Meet the Producers Who United to Help Noah Kahan Craft ‘The Great Divide’
Categoria: Musica
Aaron Dessner and Gabe Simon open up about why it was "brilliant" of the singer-songwriter to get them together for his blockbuster 2026 album.
Por Billboard | 01/10/2026
The first time producers Aaron Dessner and Gabe Simon met was around the 2024 Grammys; the next was last spring, in Dessner’s upstate New York backyard. As Dessner puts it, that second meeting, at his Long Pond studio, was the pair’s “first immersion” into working together on what would become Noah Kahan ‘s epic 2026 album The Great Divide . There, with Kahan, they wrote three The Great Divide songs. While the two had different degrees of history with Kahan — Simon collaborated on Stick Season ; Dessner had a golf, soccer and getting-to-know-you writing session with him at Long Pond — the two united to help Kahan bring cohesion across the album’s 21 songs (including its deluxe edition). They spoke about why it was “brilliant” of Kahan to pair them up. Related ‘Every Moment Is Massive and Magnificent’: Noah Kahan Reflects on a Monumental Year — And Eyes a Grammys Breakthrough 6 Artists Who Lost the Best New Artist Grammy Could Be Nominated for Album of the Year at 2027 Awards Noah Kahan: Photos From the Billboard Cover Shoot Aaron, what made you want to work closely with Noah? Aaron Dessner: I was a fan, like everybody, of Stick Season and I had seen him play [at] Boston Calling [in 2023]. [My band] The National was playing after Noah and it was in Boston, an epicenter of his fanbase. And I remember all the dudes in The National were watching and everyone was singing every word and it was just amazing — and also classic The National, we had to go on after that and we were like, “Womp womp.” Gabe Simon: The curse of every great indie band. Dessner: And then when I got to record Gracie [Abrams] and play some guitar and stuff on [the Stick Season (Forever) remake of] “Everywhere Everything,” of course you get inside something and you feel things … Any songwriter, if you’re a fan and make music every day like we do, you always dream of how you would bounce off of it. Simon: I remember, this was probably August right before Noah went up to work with Aaron, and Noah came to me like, “Dude, I’m going to work with Aaron Dessner.” He was so excited. We had done “The Great Divide” early on in the process and then he was in this weird figuring-out-what-the-f–k-is-going-on phase. He had been doing some writing with outside writers and it wasn’t going well and it was the first time I saw a glimpse of him being excited about bringing in another collaborator. It was a perfect stimulus that we needed to start rounding the corner. Dessner: And from the other side, it was always clear that Gabe and Noah had been doing heavy excavation, basically, with “The Great Divide” and “Doors” and these huge songs that took a lot of effort to figure out what they were, and also pushing into places that were different, and Noah had nerves about that. Because you guys had made a really classic album that this was coming after, and that’s not the easiest thing for anyone. Simon: It’s a total b-tch. Eventually, when we got togethe