Noah Kahan pleads with fans misinterpreting his lyrics: ‘Please do not go off your medication’

Noah Kahan pleads with fans misinterpreting his lyrics: ‘Please do not go off your medication’

Noah Kahan is clarifying one of his most famous lyrics in a new interview.

The 29-year-old “Stick Season” singer opened his acclaimed fourth album The Great Divide with “End of August,” a song reflecting on the bittersweet changing of the seasons. Kahan, known for his vulnerable lyrics and his candid discussions of mental health and seasonal depression, confronted his “late-August angst” in the popular song — but it was the lyric right before that line that raised eyebrows with his dedicated fans.

“The minute that September hits, I’m going off my medicine,” Kahan sings in the song — but now, he told Billboard in their cover story interview published Thursday, he wants to explain what he meant.

“I think when I wrote that I was like, ‘Oh, hopefully by the end of August I’ll be ready to get off them,’” Kahan told the magazine.

However, he did not go off of his antidepressants. “No,” he continued. “We’re still on. Please do not go off your medication.”

Noah Kahan is advising his fans not to go off their medication
Noah Kahan is advising his fans not to go off their medication (Getty)

He then joked: “Listen to that doctor on TikTok, not me.”

The Vermont native has been open about his journey with medication, specifically speaking about his experiences taking the antidepressant Lexapro. He told BBC One in a recent interview: “I tortured myself for years not going on medication because I didn’t know if I could make music if I’m happier, if I don’t have that darkness within me.”

He added, “But the medication gives you a break from those obsessive feelings and lets you live in reality for a second. It helped me realize I don’t need to be in pain to make music.”

Before Kahan explained that he declared he was going off of his medicine in the hope of not needing mood-boosting drugs in the future, his fans shared their confusion over the lyric in a thread dedicated to the singer-songwriter on Reddit.

Noah Kahan has been open about his journey with antidepressants
Noah Kahan has been open about his journey with antidepressants (Getty)

“Winter is almost always a gloomy time, so going off antidepressants right before Winter seems strange to me,” one listener wrote on the social media platform in July.

Another user explained: “Summer makes you happy. He lives in New England, he gets regular depression and seasonal depression. Seasonal depression goes away March/Aprilish so you feel amazing in August and then September comes and you’re convinced…..this is the year I can survive winter without antidepressants!! I’m healed!!”

“Spoiler, friends….you are not healed,” the post continued. “The medication is working. Do not go off your medicine.”

Making any change in prescribed medication is unadvised without the advice of a doctor.

Comments

No comments yet. Why don’t you start the discussion?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *