Southern California based singer-songwriter and producer Noah Henderson has always showcased raw emotion in his music, vulnerable lyrics surrounded by gentle guitar lines and cinematic, sweeping instrumentals. Crafting his signature sound through a string of singles, he is currently gearing up to release his debut EP.
His latest single “bring your love (to the light)” fuses the emotional lyricism with a more upbeat, electronic sound, creating what Henderson has coined ‘heartbreak house’— healing music that you can dance to. The poignant lyricism that listeners have come to expect from Henderson is paired with a bouncy electronic beat, shifting gears a bit from his past releases. Despite this shift in genre, Henderson’s emotion and intention is a grounding force throughout the song, tying the old in with the new.
Ahead of the release of his upcoming EP I sat down with Noah to chat about the project, his latest single, and this exciting time in his career.
Brigid Young: Thank you for taking the time to chat with me today! Congratulations on the release of your latest single, “bring your love (to the light)!” How are you feeling about the reception to it?
Noah Henderson: Thank you! It’s been really cool, it’s my first dance song, I guess. I guess technically my second, but [the first was one] I was featured on. The song is obviously more upbeat and kind of in that house space, but it’s been doing the same things that my other songs have done. Being very healing for people, helping them, speaking to something they’re going through. I think that’s been really special. The support on it has been awesome. It got on a bunch of all the cool new dance music playlists, which is what I was hoping for. I think overall the response has been great. I think sometimes when artists do a completely different style, the fans are like, woah, we don’t like that! But I think with this one, I found a way to kind of keep everything the same and still kind of bounce between the different vibes. Just because I produce all my stuff, and I like to just make what I think sounds cool.
BY: It was a good segue, definitely. The more dance elements in the production, but still with the same lyrical themes. You vlogged the experience of creating that track in the studio, I think it’s really cool that you create these behind the scenes videos showcasing your process. I was curious on your perspective on the motivation to share this type of content with your audience?
NH: That’s a good question, most people don’t even know I have a Youtube! I think my original inspo was Jon Bellion. He’s probably one of my favorite people that I’ve been inspired by, just as a creative person. He has all these behind the scenes, and the making of a lot of my favorite songs. It’s showcasing all of those little details and things that most people probably don’t care about, but me… I’m like, woah, that’s cool. He’s so passionate. He spent 12 hours on a kick drum sample, or something. So, I was like, I wanna do that. I think I do fun things. I don’t always post about them, but I wanna be able to share them with people. I like to send stuff back home to my grandma and my family. They don’t understand what I do. So I’m like, here’s a 12 minute video of what I did this week. It’s fun. I like making videos, I like documenting things. I like being able to look back, like oh yeah, I remember when that happened! Or… there’s a few videos of the process of making this song, and I didn’t really know what was going to come out. Now that it came out, I’m like, that’s cool that that was already in previous videos, the process of it.
BY: In your behind the scenes videos, something you shared was that you were trying to make music in different spaces other than your house. How do you feel that different environments, different studios impact your creative process?
NH: A ton. I am so environment based. I live in SoCal, it’s so sunny here, it’s always warm and happy. That doesn’t necessarily mesh with a lot of my songs. For example, my song “nothing worse than almost having you.,” I started that here at home… Well, I started it a couple years ago. Anyways, I worked on it at home, and I had like, 20 percent to go. I was like, I can’t figure it out here. So I flew to Portland, Oregon. Went to the coast. It was rainy and foggy there. [I was] there for a week to get into the space, and I was able to finish it. It came out perfect, exactly how I wanted. I don’t think I would’ve been able to do that here in sunny California. It’s not the same vibe.
BY: It helps to be immersed, for sure.
NH: Yeah, I think a song I write in rainy Portland, Oregon is not the same song… like if you gave me the same beat, the songs would be written completely differently. You just feel a certain way in different places. I think catering to that is always a way to help me when I feel stuck.
BY: Your debut EP is upcoming, what was the journey like creating an entire project, compared to creating stand alone singles?
NH: I don’t think it looks any different, I think it’s more of… I kind of just make a song when I’m feeling some type of way, and so I think for me, every song is just so intentional. When it’s like, okay, let’s put out an EP, I’m kind of going through the songs and seeing which ones are cohesive, and tell a little section of the story. Which [songs] sonically fit together. But also, I like my music to be a rollercoaster. I like to have… like my song “floorboards.” starts very intimate, and then it gets to this huge drop part. I think for an EP or an album, it’s fun to reel people in, and give them that whole experience. I just make songs and I’m like, alright, these ones sound good together! I think as a byproduct, it actually is something bigger than that. Maybe I just don’t realize it until after I see it out, and then I’m like oh, there’s a bigger theme in that body of work. Because it came from a particular place I was at.
BY: Like subconsciously, they all have something in common that you didn’t necessarily see during the individual song creation processes.
NH: Yeah, I feel like that happens every time I put out a song… I don’t even like it for a couple months. I’m just happy for it to be out and done. Then I circle back, and I’m like, woah, that’s actually a really powerful song. Then I see all the underlying messages and things that I know I meant to do, but I either forgot or didn’t realize. I’m sure with this song I just put out… I’m so sick of hearing it and working on it. But I’m sure in a few months I’ll be like, oh, I understand why everyone was saying these things about it.
BY: Do you feel like that’s just part of being an artist? When your art is just yours for a while, it stops resonating, but once others have access to it, you’re able to reconnect with it?
NH: I think so. At least for me, I’m so passionate about it, and I want it to be excellent. Every little detail is so important to me. I get so sucked in, and then it’s hard to objectively look at your art. I think that’s just the nature of the craft and pursuing.
BY: With this latest single, you’ve shifted into a more upbeat sound. Is that something that can be expected from the rest of the upcoming project? What did that journey look like, in regards to landing in this sonic space?
NH: In the summer, I’m like, I should put out something more upbeat. I posted this song, and I was like, this is my summer sidequest, I want to make an upbeat song. So that was the original, I was just messing around and I posted the video and it blew up, so I had to finish it! I always hope my music is hopeful, there’s an undertone of hopefulness even though there’s a lot of pain and nostalgia involved. This song… I wanted to get a little more of the hope, have people dancing, I was saying in my videos ‘dance that can heal a broken heart.’ That was kind of the heart behind it. Encouraging people. I’ve been in a place where I’ve been hurt, my heart’s been broken, I’ve been scared to bring it back again. That’s kind of the inspo behind “bring your love (to the light)”, it’s like, you don’t have to hide for so long. You can come and try again. That’s what life’s about. It’s hard to get to that spot, but that was kind of the message and the goal of that song. I produce all my stuff, so sometimes I get sick of making sad music. I think for the EP, it’s still being shifted around and whatnot, but I think overall I wanted to introduce this kind of sound because I want to do both as I go forward. I want to be able to have these really intimate, healing songs, and then also songs that are hopeful and happy. I don’t know exactly what’s next, but I know it’ll be toggling between a lot of these things, just to make it fun. You never know what you’re going to get. I think for tour it’ll be fun, whenever I go on tour, to have these… like a rollercoaster. You have the moments where everyone’s there with you, and we’re all like, singing the songs, but then we’re dancing. It creates an experience.
BY: When you were creating this EP, what did you find yourself inspired by?
NH: I think just the maturity of my heart. A lot of things that I’ve been going through the past year and a half, looking back a year and a half ago to now and seeing the through line. I still feel the same things, but they’re different, I guess. Sonically, Bon Iver has always been a big inspo for me. Coldplay, but also like, ILLENIUM. I don’t really know what the EP is going to be, it’s just going to be something sick. It’ll just be another chapter in my story of songs. I feel like they all somewhat tell a story, the progression. I don’t know what it’ll be, but I know it’ll make sense when it comes out. That’s kind of how I operate, I don’t know what I’m doing until it’s done. And then I’m like, ‘oh, yeah, that’s what it needed to be.’
BY: You produce all of your own stuff, how has your creative process evolved over the course of your career?
NH: My creative process sucks! [laughs] It’s so all over the place. I write a chorus, then it takes me a year to finish the song because nothing feels right. I always try a bunch of things. I know when something feels wrong, so I keep trying things. My song “nothing worse than almost having you.” I wrote the chorus of that when my song “i think you loved me” came out, and then it took me over a year to finish it because nothing felt right, but I knew it was going to be a good song, so I was like, I’m just going to keep coming back. My creative process just takes forever. It’s just me sitting, thinking, writing, recording things, and all of my songs I have finished like, five days before they came out pretty much. It’s always down to the wire because I’m like, okay, it’s not right yet but I already told people it was coming out. It’s just kind of all over the place. Which is fun, but it’s also not predictable. I can’t just sit down and make a song in two days and put it out. I have to let it sit and make sure it’s right. It’s almost like little checks and balances, in my creative process. Sometimes I’ll think something’s cool, and the next day I’m like, oh no, that sucks.
BY: Trial and error, for sure. This past weekend you did a DJ set at the Coca Cola Studios in LA, I was wondering what that experience was like for you, especially compared to your usual live performance experience?
NH: It was so fun. I just premiered the set on Youtube. I don’t usually do that, and so to be able to bring all my vibes but more upbeat, and people can dance, it was really cool. DJing… you’re obviously doing a lot of things, but you’re not like, singing, performing. So that was really the first time I got to enjoy my own music with everyone. Versus being like, okay, I gotta sing, gotta make sure I remember the lyrics, all that stuff. But DJing, I was able to just be dancing around and having fun. To play my new song live for the first time the day after it came out was really special. It was just fun. Partnering with Coca Cola was super sick. It was cool. I could foresee more of that happening more in my future, playing like a festival set like that. Maybe just me DJing, but it’s more my vibes. I was crying at the end of it, it was really cool. It was super special. It’s like, the same vibe that happens when I play live, was the same thing that was happening when I was DJing. It was like Bon Iver, but house. So yeah, it was fun.
BY: That’s cool that you were able to engage with listeners in a different way, totally. To wrap up here, you touched on it a bit earlier, but when it comes to this upcoming project, what do you hope listeners take away from it?
NH: Just kind of the same things I’m always wanting and hoping for my listeners to take away. It’s cliche, but you’re not alone in all these things. I write about very specific niche feelings, things you go through, you’re not alone in it. There’s hope and healing for those things. It’s human to feel those things. It’s beautiful to be heartbroken, it’s beautiful to be happy. I think the goal is just to speak life into people who are going through it and feel alone. I know I did, and that’s why I started making music in the first place, to get [those things] out. I think if a song of mine can comfort someone and make them feel less alone, less hurt and feel understood, then that’s success for me. To make something that can give back. People send me messages about what a song helped them through, and I’m just like, that’s what music’s about. Everything else is just a little bonus. I feel very fortunate to already be experiencing that from stuff I make, that’s what I hope to continue to do.
Listen to Noah Henderson here and check out his website here!
