Sapphic icon Chappell Roan has delivered an update on when fans can expect a studio version of her unreleased track “The Subway”, and it seems we might have to wait a bit longer for the track.
The “Pink Pony Club” hitmaker has delivered a series of stunning performances of the unreleased ballad, including at Lollapalooza Chicago and Austin City Limits Music Festival last year. And after almost a year of teasing the track, Roan has issued an update about the status of “The Subway”.
In a Wednesday (16 April) interview on iHeart Radio’s Las Culturistas, Roan explained that the delay is due to the live version being so popular with long-term fans and is unable to emulate the same sound in the studio.
“I’ve been banging my head against the wall with ‘The Subway,’ because… some songs just work live — certain things work live — and they don’t work in the studio,” she told listeners.
“For ‘The Subway’, it’s just going to feel different, and different doesn’t always mean worse…You just have to really take yourself out of it and be like, ‘This is different and that’s okay.’”
The track appears to tell the story of Roan seeing her ex on the subway. “I’m still counting down all of the days/ ‘Til you’re just another girl on the subway,” she sings in the post-chorus.
The “Good Luck, Babe!” singer also reflected on how fans have perceived her latest release, “The Giver”, which she performed on Saturday Night Live before releasing the studio version.
“It’s called ‘demo-itis’,” Roan said, where fans “fall in love with what you hear first”.
The star explained: “This is to my detriment too, this is to every person’s detriment… I get a demo, I hear it, I play it for my friend, and then I go back in and work on it, play it to them again, and they’re like, ‘I just like the other one better.’
“Because you have demo-itis, because you’ve attached so much to this – you attach memories, you attach all of these things – to this one version of the song, but it’s actually not as good as the actual recorded version, straight up. The song wasn’t done, there was pitchiness all over the map, sometimes that’s magic, but it’s not what I want in my life.”
Despite some of the mixed responses to her studio versions of “The Giver”, Roan reminded listeners that the track is a history-making “lesbian country song”.
“That’s a big deal!” she said. “This is, for me, what I’ve always wanted to do. It may not be what you want.”
Roan is yet to confirm a release date for “The Subway”, but has addressed the direction of her second album, which is yet to be announced.
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