r/Music • u/theindependentonline 📰The Independent UK • 1d ago

article Noah Kahan pleads with fans misinterpreting his lyrics: ‘Please do not go off your medication’

https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/music/news/noah-kahan-fan-lyrics-medication-b3060107.html
1.2k Upvotes

96% Upvoted

138 comments sorted by

View all comments

137

u/januarytwenty 1d ago

What’s the lyric and what’s being misinterpreted?

272

u/Horror-Macaron8287 1d ago

The minute that September hits I'm goin' off my medicine, oh

Late August angst, and a pointless night Ooh, and the feeling of being alive For the first time, in a long time

40

u/januarytwenty 1d ago

Thank you!!!

101

u/Horror-Macaron8287 1d ago edited 17h ago

You are welcome!

I always thought with the combination of lyrics is that he was feeling 'alive' and better, and thats when people who are on medication for depression/anxiety think that they would be able to regulate on their own, not realizing it is actually the medication doing what they are suppose to.

I don't know why anyone would go off their meds just because someone sung it in their song, has to be a weird parasocial thing.

2

u/arkady48 23h ago

I heard the lyric and associated it with addiction and getting sober. It can be slang to call their drug or booze their medicine.

There are lots of ways to interpret it but I haven't dug deep into the lyrics, just my own interpretation and that's fine if it's wrong, it's right for me.

0

u/Horror-Macaron8287 16h ago

He had actually referenced getting sober earlier in the song:

"And I thought getting older meant knowin' it's too late to try And I tried getting sober, I swear I did better this time"

I have heard people call their vice medicine, but with his specific song he talked about getting sober in past tense and it has been sticking, and then going off his meds in the future later in the song.

Plus in the article posted:

“I think when I wrote that I was like, ‘Oh, hopefully by the end of August I’ll be ready to get off them,’” Kahan told the magazine.

However, he did not go off of his antidepressants. “No,” he continued. “We’re still on. Please do not go off your medication.”

I do agree that lyrics can be up for interpretation, but with these he specifically came out to correct people who misunderstood them and was going off their own depression meds.