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Transcript

Interview: Noah Kahan · The Smallzy Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, it's Noah Kahn on The Smallsy Show on Kiss.
• 0:04
  Speaker 2: Noah Kahn.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, Smallsy. What up, dude?
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: How are you?
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Good to see you.
• 0:07
  Speaker 3: We were just reminiscing on the years we have known
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: each other.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Almost nine years now we've been catching up.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: We have been.
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: And every time I seem to catch up with you,
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: the star explodes even more.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it might be you doing it. I think you
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: should take all credit. You are my good omen.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: I'll take it.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: It feels like just before something happens, just before you're
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: due to catch up with me. So I will take that. Now,
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: you know how I'm going to start the interview, just
• 0:39
  Speaker 3: by checking in on your health.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: No, they're still bad. They're still inflamed. Yeah. Worse than before, actually.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: The Crown Hotel has a bidet. And the water from the, yeah,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: but no, because it sprays directly into the hemorrhoid. And
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: so now I'm having to use the other toilets in
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the hotel that don't have bidets in them. Okay. So
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: I don't want to get tempted to use it. Yeah, okay.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: It inflames them more.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: Okay, I'm glad I asked. That followed me around.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: And it followed you around.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: I remember seeing that clip. I'm like, oh, my God,
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: I can't imagine this is the one they wanted to
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: go viral. It did.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: It did. Anyway, so I'm glad we checked that off
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: the list, number one. Number two, the show, man. Congratulations.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: I saw it. It's incredible. Your fans.
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: I genuinely felt you were blown away when you looked out,
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: I think, on night one of the Sydney show, like 20,000.
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: And you've done four sold-outs. Yeah. So that's 80,000 people
• 1:36
  Speaker 3: you basically have performed to in Sydney alone.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Honestly, they're the show. I think a huge part of
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: the show was the crowd interaction. the different costumes, the signs,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the joy, like the singing along. It's, that's what makes
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: every single show different for us is that like every
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: night we're getting to watch these people experience and kind
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: of perform for us in a way, like, you know,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: in such an amazing community of people. Yeah. So far
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: away from where the music was written and what it
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: was written about.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: It's been unbelievable. I, you know, you know, as you've
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: known me a long time, like we, I think when
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: Hurt Somebody was, even when Hurt Somebody was number one,
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: I was having a hard time selling, you know, 150,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: 200 tickets. And so to be here like so many
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: years later and have people fill in these seats and
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: just really giving everything they have, it's been unbelievable.
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Do you look back?
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: I mean, I guess you like, do you reflect on
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: it and go, was there something that changed that connected?
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: Because I heard somebody was like a number one airplay,
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: number one song on the charts here. But at the time,
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: like you were relatively unknown. Fast forward eight years. And now,
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: as I said, the tickets you're selling, did something change
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: for you? Or do you think it's just, Constantly showing up,
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: doing it again and again and again. And then you
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: wear people down and they eventually buy it.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: They have no choice but to come. Yeah, I've just
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: been in their walls begging them to come see me play. Yeah,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: I think something did change. I think I started just
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: to find my own voice and to find what I
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: really love to say and how to say it. And
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: I stopped kind of auditioning for the world as much
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: as I was. I really felt like I was just
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: trying to be what people thought. successful music sounded like or,
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: or what a successful musician looked like. And that brought
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: me farther away from what I actually like about music.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: And I think it was, it was not like saying like,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: screw it, but it was like, you know, how do
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: I do this? Enjoy and enjoy it. And the things
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: that brought me joy, I've connected with a lot of
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: people and that's a really, really unique privilege. So, um,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: I think it was just kind of stopping for a
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: second and finding out what really made me tick, I guess.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: I love that.
• 3:36
  Speaker 3: Um, when you look out on the crowd, do you
• 3:37
  Speaker 3: see any faces from the shows on the barricade of their,
• 3:40
  Speaker 3: fans that you remember seeing in the early days? Like surely,
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: I mean, surely there's a number one Khan head in Australia, right?
• 3:48
  Speaker 3: Like there's definitely one Khan head from day.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: One, right?
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: I do see people in like, sometimes I have to
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: be reminded, but they're like, I saw you in 2018
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: or a lot of people are like, I came all
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: the way from, you know, Portugal or Boston or, you know,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: South America to see these shows. And, uh, It's just unbelievable.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: I think every night I try to think about the
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: journey that each fan went on to come see me,
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: whether they live here in Sydney and they had to
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: take work off, they saved up for the ticket, or
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: they've been looking forward to this for months. It reminds
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: me of how important what we're doing is and how
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: important it is to give everybody 100% all the time.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: I love that. People go through a lot nowadays to
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: see shows. Tickets are expensive. It's hard to kind of
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: get the time and the money to do it. So
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: I try to really honor what people have gone through.
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: to come see me.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: Good on you.
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: And you've got a great set, you know, you give
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: a show because sometimes people sell tickets to a concert
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: and there's not much happening. And you, you, I appreciate
• 4:38
  Speaker 3: the effort that you have gone to, to bring the
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: whole thing to life.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: I've been very lucky to have like had a career
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: where I didn't have like a TikTok moment early on
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: that like brought me to these kinds of stages, uh,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: at an early point, because I really had to fail
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: as a performer a lot. And that, and like a
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: lot of my shows, I would just flip my hair
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: over my eyes and like, You know, all you saw.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: And play my guitar and, like, not interact because I
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: was so nervous. And I feel like having gone through
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: eight years of that kind of touring, like, I feel
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: very comfortable and very excited to kind of– and not embarrassed,
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: you know, to get out there and just give a
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: show and make fun of myself and sing as hard
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: as I can.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Let's talk about intrusive thoughts.
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: Sure.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: Because they come into your mind.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: You did address them. Do you address them in every show,
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: the intrusive thoughts?
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: I've started to since I got to Australia.
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:21
  Speaker 3: Because I think– culturally we really connect with that. Yeah.
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I feel like you guys, everyone here is kind
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: of got that neurotic thing going on. We do.
• 5:30
  Speaker 2: You know, we love, we love an intrusive thought.
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: We love also vocalizing it. Um, do you have them frequently?
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: Do you have them on most nights when you're on stage?
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, I'm always having intrusive thoughts, man. Every thought I
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: have is, I haven't had a welcome thought in like
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: 10 years, dude. Every thought I have is like a
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: scary man knocking on my door in the rain that
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: I have to let use my phone, you know? Um, Yeah,
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: I always think about, like, I just think, like, if
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: everyone here got really mad and, like, texted each other in, like,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: a WhatsApp group, they could just come and, like, eat me, basically.
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: They could eat my arms, my legs, my butt, everything.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: Is that the basis of the tweet that you put
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: out the other day about, hey, just a reminder, if
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: you want to dress up like me for Halloween, you
• 6:08
  Speaker 3: need to stop showering today?
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: Twitter is, like, the perfect intrusive thought canvas. Yeah, 100%.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: I just want to make sure people, if they really
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: want to commit to the bit, you have to stop Showering.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: Sorry, I wouldn't have thought, do people dress up like
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: Noah Kahn for?
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they have. Or they're just pretending to be Jesus.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: I can't tell.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: And if you squint from a distance, it's hard to tell.
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: I look like Jesus at first glance. For sure. Second glance,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: it's like, oh, no.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: It's mildly successful Noah Kahn.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: It's just that guy with the guitar, yeah.
• 6:37
  Speaker 3: Now, big news in your world, music-wise, obviously, is you
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: just have the lead single for the new Hunger Games movie.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: Congratulations on that.
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: Thank you.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: How did that happen?
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: It was funny. I had heard people talking about this movie.
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: I'd read all the books, and I'd heard people talking
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: about the soundtrack for this movie. And a lot of
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: my friends were making songs for it. And I was
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: kind of like, oh, man, I would have loved to
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: do that. It would have been really fun. And I
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: ran into Dave Cobb, who is helping curate the soundtrack.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: And he was like, no, we actually want you to
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: do the lead single. And so it was the first
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: I'd heard of it. And I was like, oh, my God.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I was obviously super excited, but a little nervous because
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: it's a big opportunity. And I am very well aware
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: of like the passion that the fans have and how
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: into every single part of the story, the soundtrack, the
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: actors that these fans are. So I felt a little
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: bit of like a pressure, but it was a really cool,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: unique experience. I never gotten to write for a. movie
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: before and it was really fun to get a chance
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: to kind of step outside of my own story.
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: And you're also joining like a great list of other
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: artists that have contributed songs to the soundtrack in movies
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: that have gone by, by the way, Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo, Coldplay, Lorde.
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's not bad company to be in.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: No, no. They're all people that I look up to
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: and artists that I admire and, um, being in the same,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: you know, the same world as they are for this
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: kind of soundtrack is, um.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: But if you were in the Hunger Games, you'd have
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: no trouble taking them out.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: No, I would be dead in seconds. Olivia Rodrigo would
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: bash my head in. Taylor Swift would club me to death.
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: Laura would punch me in the stomach.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you would volunteer as tribute to go out first.
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: I'd just be like, get me out of here. I
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: don't want to be here anymore.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: So that's your game plan. If there was a real
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: love Hunger Games, you're like, I'm dipping out early.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: I'm going first. I'm going to go out first. I
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: want to be... jump on a sword in the cornucopia,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: go to the tallest tree I can find, try to
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: get to, like, the electrified ceiling to stick my hand
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: up there.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: And just end it.
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: Just get me out. I'm not trying to go through
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: all that shit. No, absolutely. I've got stuff to do.
• 8:38
  Speaker 3: Have you had any downtime while you've been here in Oz?
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: Have you done anything? Have you, like, had some?
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we've had a ton of downtime. That's my favorite
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: thing about coming to Australia is, like, the amount of
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: fun stuff that we get to do. We went to
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: urban surf today.
• 8:49
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: Went surfing.
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: How was, right, right yourself?
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: One out of 10 probably. I hurt my calf getting up.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: So it's like even the most successful situation means I
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: hurt myself.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: Uh, I went to, uh, to deep sea fishing a
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: couple of days ago, which is really cool.
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 9:07
  Speaker 3: I got seasick once doing that.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Oh my God.
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: We all got so seasick. My security guard was just
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: throwing up the entire time. I felt so bad for him.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, but what about what if a swordfish
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: comes out and tries to kill me? Yeah, I know. Uh,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: so yeah, we got to do that. Put some golf, um,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: I've gone to the spa, got a lot of good coffee. Lovely.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Are you a mani-pedi guy or what's the story?
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: I'm a massage guy, but I always feel like I'm
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: hurting their feelings if I don't ask for... More pressure
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: or less pressure? I say medium, but I actually want more.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: But then if I ask more, I feel like they
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: get mad and start going as hard as they can.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: And so I worry about them getting pissed and hurting me.
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: Okay.
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: They're wrapping me up.
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: I got a lot of problems. Yeah.
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: They're wrapping me up. One last question. One last question.
• 9:46
  Speaker 3: You were at the Emmys the other week and then
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: there's a photo of you and Steve Carell. And then
• 9:50
  Speaker 3: you posted, my king and also, believe it or not,
• 9:53
  Speaker 3: my dad's high school classmate.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: Yes.
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: Is that actually true?
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Or did you make that up? It's true. It's true.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: Because I can't believe a lot of things you say.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: I know. This one's real. This one's real. He was
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: a little older than my dad, but he played hockey
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: at Middlesex in Massachusetts. And he went to high school
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: with my aunt and my dad. I think my dad
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: kind of played up their friendship a little bit more.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: Because when I asked him about it, he was like, oh.
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: Vaguely remember.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: By the way, for anyone wondering, he was... Super cool,
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: super kind. I was so nervous to approach him, but
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: he took five minutes just to talk to me and
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: ask me questions about my music. You looked happy as.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: I was really, really grateful for his time. As someone
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: with clinical depression, The Office is my depression show where
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: I'm really struggling, and he's provided me with so much
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: light in my life. I love that. It was cool
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: to talk to him.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: I love that you had that moment. Hey, massive congratulations.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: Thanks, dude.
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: Wonderful to see you. Congrats on the tour. Go put
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: your feet up once this is wrapped.
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: You deserve a break after this.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I'm going to, man. I'm going to. And thank you
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: so much for your time and for the support for
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: so many years.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: Smallsy, now on Kiss. Head to Chemist Warehouse and save
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: more money every year on your regular medication with discounted
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: prescriptions in every store, every day.