Noah Kahan took writing a song for the new Hunger Games movie “very seriously”.
The Stick Season hitmaker wanted to do justice to young Haymitch Abernathy and his District 12 girlfriend Lenore Dove when penning Draw You Out for The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
Noah, who was already a fan of the franchise, told Billboard magazine: “Music is such a massive part of the Hunger Games in a lot of ways.
“And to be able to speak to what the director sees in these characters, what Suzanne Collins wrote these characters for, and to try to match that is a big task – but a really fun challenge.”
Taylor Swift, Lorde, Coldplay and Olivia Rodrigo have all released songs for the blockbuster dystopian sci-fi series, but the pressure came more from wanting to honour the people behind it all, including author Suzanne Collins and director Francis Lawrence.
He explained: “Not just because of the company that you’re keeping with Taylor, Lorde, Olivia, Coldplay.
“It’s more doing justice to a bunch of people that have a really deep, intimate connection with these characters and these stories, and the trust from a director to be like, ‘you could do this,’ is really special. I take that very seriously.”
It was also important that Noah had a personal connection: “I want[ed] there to be part of me in it, as a way to find parts of me in part of this character, and making sure that I didn’t feel like I was sacrificing either one.”
He further explained: “I think if you’re like, ‘I’m just going to write a song about Haymitch,’ if I have to play it for the rest of my life or if I have to sit there in the studio and put a lot of love into it, I don’t know if I can connect with it if I don’t feel like parts of me are in there.
“And I really do feel proud of being able to find that balance on this song. It’s a really cool experience, and I just can’t believe that I get to be a part of it.”
Noah is known for his melancholy and his knack for hiding heartbreak inside a glossy, radio‑ready beat – and he has no plans to switch lanes.
He said: “It [Draw You Out] is sad, but you’re not really coming to me if you’re looking for heartwarming. This is not the scene where they’re all like, fighting back.
“I guess there is some hope in it … There are some uplifting things in there, but if you really listen, [I’m] still saying sad stuff. It just happens to have a cool beat behind it.”
Draw You Out is out now.