Chappell Roan on Audience Participation, Playing a Character and Being Horny

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Raised in a trailer park in the American Midwest, Chappell Roan is on a mission to reclaim the musical associations with the Bible belt from Jesus music and emo bands to something lively, witty and unabashedly her own. Her songs, written specifically to anticipate audience participation, have become automatic anthems for her queer fanbase, as Chappell ensures that joy remains the focus of even her more ballad-esque tracks. 

Her first album - four years in the making - is called The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess. Anticipation for the record has been building and building as videos from Chappell’s chaotic live tour – each date with its own individual dress up theme and local drag queen back up dancers – repeatedly go viral across TikTok. Once you’re hooked into the Chappell Roan universe, resplendent in costumes and catchy choruses, Chappell’s lore gets all the more interesting: who IS the gal behind the lesbian mermaid music video? We sat down with the pop star to find out all we could about the method behind the madness.

Your songs are super driven by narrative - are the plots all lifted from real life or do you like creating stories for your music?

Every song is inspired by something that's real, or something that I really longed for. But it’s all a very exaggerated, dramatic version of real life. There’s almost a drag queen feeling around it, where it's very much larger than life to make a point. And when writing I always try to consider what’s going to be fun to perform, what’s fun for music videos, what’s fun for the listener? 

What I like about some of your bigger songs is the fun element in them, it’s almost like there’s an audience participation part of each track.

With every song I was very purposeful in including audience participation - most evidently in HOT TO GO!  It all goes back to the live shows – I’ve never really liked concerts where you attend and it feels like you’re just standing in the audience, watching someone. That they’re up there and I’m down here. I want to be with them! So I wanted my audience to feel like they’re in on it with me. I love outfits that are extra, makeup that is extra and just putting on as entertaining a show as possible. Even as a smaller artist, it’s really important to me to perform. I always loved performing in theatre before I got kicked out.

There’s an open raunchiness in your music that I really love, what made you want to prioritise horniness?

I think it has to do with my upbringing and the shame around sex and sexuality that I felt. It's really liberating for me, because I have such a difficult time - as Kayleigh - with sex. I have a hard time watching sex scenes or flirting with people! I get really uncomfortable with hyper sexual things. But as the drag queen that I play, Chappell, she's not like that - she is very confident and comfortable singing about those things. In every aspect of performing, I feel like if it's not bold, who cares? I don't want to hear it. I guess the thing with raunchiness is being specific with your audience. My act isn’t for kids. It’s the same as what is happening with drag at the minute. It's not really our job to parent your children, so you just need to take accountability for that. Sorry, it isn’t my issue, I don’t want your kids there.

The album title ‘The Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess’ really intrigued me, what does being Midwestern mean to you?

I’m from the Bible Belt. There's a lot of churches and there's a lot of straight people with families and it's just really encouraged to take on the role of a wife and mother. There’s this mentality that a woman should be treated like a princess, but also she should be a cook, a cleaner, a driver and so on. 

I never fit into that mould. I tried, I really really tried. I thought I was gonna get married right out of high school, at 18 or 19, and I thought I was gonna have a baby by 23. I tried to fit myself into that mould and it didn't work. It left me with a really interesting relationship with the Midwest.

But the Midwest remains a very big part of who I am. It's where I grew up and I do love certain parts of it - the peace and growing up in a trailer park; four wheeling, the farm and bonfires. I love it even more now because I can reflect on it all like “Oh, my God, this is so camp.” I'm very grateful now looking back that I am from such a conservative Christian background, because I understand the communities there and I understand where they're coming from. It's very easy to label communities that you don't understand and because I know the inner workings of it, I don't see it as anything it’s not. 

I love the DIY ethos that is at the centre of Chappell Roan - working with friends on visuals, local drag queens on support acts, all kinds of things - and I read that in the NME interview that you donated some ticket sales from your Spring tour to a Black trans charity, what brought on this decision?  

I find that it's my duty to give back to the queer community that supports me. I have a platform and I have money to redistribute and I really encourage other artists to give back too. 

I know Harry Styles has $1 of every ticket sold that goes to charity and there's a lot of bigger artists who do that - it's really hard as a smaller artist because you kind of need the tour sales in order to survive, so I've just done the best I can, but I see it as my duty to do so. I give back by creating a safe space for queer people: By talking about queer love and making a space for us to all dress up and feel fun and whatever, but what people really need, alongside that, is money to pay fucking rent! Especially Black trans communities, trans people have it harder in almost every aspect and it’s important to help the communities that need it most. 

I have this fear of looking back on my career and being like, “Why did I not try to use this project for good?” So I'm really trying to honour my feelings and community and give back where I can.

Words: Gina Tonic | Photographer and Creative Direction: Kirt Barnett | Stylist: Ivory Woods | MUA: Selena Ruiz | Hair: Heather Weppler | Gaffer: Kevin Cecil | Grip: Josh Gordon | Set Designers: Diana Kwiatkowski, Patricia Kwiatkowski, Matthew Haines | Location: Drip Dome

You can preorder The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess here.