Noeline Hofmann on Her Breakout Duet With Zach Bryan: ‘I’ve Seen a Lot More of the World Since’

By Joseph Hudak

Joseph Hudak

Noeline Hofmann is poised to be your new favorite country songwriter — she’s already one of Zach Bryan’s. When the Canadian singer wrote a song about a special type of dyed fuel that only farmers in her community could buy, it caught the ear of Bryan, who recorded “Purple Gas” with Hofmann as a duet. She went on to release it on her 2024 EP, and, in a new interview with Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast, says she’s been awed by the “velocity of my trajectory” ever since.

Before a live audience at a bar outside of Nashville, Hofmann talks about writing “Purple Gas,” the impact of Bryan’s endorsement, and the time she went up in her father’s crop-dusting plane as a little girl — her family operates an “aerial application” business in Alberta, Canada. Highlights of our interview follow, and you can watch the full episode below.

You recently performed at the Grand Ole Opry and Ricky Skaggs was on the lineup. Why was it important that he was there that night? The first trip I ever made to Nashville, Tennessee, I was 19, and drove down by myself for three days, down to visit Kentucky and Nashville and try and meet as many artists and people as I could, and visit all of the great tourist spots of music history down here, including the Grand Ole Opry. None other than Ricky Skaggs was on the bill. I sat in the very farthest seat you can possibly get from the stage in the building, because I could not afford any other ticket. And so this was very special and full circle.

Did you get a chance to tell him that? I did. I told the story onstage, not thinking that Ricky would ever hear it or be listening at all. But it turned out that he was side stage during my performance, and was the first person to greet me when I came off the stage.

You grew up in Canada, in a very rural area. What did your parents do? I grew up in a small town in southern Alberta, the Badlands of southern Alberta, about an hour from the Montana border, called Bow Island, Alberta. It was a town of about 1500, maybe 2000 people now. My parents run an aerial application or crop-dusting business. So, they spray fields. It’s a really intensive industrial agriculture area. We can grow a lot of specialty crops directly around the town that I grew up. You drive pretty much in either direction, and it becomes more grazing and ranch land.

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Aerial application — was your dad a pilot? Yeah, my dad is a pilot, and they employ two other pilots.

Did you ever go up in the crop-dusting planes, or are they just one-seaters? They’re one-seaters. I went up once, and this is probably super illegal, so I’m not gonna say my dad’s name, but I went up on my 10th birthday. My dad took me up in one of the spray planes, and now he has a little two-seater, real passenger plane to take us up. But that’s the only time I would have been small enough to fit in there. There’s no way you can fit two people in there.

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You had your big breakthrough with a song called “Purple Gas.” When I heard that title, I had no idea what that meant, but it’s something that’s very unique to the farming community and to Canada. How were you able to take this thing that is very local to you and turn it into a universal song? I feel like when I’m writing a song, I’m not really thinking about if even somebody else is going to understand it. I wanted to write a song about purple gas, just because I thought it would make for an interesting song and interesting metaphor. I think a lot of writers shy away from writing overly specific or personal experiences or terms, like geographical terms. But that’s always what makes me fall in love and connect with the song more. I dont think you need to actually have a lived experience to be able to relate to the feeling of a song.

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Could you tell us briefly, though, what purple gas is? If you’ve heard of red diesel or pink diesel out here… it’s basically dyed fuel, it’s marked, and it’s tax deducted. So, it’s cheaper fuel for farmers and ranchers and agricultural workers to purchase, because it takes a huge amount of fuel to power these farms and equipment and operations. So, you get a little bit of a tax break. And back home, just in Alberta, we’ve got a special license plate sticker that’s a farm plate for purple gas, and that means that you’re allowed to fill up with the purple gas. But if you’re caught burning purple gas and you don’t have the sticker, then you get a ticket.

So Zach Bryan heard the song and was drawn to that song. What did it mean to have the co-sign of a superstar artist like that? It’s probably a slippery slope, too, because you don’t want to be defined by that. You still want to stand on your own as Noeline Hofmann. Yeah. The impact that that co-sign had on my career, and the velocity of my trajectory and all of this, I will say the work that I did beforehand allowed me to make the most of an opportunity like that — and a relationship and a friendship with Zach. The first appearance I ever made on Spotify was the duet with Zach on “Purple Gas,” then I released my solo version when my EP came out. Obviously, Zach gave me this amazing platform to jump off of on a real scale. I really can’t tell you how impactful and powerful that his support of my career has been and his belief in me.

You also have a really great knack for picking songs to cover. How did you find Luke Bell’s “The Bullfighter”? I’ve been listening to Luke Bell since I was a teenager, and I especially resonated with “The Bullfighter” when I made the decision to put all my cards on the table and start pursuing a music career full time. “The Bullfighter” was sort of a friend and a support to me. The lyrics of the song, the way that I understood them or took them — whether or not it was the way that Luke intended — was a mantra and a motto for me. I started covering it in my sets, in the bars, and it has stayed in the set for years. It’s just been such an important part of my journey and my own personal life and connection that it had to be recorded, as a timestamp, and honoring the legacy of Luke.

You also recently recorded your version of Guy Clark’s “Dublin Blues.” Not an original statement to make, but I love guy Clark’s songwriting. I’m super inspired by Guy Clark’s songwriting, and especially “Dublin Blues,” another song that was a soundtrack to my personal life at the time and journey. When we got the offer to tour with Zach in Dublin, we did three nights at Phoenix Park…. I figured, well, we’ve got to try and work out an arrangement to cover the song. That’s the first time that we did it as a band. It was in Dublin, specifically, with the intention of just singing it in Dublin. But it had such a great reaction that we ended up keeping in the set, and it’s never left the set since then, even though we only planned to sing it for three nights in Dublin.

Let’s talk about your own songwriting. How has your process evolved, and what’s been influencing you? I think I’m always looking for the same things as always. I’ve just seen a lot more of the world since. A lot of the themes that are shaping up are sort of, you know, these forgotten corners and characters in North America and the stories within those spaces. I’m really inspired by these overlooked details, and love to let them tell the story.

Anything you can tell us about your upcoming debut album? It’s going to be produced by Gena Johnson. I’m so excited about that. She’s one of my very favorite people that I’ve met in town, wonderfully talented and the best person you’ll ever meet. I just can’t wait to work with her.

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