Chappell Roan
Chappell Roan dancing in front of the Classy Llama building fork where I often attend meetings.
I listen to music very critically. I have since I was a kid. I don’t hear the music as a whole — I hear every instrument, every phrase, and I listen to how it was written and produced. I don’t listen to just anything, and with most current music, I think about how embarrassed I’d be if I created some of the junk they put out there. I spent all of my formative years as a musician and never thought I’d be anything else until I was about 27, when I abruptly quit. Even then, I kept a studio in my house for years, but had no plans to ever commercially produce anything again. I had found a new life I loved even more.
This morning, while scrolling through Facebook, I came across a commercial with a song that instantly grabbed me in just the first few bars, it was that well put together. The song is called The Subway. I used Shazam to identify it and found it was by an artist I had never heard of before, with the stage name Chappell Roan. I immediately assumed she had to be European. She just had to be. But after listening to a few of her songs, which I thought were extraordinary, I looked her up on Wikipedia, and to my shock and amazement, she’s local. Really local. She couldn’t be more local unless she was dancing around my front yard with Tide.
While she now lives in LA as she should, I read everything I could about her. Not only is she from here, but she even filmed a video in front of the Classy Llama fork. Classy Llama happens to be one of my local clients, and they were the building owners.
I also have to give credit to her extraordinary producer, Dan Nigro. What I love about their work is that they’re not cutting corners. If you listen closely, it’s all there. Pop as it is, I can see why Elton John thinks she’s going to be one of the biggest artists ever. I’m definitely cheering her on, and I hope she inspires more locals to go big. I’m now going to listen to all her music.