Q&A: Jonah Kagen Digs Deep With ‘Sunflowers and Leather’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ BY NINA KUDLACZ ☆
Photo By AJ Woomer
JONAH KAGEN’S MUSIC ISN’T HIS - The 25-year-old singer-songwriter from Savannah, Georgia wants his fans to know that his songs belong to them.
Kagen released his debut album on September 5. Sunflowers and Leather is a 16-track-long heartfelt album that was entirely written and produced by Kagen. The release of the album nearly doubled his monthly Spotify listeners since July.
With his country/folk influences and lyrics, Kagen’s sound is a mix between Zach Bryan and Noah Kahan. Kagen is largely inspired by “honest Americana songwriting” and older sounds from the ‘70s.
Kagen said the majority of the learning and growing he has done on his journey since he started putting out music culminated in this moment. This album allowed Kagen to reach new emotional heights.
Read below to hear what Kagen wants people to know about this work.
Photo By Brenton Giesey
LUNA: What were your inspirations, specifically for this album, both sonically and lyrically?
KAGEN: My inspirations sonically have always been lying underneath everything that I do. Andy McKee has been the biggest musical sonic influence in my music because I learned how to play guitar through him. I do so much of what I do because of the way that he plays. Beyond that, lyrically I was particularly inspired by Adrianne Lenker and Jason Isbell.
LUNA: How do your inspirations influence your music?
KAGEN: Everyone’s music is their inspiration until you can’t hear them anymore. I think for me what they are for this record is just a really dormant influence now. I think I’ve come to be comfortable in my own sound and with my own way of producing and writing. But, it’s all rooted in these people that inspired me to start playing and to play a certain way and to write a certain way. I think it’s just my own personal expression of those influences.
LUNA: What was it like writing, recording and producing all 16 songs?
KAGEN: It was wonderful. There’s a lot of pressure that comes with it, just because if somebody doesn’t like it it's entirely my fault. But I think I was able to go to places emotionally with all of those things that I wouldn’t be able to do collaborating with other people. So I think it just makes the record really honest and I’m very grateful that I did it that way.
LUNA: What was it like working with Sam Barber on “Burn Me”?
KAGEN: Working with Sam was great, it always is great. Sam is a good buddy of mine now so I think to be able to make music with your friends, who also happen to be artists that you are really inspired by, is a cool experience and one that I am super grateful for.
LUNA: How was recording the video for "You Again"?
KAGEN: That video and honestly everything around the album, that entire trip, making the documentary for the album, was also special. It was a unique circumstance where I could actually go back out and take other people to a place where I made a song and be able to experience that place in a different way, through their eyes. That was a really, really cool experience. When I was in those places I thought I’d never be back again, so to go out there and to see them again and have it filmed was very special.
LUNA: What's been giving you joy lately?
KAGEN: I’ve been on tour so much this year, so honestly meeting people in every spot, that always gives me an extreme amount of joy, and being able to explore all these new places, wandering around. I’m a big wanderer. I tend to end up in the woods in random places a lot, big fan of that, that gives me joy. Being outside, and my dog always brings me joy.
LUNA: I know touring just picked back up; how has it been? What are you looking forward to on tour?
KAGEN: The touring has been incredible. Honestly, this is the reason why I do any of this. Getting to see real people and share in their pain and their love and hear their experiences as it relates to this album, there’s nothing like that. There’s been so much love in these rooms and so much opportunity to hear how people have taken on these songs as their own so that’s what has been amazing and what I continue to look forward to for every show.
LUNA: What do you want people to know about you both as an artist and as a person?
KAGEN: I think those two things are the same for me, because of how honest the work that I’m making is. It really is just me and everything I put out there is just me. It's the same thing, and really I just want people to know why I do this. It’s for them. I see it as a service job and I don’t think that these songs are mine. I will continue to say that for as long as I do this because it’s true. If nothing else, I want people to know that these songs are theirs and they belong to them and that everything I do is for them. Whatever they want from me I’m going to continue to try to work to get them.
LUNA: What do you want people to know about this album?
KAGEN: My answer is pretty much the same. I want people to know that it belongs to them. But beyond that, I want them to know how I made it and why I made it and just so they can see how honest it is and that these are all true stories and real things about me. When they get to know the album, they’re also getting to know me and when they watch the documentary that’s just exactly what happened.
LUNA: This is your first album, how have you grown as an artist since the beginning and what have you learned about yourself? Both as an artist and a person.
KAGEN: I’ve honestly just learned how to go there emotionally and how to go to a place that scares me a little bit for the sake of the art. I’ve learned more about how I can best work towards that spot and I know what it feels like to be writing from that spot, and when I’m not writing from that spot and when I’m phoning it in or trying to dodge the real thing that I’m wanting to get at. I think I will continue to grind, by no means do I have anything figured out. For the second album I’m sure I will learn and grow even more. It’s an ongoing process.
