swandive swansong: I wrote a book
surprise, I wrote a book on Chappell Roan
Hi everyone! I’ve been waiting to announce this for a long time, and now I finally can: I’ve written my first book!
The Rise and Rise of Chappell Roan: The Stories Behind the Songs, Tours, and Birth of an Icon, co-written with London culture writer Hamza Jahanzeb, comes out this September via Octopus Books/Hachette. You can pre-order it here or purchase it wherever books are sold.
About the book
The book follows Chappell's years-long rise to stardom, from:
her suburban upbringing in Willard, Missouri
her realization as a middle schooler that the musical limelight could be out there for her
her juggling a normal student life with playing subsequent local festivals, songwriting camps, and Web 2.0-hosted playlists
her signing by Atlantic Records and first attempts to shape her identity as a professional pop musician, while increasingly chafing against the label’s expectations
her getting dropped by Atlantic, processing the setback, then reinventing herself as an unsigned, social media-savvy musician with a burgeoning fanbase and increasingly bold eye for style
her collaboration with Dan Nigro, their determination to find a new and better label deal, and the making of The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess
her meteoric rise to fame, along with both the joys and the consequences of being in an often admiring, sometimes ruthless public eye
and finally, her Grammy Awards triumph.
I break down the background, lyrics, and music of every track on The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess, as well as her newer singles and her earlier and unreleased material, going back to her teenage CDBaby years. I also do a deep dive into her big videos, her splashiest tour performances, and her most memorable awards-show moments.
The book's also a visual joy to read through, with plenty of photoshoots, behind-the-scenes photos, and illustrations inspired by Chappell's music!
Print copies will be available soon, and I can't wait for you all to see them! Get in touch with me if you'd like more info.
Other, less important housekeeping:
As you can see, this newsletter is no longer hosted on Substack and is now on Buttondown. If you’re reading this, all went well with the migration process and you should now be receiving the same newsletters, on the same schedule (lol, lmao), in the same place.
I’ve been meaning to move off Substack for a long time as many of my colleagues have, both as part of a general push to make my writing less littered across platforms and specifically due to Substack’s policies and stance toward platforming hate speech and other such beliefs, a stance that only appears to be hardening. There are a couple of alternatives people speak highly of — here’s a short list. Out of those, I went with Buttondown because I’ve met the founder and believe he’s created a great service, with his heart and values in the right place.
I’m working on migrating my old newsletter posts to the new site; in addition, everything here (including this announcement) will continue to be cross-posted to my blog, as well as its RSS feed for the retro among you.
Much more to come, so keep an eye on your inbox and whatever social media platforms still give you joy these days. Thanks for sticking with me through 15 years(!) and counting!