"I'll be honest, and I know this sounds cocky, but I'm not that surprised people like it because it's really good."

Bold, brash, bonkers and brilliant, Chappell Roan is one of the biggest sensations of 2023 and has made one of the best records of the year with her flamboyant and inspirational debut album, 'The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess'.

She's currently riding a pop wave, having worked incredibly hard for almost a decade, and it came close to never happening at all. Chappell's story is one of perseverance and the importance of staying true and expressing yourself in the best way possible.

Of course, the music on the album is amazing. Turbo-charged pop bangers full of wit, vitality and in-your-face exuberance mixed with dramatic, emotionally charged balladry for the perfect pop confection. The songs are only half the story, though. The real joy of Chappell Roan is the aesthetic and community the 25-year-old singer has built, influenced by her passions, which have informed the world she's cultivating.

"I love going to drag shows," she begins as she tells Dork about one of the guiding lights of the whole Chappell Roan phenomenon. "I feel like when I was 7 and I saw Princess Jasmine at Disney World for the first time; that's the feeling I get when I watch drag. It's like seeing a real-life princess. I just have the best time watching a drag show. I love seeing queens express themselves in such a dramatic and campy way. It's so joyful. It's very inspiring for my show. Also, the fashion and the dancing, I love everything about drag."

In many ways, the art of drag was the primary inspiration for her vision for Chappell Roan. "I just wanted a girl who was free and unapologetically herself. I wanted to create concerts where people could dress up and have a blast. I just wanted to be a drag queen," she laughs.

The journey to the point where Chappell is free to express herself in such a positive and joyful way was difficult, though. From her earliest musical exploration doing covers on YouTube, Chappell was identified as a star, but the last decade has seen a number of roadblocks as she tried to navigate the perils of the modern-day music industry. The album was a long time in the making. "It was a very big relief. I could finally breathe for a second," she sighs.

Despite years of slow-burning as a bit of a cult niche legend, the time since the album's release has seen something of a skyrocketing rise for Chappell. "It feels like a whirlwind, but at the same time, I'm very at peace with how everything turned out. I couldn't really have asked for a better release. Everything has gone so well."

There was a time when things were very much not going well, and a less confident character may have just packed everything in. "The past few years have been very hard," she reflects. "I got dropped in 2020, and I ran out of money. I had to move back in with my parents. I'm so lucky. I'm really proud of myself that I stuck with it because it was pretty bleak for a long time."

Faced with darkness and turmoil, Chappell decided the only way forward was to embrace silliness and excess and become the star she knew she was destined to be. "Writing the album has just taught me to let go of being so serious," she exclaims. "I've allowed myself to write things that maybe some would say is tacky, but actually, I just think it's camp. It's been a growing process of allowing myself to just have fun. I think the music industry, especially in the US, is very serious, and they don't want you to have fun."

So, how did she keep the faith that she would succeed in those dark moments? "It was just grin and bear it," she says. "This is horrible, but I have to give it a shot. I gave myself a year. I moved back to LA, and if by this time next year, I feel the same and I'm not anywhere new in my career after I've tried everything, then I'm going to take that as a sign that I need to step away. I think I had to honour the inner child in me who had to be obnoxious and loud and wear gaudy outfits. I was trying to do her justice and try my best to get there. Oh my god, it was horrible. It was so bad. I was grinning through the pain of it all."

These ups and downs are reflected in the story of the album. It's a rollercoaster of emotions. "It represents me as a person," she explains. "I'm very sensitive. I'm definitely romantic. That comes with high highs and low lows. That's where the album title 'The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess' comes into play. The songs capture that feeling. It showcases how I'm three-dimensional."

Chappell has always had great songs and an ear for pop hooks. You can hear that all over the album, but what really brought her fully into the pop consciousness was her personality and everything that encapsulates the world around her music. Chappell Roan fully understands the inherent ridiculousness of pop and the mad world it inhabits and isn't afraid to embrace that every step of the way.

"I got on TikTok, and I also got to show my personality and how I love to thrift and have style and do makeup and stuff," she says. "I saw that people were not only connecting to the music but this aesthetic I was building of this DIY pop girl. I was like oh, I have more to play with here than just music. I have a whole world that I can build. I just filled that out and used drag and burlesque as stakeholders."

Chappell Roan is making capital P pop redolent of a different era of pop glory but with a very modern and knowingly smart vibe. "I love 2010s pop when the pop stars were ruling the world," she enthuses. "Gaga, Katy, Kesha, Rihanna. It was pop central. I admire and really respect that craft."

While acknowledging that level of gargantuan success might not be possible in the very different landscape of 2023, there's a more important and vital success in the connections she has fostered with the people who have fallen in love with her and her music and been inspired by her stories like the revelatory anthem of 'Pink Pony Club' or the ecstatic dance release of 'Super Graphic Ultra Modern Girl'.

"People feeling seen and feeling acknowledged," she answers when explaining what she cherishes most about her adulation. "People feeling safe at my shows to dress up however they want and be who they are. I love that people feel free and accepted, and that's all I could ever ask."

Nowhere is Chappell Roan more free than on the uproarious and outrageous opening track and defining statement 'Feminininomenon', a song that encapsulates everything about Chappell Roan. "That's why I opened the record with it," she says. "If you're not cool with this song, then you're probably not going to like the rest of it. It's very dramatic. It's so wild and weird."

Now that she's firmly blown the doors open, Chappell Roan is in a hurry. "I don't want to wait too long to release music," she says excitedly. "I definitely want to release a song in the next six months. I never want to stop. I want to expand the genre. I really want to write a country song. I want a real dance club song. There's so many things I want to do."

She also wants to play shows. Lots of them. A Chappell Roan show is a real event, and she's excited to take it across the world next year. "You better be ready to party," she says with a knowing grin. "We're bringing it. Every show has a theme, so prepare to dress up and prepare to have fun. We're coming in hot."

In 2023, there are fewer artists hotter than Chappell Roan, and her stunning debut album is an ode to all the transcendent joy of pop set to take her from niche legend to global superstar.

Taken from the December 2023 / January 2024 issue of Dork, out now.