Chappell Roan reveals why her second album is on pause – and fans might have to wait over five years for it
The singer spoke to Zane Lowe on Apple Music Radio, explaining that a sense of calm is key to her creative process.
By Callum Wells
Chappell Roan has revealed why her highly-anticipated second album is on pause, admitting she hasn’t felt stable enough to start writing since being displaced by the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year.
The singer, who previously said the LP could take over five years to produce, spoke to Zane Lowe on Apple Music Radio after releasing her lesbian heartbreak anthem ‘The Subway’, explaining that a sense of calm is key to her creative process.
“I want to write music whenever I feel settled. I haven’t felt settled. It’s been a very unsettling year and a half and I think once I really feel calm in a new house and have a routine, I just can’t wait to have a routine. And then I can think about writing a song once I have a routine,” she said.
Los Angeles wildfires
Roan’s rapid rise in 2024 brought her global tours, chart success and plenty of headlines.
But, in January, wildfires tore through Los Angeles County, destroying almost 20,000 homes. Roan’s Altadena residence was among those affected, forcing her into months of temporary accommodation.
“That’s just not a thing right now and it hasn’t been for a very long time,” she told Lowe. “Because since I lived in Altadena and got displaced from the fires and have been living in Airbnbs for seven months, and I finally got a new place and I’ve only been there for 10 days.
“I’m not that type of writer that can pump it out” – Chappell Roan on making music
“And then I came on this big tour. So it’s been a journey on how do I release music within the state of everything?”
Speaking to British Vogue earlier this month, she admitted the follow-up to 2023’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess “doesn’t exist yet” and could take “at least five years” to make.
“I’m not that type of writer that can pump it out,” she said. “I don’t think I make good music whenever I force myself to do anything.”
Dropping singles
While the album is still in the distance, Roan has continued to drop singles. ‘The Subway’, which explores her fixation on a former lover, became her second UK number one after ‘Pink Pony Club’ and reached number three on the US Billboard Hot 100. It also became the biggest song by a female artist of 2025 on the Spotify Global Chart, overtaking Sabrina Carpenter’s ‘Manchild’ and Roan’s own ‘The Giver’.
“I think it’s a good ring on the ladder,” she said of the track. “Midwest Princess is her, but even though this next era, I don’t really know what it is, but ‘The Subway’ is a very safe segue to it.
“I just think that ‘The Giver’, ‘Good Luck, Babe!’, ‘The Subway’, they’re all kind of so different, so that’s why I’m just like, ‘I have no idea what the next era is’. That’s the scary part of putting out new music and then people not liking it because it’s not like the music you made before, and so it makes you scared to release stuff.”