23-year-old singer and songwriter Jonah Kagen is making waves in the music industry, inviting his 2.6 million Spotify listeners to join his journey of self-discovery in his latest EP, The Roads released on Arista Records. The six-track project blends folk, rock, and pop includes popular singles like “18” and “Pollution,” as well as chart-climbing “The Roads,” which earned praise from Zach Bryan. Hailing from South Carolina, Kagen’s honesty and vulnerability shine through in The Roads, where he shares the theme of navigating life’s ups and downs with captivating lyrics and a one-of-a-kind acoustic vibe. The release of The Roads follows Jonah’s return from a year of touring, notably opening for Phillip Phillips, and precedes his upcoming headline tour, ‘Save My Soul’, which kicks off in March. I had the opportunity to sit down with Jonah and discuss his creative process for The Roads as well as his thoughts on his 2024 headline tour.
Payton: Congrats on your new EP, The Roads. Can you tell me about selecting “The Roads” as the title track and opening track?
Jonah Kagen: Yeah, thank you so much. When I wrote “The Roads”, I didn’t intend on it kind of being the through line in the project, but I realized that as I was writing I was really talking about the same theme—the sort of decisions that I’d made and the choices that I had made growing up and how they continue to affect me now. And that song really spoke to that sentiment for me. So I thought, you know, for the rest of the project, I thought, why not highlight a few of those actual roads and the choices that I made and the impact that they’ve had on me?
Payton: Is “The Roads” the first song you wrote for the EP?
Jonah: No, actually, the very first one that I wrote was “18” and then that one kind of fit into the project afterwards. “The Roads” was the first one that I wrote with that kind of way of thinking.
Payton: You were the sole songwriter for most of The Roads. Was that intentional?
Jonah: Yeah, I wasn’t necessarily thinking that I wanted to be the only one on it, but the more I [write], the more I realize that II have trouble properly expressing what I want to say when I’m in the room with other people. I don’t know if that’s just a vulnerability thing, or what, but… for other people’s projects I love writing with other people. For me, I don’t feel any sort of resistance at all when I’m writing for myself. Me being the sole songwriter was just a byproduct of that. It just flowed so much easier for me that way, so from here on out, I think that’s going to be the case. I’m not rejecting collaboration at all, but I feel very comfortable in the writing process when I can hole away and really dig in.
Payton: How do you think that affected your writing itself?
Jonah: I’ve heard people say all the time that the best songs are the ones that are scary to write or that feel weird sharing with the world, almost like it’s a very scary thing. To be honest, I hadn’t released anything like that. I had written about some real stuff and things that were true to me, but I’d never written anything that was hard to write from an emotional perspective. I think that allowing myself to write by myself and challenge that boundary made it so that what I was writing about was a lot more vulnerable and a bit scary to write. Then I could also say it in my voice in a way that didn’t have any compromise in it.
Payton: Were there any stylistic influences that came through even though you weren’t co-writing?
Jonah: Honestly, people in in the whole folk and country world, especially men in that world, the way that they communicate their feelings makes it cool for a guy to talk that way. That’s not to say that I don’t admire female artists in that space too. I think they’re unbelievable, but for me to have the example of somebody like Zach Bryan, who’s a manly military guy, to be very comfortable opening up without shame and being vulnerable and poetic. So Zach Bryan is a big one. Same thing with Noah Kahan and all of his success lately.
Payton: How did you select the songs on The Roads?
Jonah: This was the last project that I think I’m ever going to do that was not start to finish writing songs for that project. Once “The Roads” happened, I already had “18” and also “Pollution”. Then it was like, “okay, these kind of fit together.” Then “This Life Ain’t Easy” made its way in. Then I had a random co-write which made “Made Up My Mind” happen. Then there was “Save My Soul” which was made as song number six. So it wasn’t all done in one setting, which I honestly don’t prefer. I prefer to write everything in the same state of mind, so when the debut album comes, that’s going to be the way that I operate.
Payton: This is pretty visual album as you have music videos for every song. I like how each video is tied to nature or even a specific place like you mentioned on social media. Do you associate your songs with places when you’re writing?
Jonah: I don’t think they were made with those places in mind, per se, but they’re places that I love. I’m very tied to nature. I do pretty much all of my writing outside, and I spend most of my day outside. That is where I draw my inspiration from, and I’m particularly inspired by places like Montana and the west, where there’s just these unspeakable, powerful natural landscapes. I think you can kind of hear it in the music, so it wasn’t necessarily made to suit those places or to associate with those places, but they’re definitely an influence.
Payton: There’s one collab on this EP. Did you write “Make Up Your Mind” with Lily [Meola]?
Jonah: I wrote it with two other collaborators who were awesome. Lily was added afterwards because we thought it was a cool sound. So she’s singing the second verse that I wrote.
Payton: How do you think your style has evolved since Georgia Got Colder?
Jonah: This year was a huge revolution in how I was focusing on the sound. I really honed it this year, because I struggled to write deeply and vulnerably when I wasn’t by myself, and same thing went for like the sound. A lot of the time I was working with people and trying to find the right sound for them. I felt this compromise happening, so this past year, I really locked in on it myself and focused on my own production. I started talking while playing and seeing what happened. I think all of those in all of the songs started with just me and a guitar. And that’s what they were made for, and then other the songs built out after that. I think this was the defining moment of “This is the type of music that I’m going to be making for my career.” I love storytelling and the folky way of speaking. I think it’s it’s really powerful, so I feel much more comfortable about this project than I did with “Georgia Got Colder.”
Payton: Do you write from a lot of your own experience when you’re writing these more intimate songs? Is it hard to get inspiration while writing alone?
Jonah: I have trouble the other way around. There’s definitely no lack of inspiration when it comes to my experience or just the human experience for me. But where I have trouble is that there’s something even more personal about how you communicate [the meaning of songs] and how you can put it on paper. I like when people write about mundane things or take some tiny thing and turn it into a story. I think that’s a really cool way of writing. There’s always something to write about.
Payton: You’ve been on the road lately, playing some shows as a headliner and you also opened for Phillip Phillips. Do you have any highlights from those tours?
Jonah: I absolutely love playing in Denver. It’s so much fun. Such a cool place and the crowd is so lovely every single time, and I just love the people. Playing the Gothic Theatre was a big highlight. There are a couple of really cool venues, especially on the the Phillip Phillips tour, but doing the Europe tour with my dad was so much fun. Very few people get to have that kind of experience with their dad, so that was really fun. Also at the headline show in Charlotte, everyone was so kind and so many people came out. That was really meaningful to me, and they showed me so much love.
Payton: How does touring with Phillip or artists like Maisie Peters compare to performing in front of your own audience as a headliner?
Jonah: Oh, man, I I love them both. Being a support is almost more fun, just because there’s no pressure. Your task each time is to win over the audience because the audience isn’t yours. So it’s like a fun game that you get to play when you go out. It’s like, “how long is it going to take tonight before I have them?” That’s really fun, but I do feel like it’s much more emotional at the headline shows because you get to see the people who are there consuming your music and and being affected by it in real time. You get to talk to these people who have amazing stories or have traveled to come see you or something like that. It’s very meaningful to me to see all those people come out for you. I think that’s really special.
Payton: The acoustic folk genre has been getting a lot of traction. What rising artists have been on repeat for you?
Jonah: Oh man, I listened to Noah [Kahan] in high school, so he was one, obviously, but he’s huge now. Tyler Childers and Zach Bryan, those are those are big ones for me. I was always a Gregory Allen Isakov fan. As far as up and coming goes, I love Hans Williams. Vincent Lima also is a buddy of mine. I think he’s really, really talented. I think Chance Peña is an unbelievable artist, and he’s a friend of mine too.
Payton: How are you deciding what songs make the cut for the setlist?
Jonah: Sometimes I don’t really even have a setlist to be honest. A lot of it depends on the crowd and what the crowd is responding to. I played the SpongeBob theme song in Alabama on a complete whim, believe it or not. I did a cover of “Stick Season” in Charlotte, just because the somebody from the crowd screamed it and I’d never played that before. Generally, I have ones that I think are just really fun to sing live and are typically crowd favorites. Other than that, it’s a pretty fluid gametime decision almost always.
Payton: Do you have a favorite song off the EP? Is there one you are looking forward to playing the most?
Jonah: I do love them all but “The Roads.” I liked that song so much for so many reasons, but it just feels so right on the money of what I want the sound to be. It felt like a very transformative song in my career as well. That one is fun to play live and “Save My Soul” is also so much fun to play live because I get the crowd involved. The headline tour is going to be just me and a guitar, so it’ll be interesting to see how those songs translate in that setting
Payton: Will it be your first time playing some of the songs from this EP live or have you already played them?
Jonah: I’ve played all the songs on the EP except for “Made Up My Mind.” I will definitely be playing a lot of new stuff as well, including some unreleased stuff that’ll end up on the debut album.
Payton: When do you think the album will be released?
Jonah: I’m hoping summer of next year. Obviously it’s a lot of work to put an album together. I’m hoping to release some stuff before then, but I would love to drop it.
Payton: Anything else you’d like to say to your fans?
Jonah: Buy tickets and come see me on the road and stay tuned for more music things!
Stream Jonah Kagen’s The Roads here!
