Noah Kahan Instagram – When I first heard Sam Fender’s music, I stopped what I was doing, started “dead boys” from the beginning and listened 4 more times. It was everything I loved about a song. I followed this artist like a crazy person, checking every day to see if he had dropped new music. Reading every lyric and looking for his interpretation of what they meant. I must have listened to Hypersonic Missiles 1000 times before Seventeen Going Under came out, and I had never felt so connected to a song. 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. 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. This song was the final push for me to start writing about my own experiences. As we sat down in Guilford, Vermont to record this album, the very first song we listened to was Seventeen Going Under. The song Homesick was born out of the confidence instilled in me by listening to someone accurately depict their hometown and what it means to them, for better or for worse.  When I found out I’d be able to spend the day in Newcastle with Sam, I was nervous but excited. He welcomed me with open arms, let me into his world, showed me places in this community that held so much significance not only to the town, but to Sam himself. 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. 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. I hope you enjoy this glance into our worlds, and that it offers you the same connection that I felt when I first heard this dude sing