has rocketed to fame since his song “Stick Season” went viral in 2022.
Astrida Valigorsky/Getty
Noah Kahan performing in Boston in May 2023Kahan, who is currently up for best new artist at the 2024 Grammy Awards, has teamed up with other stars including Hozier, Kacey Musgraves, Gracie Abrams, Lizzy McAlpine and Post Malone for new versions of his Stick Season songs.
He also made his Saturday Night Live debut in December, and will kick off his We’ll All Be Here Forever World Tour in March.
"I did a lot of shows for not a lot of people for a long time," Kahan told PEOPLE in 2022 of his first tour after the success of "Stick Season." "I never played for nobody, but I've played for almost nobody, and it's not a lot of fun. To have this tour sell out and to have the response I've got… it's been really surreal and I'm trying my best not to let it feel normal to me because it's not.”
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