Chappell Roan Breaks Down the Pros & Cons of Her Rapid Rise to Fame: ‘My Entire Life Has Changed’
Since releasing her hit album The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess back in September, Chappell Roan has seen a lot of rise and almost no fall. Now, she’s ready to talk about everything that comes with that.
For Interview Magazine‘s new cover story, Roan sat down with Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang to get real about her rapid ascent in the modern pop space — one that has seen seven of her songs chart on the Billboard Hot 100 while her album recently hit No. 2 on the Billboard 200.
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While Roan maintains that she’s glad to see people finally recognizing the hard work she puts in, she can’t help but feel confounded by what’s happened. “This is really weird and really hard,” she explained to Yang. “In the past, honestly, eight weeks, my entire life has changed.”
With the charts reflecting a lot of Roan’s success, the singer took a moment during the interview to explain her complicated feelings about how that chart success has translated into her career. “I’ve never given a f–k about the charts or being on the radio, but it’s so crazy how industry people are taking me more seriously than before. I’m like, ‘I’ve been doing this the whole time, b—h,'” she said. “My career doesn’t mean anything more now that I have a charting album and song. If anything, I’m just like, ‘F–k you guys for not seeing what actually matters.’ A chart is so fleeting. Everyone leaves the charts.”
Part of what’s made the transition so difficult, she explained, has been watching the conversation around her music become “automatically political because I’m gay.” Looking back at her Governors Ball performance — where Roan spoke out about trans rights and why she declined an invitation from the White House to perform during Pride — Roan said she was inherently nervous to speak so openly about queer issues.
“Gov Ball was really hard. It was hard to be like, ‘I’m going to say something that a lot of my family is going to be like, ‘Wow, you crossed the line,'” she explained. “It’s emotional because I believe what I said, and what’s sad is that me believing in who I am, and what I stand for, rubs against a lot of my home.”
But Roan also knows that reaching the level of success she has means she now has a significant amount of creative control over the work she does. “I’m just very lucky that I have the leverage to say no and yes,” she told Yang. “I mean, it’s awesome knowing that I have a job … I’ve never been guaranteed money before. That’s the difference. I’ve always been a writer, but I didn’t start making money to pay my rent until last year.”
That leverage means that Roan gets to have a significant hand in how she decides to release her music. With fans wondering when she’ll release new songs — such as her unreleased track “Subway” that she debuted live at Gov Ball — Roan says she knows what release strategy will work best for her career.
“My career has worked because I’ve done it my way, and I’ve not compromised morals and time,” she said. “I have not succumbed to the pressure. Like, ‘B—h! I’m not doing a brand deal if it doesn’t feel right. I don’t care how much you’re paying me.’ That’s why I can sleep at night.”
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