Noah Kahan is back with the latest Stick Season re-release: a fresh cut of “Homesick” featuring a new verse from Sam Fender.
First announced earlier this week, the augmented version of “Homesick” follows a series of duet cuts Kahan has shared commemorating the one-year anniversary of Stick Season’s 2022 release, including collaborations with Gracie Abrams, Hozier, Kacey Musgraves, Lizzy McAlpine, and Post Malone.
Now, the duet version of “Homesick” builds upon the nostalgic reflection of the original thanks to a new verse from Fender, detailing his upbringing in Newcastle, England. In lengthy press statements, the artists explained how the collaboration grew out of a mutual respect that they had for each other.
“I come from a very different place than Sam did… 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… 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.”
For his part, Fender relayed how the collaboration came to be. “I was told Noah wanted us to work together, and I’d heard the tune ‘Homesick’ and thought it was a lush song,” he said. “We then spoke on the phone and immediately hit it off. I loved the idea of the song being a transatlantic call-and-response between two young kids desperate to escape their hometowns. The ‘running away’ theme has been done to death by myself, and many other artists over the last 50 years, but it’s relatable.”
You can read the full quotes from Kahan and Fender — which go into greater detail regarding Fender’s influence on Kahan and the time the two spent together in Newcastle — below.
In other Kahan news, Stick Season has re-entered the top 5 on the Billboard 200, and the title track is sitting at No. 1 on the UK Official Singles Chart. Up next, Kahan is set to embark on one of the most anticipated tours of 2024, which began this month in Australia and will stretch through September, bringing him to cities across North America and Europe. Check out the full list of dates, and grab your tickets here.
Noah Kahan’s statement on working with Sam Fender:
When I first heard Sam Fender’s music, I stopped what I was doing, started Dead Boys from the beginning, and listened four 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’ 1,000 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.
Sam Fender’s statement on working with Noah Kahan:
I was told Noah wanted us to work together, and I’d heard the tune ‘Homesick’ and thought it was a lush song. We then spoke on the phone and immediately hit it off. I loved the idea of the song being a transatlantic call-and-response between two young kids desperate to escape their hometowns. The ‘running away’ theme has been done to death by myself, and many other artists over the last 50 years, but it’s relatable.
Noah actually came to my hometown of Newcastle when he was on tour, so we met up and I showed him around. I found it canny funny and flattering as he said in his East Coast American accent: ‘I wanna see where these songs came from, man.’ So, we hit the Lowlights Tavern for a swift Guinness and walked in the bitter cold of the sea-front. Chatting with him about things in both of our pasts made me realize how universal ‘Homesick’ is. We’ve all been that kid.
I cut my parts in North Shields, on the banks of the Tyne, literally overlooking the ‘static cranes’ that I mention in my verse; it’s a stone’s throw from the estate in which the riots took place in the early ‘90s. It made me proud of my hometown, and my people. The Geordies are a hilarious bunch, resilient and impermeable to hard times and hard drinking; my hometown is a constant source of inspiration. Noah is a great lad, a canny chanter, and a mean wordsmith. I love the track, and I can’t wait for people to hear it.
