Noah Thompson Talks New Single, ‘Find ‘Em In A Bar,’ Life On Tour, And Being A Dad

Between long stretches on the road, hours spent in the writing room, and trips back home to see his young son, Noah Thompson’s world is a constant balancing act of music and family. Still, it’s the music that continues to drive him.

His current single, “Find ‘Em In A Bar,” is the latest track to shine a spotlight on his career. Sonically, it takes a slightly different direction with the addition of trap beats, but at its heart, the tune still carries the kind of meaningful storytelling plucked from real-life experiences that Thompson values in his songwriting. On top of that, it’s become a popular addition to his setlist that energizes both him and his audience during live shows.

Fans almost instantly connected with the song, which Thompson penned with Jon Stark and Adam James. The narrative for the song originated from a conversation between the American Idol alum and his dad. While reflecting on an experience where he met a girl at a bar, seemed to hit it off, and then never spoke again—the same story told in the lyrics—his dad offered some powerful advice that immediately sparked Thompson’s creativity.

Not thinking much about it, he shared a preview of the song on social media using a video that found him and his grandma casually listening to the lyrics unfold. The video racked up the views at such a rapid pace that Thompson new he had to put it out as soon as possible. So what started as a casual moment inspired by advice from his dad turned into a story that fans are now singing back at shows, proving that sometimes the most unplanned ideas end up making the biggest impact.

From new releases to upcoming tour stops on his Kids Like Me Tour and a candid look into his role as a dad, Noah Thompson dives into all things music, life, and more in this exclusive Q&A.

It’s been a minute since we’ve caught up. Give us an update on what your daily life looks like right now?

We’ve been staying busy on the road as much as possible. I’ve just been writing as much music as possible. I try to get back to Nashville as much as I can and write and just all those things, man. Trying to find the best songs to release and whatnot. Trying to stay on top of socials as much as possible, everything like that. All those things, man, that’s kind of honest to God, that’s really all my life consists of at the moment. I try to go home and see my little boy every so often when I can. And that’s kind of my life. That’s just about it. And I go to the gym every so often. That’s about it.

Now that your son, Walker, is four years old, is he starting to understand your career better?

He’s something else. Honestly, I think it’s just one of those things where the kid understands. And his mother, I’m beyond grateful to have her. I couldn’t ask for a better mother to my child. At the end of the day, we have the best friendship overall anything. I couldn’t ask for a better person to be watching my son while I’m away. She’s just a great person overall, and I’m just blessed to have her in that way, man. But she understands and I call him as much as possible, talk to him on the phone and whatnot, and he gets it. He knows that dad’s job is a lot different than everybody else’s. So we try to explain that to him and he gets it though. So it’s one of those things. But he gets it. He’s a cool kid. He really is. 

You recently shared a photo of the two of you on your motorcycle and you looked just alike. How did it feel to see so much of yourself in him in that moment?

That’s what people say, man. We took the picture and my buddy’s the one that took the picture of us, and we turned our heads and we were both making the exact same face. I was like, holy sh**, man, he looks just like me. I thought it was cool. The kid, he just loves anything like that, man. He loves motorcycles, all that stuff. He’s all about that stuff. So I get him on the bike all the time and start it up. He loves it.

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Your new single, “Find ‘Em In A Bar” is out now. What made you decide to release this song unexpectedly?

I don’t know. A lot of the times, I mean, I’m definitely going to let the audience speak for the songs, you know what I mean? And if people like it, then okay, but I’m not going to lie at the end of the day. Not to come at anybody, man. I’m not saying it like this, it’s just that there’s so many people that are trying to be Morgan [Wallen], trying to chase what Morgan is and doing this and that. I’m truly not in any aspect whatsoever. I just put the song up because I thought it was a good song, and my grandma loved the song, and we just made a little clip and just to see what people would think about it, and it got more traction than anything I’ve done in forever. So I’m like, I better put it out. 

Can you share a bit more about the conversation with your dad that inspired the story behind the song?

I was at a bar one night, me and my buddy Arthur, we were at a bar, this was like a year or two ago now. I was at a bar and I had met this girl and we were talking, having a good time, whatnot. And long story short, never talked to the girl again. Then I talked to my dad about it the next morning and my dad said, ‘well, bud, usually if you find ‘em in a bar, you’re going to lose ‘em in a bar.’ I was like, holy sh**. I just thought that was the coolest thing in the world for some reason. The way he said that, I was like, oh my God, that’s a song, dude. So I instantly just wrote it down on my phone. I came to Nashville. I came to my buddy Jon Stark and [Adam James]…But man, we’ve only wrote that one song together. We sat down, I was like, ‘dude, I think this could be something cool.’ At the time I was thinking it would be called ‘Lose Em In A Bar’ rather than ‘Find Em In A Bar’. That was the title I had. That was the title I’d initially written down, and I wrote that and I had this little riff in my head and everything where I wanted it to go and where I thought it could land and whatnot. But then we mixed and matched it, and it just came together. I think it came out perfectly. That’s exactly how I kind of imagined it would go. I was super stoked about it, but I never thought…it was just something fun to write. 

How has it felt to see fans have such a positive reaction to the song?

It’s done pretty well. People seem to really do like it, so it’s pretty nice to see what it’s doing. But at the end of the day, I’m not trying to just get stuck on the whole trap beat thing, I guess, if that makes any sense. Which I’m not against those, and I still like to write those. I really do. I enjoy writing, I had a ball when we wrote that song, and it’s a true story. It really is. I wrote it about a specific time in my life with a couple of my buddies, and I just thought it was a really cool song. I don’t know, I just wanted to see what people thought about it, but obviously, yeah, it got more traction than a lot of things I’ve done in the past.

Do you find that sometimes the most unplanned posts tend to do the best among your followers?

It is crazy, man. I mean, it’s literally just me and my grandma, you know what I mean? It’s the most non-creative thing I could possibly think of, and that’s what it was. And it, I don’t know. It’s weird how it works, honestly. 

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Will your grandma be making any more appearances in any other videos?

Literally people said if we make a music video, my grandma, I’ll straight up put my grandma in a music video with it and I don’t know, do something. I’ll take her to the bar with me or something. That’d be hilarious.

Were you already playing “Find ‘Em In A Bar” live when it gained traction online or has it been a new add to your set list?

No, we threw it into the set as soon as it kind of had its little moment on Instagram and stuff, like. We started playing it live and ever since then, we play it now for sure. But I never planned on releasing that song, honestly, I just didn’t. But then, yeah, so it had its little thing. It seemed like people truly liked it. We’ve been playing it live, and people seem to love it too in our live show. So I’m all about it. At the end of the day, like I said, I think just letting the audience speak for themselves, and if they like that, then that’s what they like, and that’s okay. I’m cool with that. If you guys want to hear me sing that stuff, then I can do that…Especially in my songs, I want to be a storyteller. I want to write those songs that have those deeper connections because that’s where my heart is. But at the end of the day, I don’t think there’s nothing wrong with having those kinds of songs be thrown in there in the mix every so often. 

This release follows “Kids Like Me” which served as the title to your latest EP as well as your current tour. Talk about the impact of that track.

Well, I mean, more than anything, out of all the songs I had written at that point in my life, that song was the one that just really kind of set the stage for all the other ones. That was the song that I wrote that felt like opened a lot of other doors, man. It led me to writing ‘Upbringing’ with a couple other buddies. Then that song led me to writing ‘What You’re Made Of,’ that was the song that kind of led me to do all those other things and open up all those other projects. That was the song for me, and it was a song that I felt like I needed for a long time in my own way. I wanted to write that song for so long. I just didn’t know how, I didn’t know what it was or what I necessarily wanted to say in it, and it took me becoming independent and finding myself in that way to sit down and really write that song, you know what I mean? Then like I said, I felt like everything else just kind of opened up, which was a beautiful thing. It really was. And then when we put all those songs together, it just felt like overall, that was the song that opened all those doors and it kind of paved that road for all those songs. So we just put ’em all on there together and just called it ‘Kids Like Me.’ But that was the first real project I got to truly work on, take my time on and work through. But yeah, it just felt like it was kind of right to call it that. 

Are you working towards building out a full-length album for the near future?

I think that EP, for me, was something that I needed to get out on the table. I think that section of that is kind of closed off. I mean, there’s definitely more of those songs to come 100%, but I think at the end of the day, things like with ‘FIND EM IN A BAR,’ not that song particularly, but I want to mix and match and find those songs that I love to play live that are fun to play, and then also the songs that we can sit when I’m playing in a live performance, there’s people there that almost want to sit and cry because they love that song so much. It’s done something for their life, you know what I mean? Truly helped them in whatever they were going through. That’s where I’m at. So I want to find those and really take my time and write those songs, man. But also, like I said, yeah, mix and match and find the fun songs too, that people can come and have a good time at our shows as well. 

Fans can keep up with Noah Thompson on Instagram.