“Noah Kahan: Out of Body,” directed by Nick Sweeney, follows Kahan’s success following his album Stick Season. More significantly, the documentary film highlights Kahan’s struggles with mental health that accompany the pressures of fame.
The Daily Texan spoke to Kahan and Sweeney at the red carpet for the documentary’s debut at South by Southwest.
The Daily Texan: You’ve talked about how much pressure you felt releasing new music after Stick Season. How are you feeling about that now, with the film and the album coming out next month?
Noah Kahan: I think it’s out of my hands now. (I) have to give up control of what’s gonna happen. All I know is that I’m proud of both things, so I thought all I could do is be happy with what I made and let it go into the world and let people take it in.
DT: How did you get in touch with the director, Nick Sweeney, and why did you want him to tell your story?
NK: We were looking at making a documentary, and then shopping for directors for it. And I watched Nick’s project for “Santa Camp,” and (he) filmed it in New Hampshire, which is great, because I grew up there, and also the humor and the mundane moments that he made seem very interesting. I think it was perfect for my life, because I do all this stuff on stage, and I go home, and it’s (a) chill and a very normal life I live behind the scenes. So he’s really good at capturing the craziness of what we do on stage and what we do behind the scenes.
DT: Nick, your previous work highlights so many worthwhile issues of today. How do you hope “Out of Body” will do the same?
Nick Sweeney: The thing that all of my films have focused on is somebody going through big changes in their life at crossroads and letting us in and letting us in to see that. I think Noah in this film is dealing with some really complicated and significant personal issues around family and around mental health. I think that by talking about these things, it will help other people that are dealing with some of those issues find words to talk about those things themselves, or to have those discussions themselves.
DT: What first drew you to documenting Noah’s story?
NS: Noah’s lyrics are really cinematic. They’re really detailed. They’re kind of like the way that I would describe an establishing shot in a film … and I’d always felt that with everything that I’d listened to. Then we started having these discussions about, “Are you ready to do a documentary? Are you really ready to let somebody in to see your life as it unfolds and as you confront these big questions?” And the answer was yes, (Noah) was definitely ready. I kept expecting him to push back or be like, “Let’s not cover this.” And it never happened. He was really wanting to go there and let us capture it, and he let us capture it as it was happening.
