Jonah Kagen is “Talkin’ About Jesus” in his latest song. Out now, Kagen told American Songwriter that his new single was borne out of a bad date that left him with some big questions.
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“It was a broader emotion that I’ve been finding myself in lately,” Kagen said ahead of his headlining gig at Nashville’s Basement East. “I grew up in a house where my dad’s Jewish and my mom’s Catholic, so it left religion a little bit ambiguous for me.”
For Kagen, that wasn’t “a problem or an issue,” but rather something he found himself curious about.
“I just kept running into this thing where I was feeling like, if I would speak about it with certain people, we just stopped talking as actual people,” he said. “It became a competition or it just became oddly dehumanizing when we would talk about religion and things like that.”
That confounded Kagen, who noted, “Everybody wants the same thing, the same knowledge and understanding.”
“We’re talking about these things that we both don’t know, but that we have chosen to believe a certain thing,” he said. “… I had some frustration with that overall sentiment and wrote about a very particular conversation that I had with somebody where I was like, ‘What are we talking about?’”
As he reflected on the track, Kagen said he tries to be “curious and not judgmental” in life, something he hopes his listeners will likewise commit themselves to doing.
“I think if I were to pass anything on, I would say I feel like that’s the appropriate way to approach things,” he said. “… Ultimately the songs are never about what I actually think. I think they’re meant for people to take them and go have a conversation and talk about it.”
Jonah Kagen on His Sold Out Tour and Next Musical Chapter
Kagen’s latest song came out amid his sold out Sunflowers and Leather Tour, which he’s on in support of his debut album. This time around, Kagen’s shows have grown from rooms of 150 people to crowds of over 1,500.
“It hit me like a ton of bricks, honestly, the difference from the last time,” he said. “… It’s been insane. The jump up has just been so surreal.”
Predictably, crowds at Kagen’s shows have been going wild over his breakout hit, “God Needs the Devil,” which was recently certified Gold.
“I think I owe a lot to that song. It’s not lost on me,” Kagen said. “… I’m just proud of it. It’s a song that I did entirely myself, so getting that kind of recognition was really cool.”
Fans have been coming out in droves to Kagen’s shows, where they’re treated to standout performances of songs including “Burn Me” and “The Reaper,” a quieter, seated portion of the performance, masterful guitar- and banjo-playing, and plenty of self-deprecating jokes from the man of the hour.
“To see people all having a night around [the concert], it’s just a really cool thing,” Kagen said.
After his time on the road ends, Kagen will turn his focus to his sophomore album, which he hopes to release later this year.
The forthcoming LP, Kagen said, “is a combination of those bigger, popier songs with those Americana elements, and some much more stripped down songs.”
“There are a lot of frustrated songs, a lot of observations, but more than anything, it’s just a lot of heartache,” he said. “I think that’s at the core of it… The point is not for me to present my takes on things as much as it is [to share] what I’m experiencing.”
Photo by Sophia Matinazad
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