In 2021, there were few indie artists as busy as Michelle Zauner. The scrappy singer-songwriter who’d cut her teeth in the Philadelphia DIY scene found herself propelled to national and international fame off the back of twin triumphs: the release of ‘Jubilee’, her upbeat third album as the bandleader of Japanese Breakfast, and the publication of her wrenching memoir Crying In H-Mart. All of a sudden, Zauner and JBrekkie (as the band are affectionately known) were, deservedly, everywhere: the New York Times bestseller list, Saturday Night Live, the Grammys.
Japanese Breakfast toured hard behind ‘Jubilee’, playing nearly 140 shows on four continents over three years. The gigs got bigger, and Zauner started to get stage fright, which she’d never experienced before. She began to lose weight, and suffered from skin and stomach issues. On ‘Here Is Someone’, the first song of the band’s new album, she recounts the fear of asking her bandmates for permission to take a year’s break – to live in Seoul, learn Korean and work on a new book. “Quietly dreaming of slower days / But I don’t want to let you down,” she murmurs. “We’ve come so far / Can you see a life where we leave this behind?”
Now, Japanese Breakfast are back, and at first blush it hardly seems like they’ve left the fast days behind: In March, they released their fourth album, ‘For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)’, and kicked off their tour at Coachella last weekend. But things aren’t the same – Japanese Breakfast have come back recalibrated.
“I’ve always looked at my job as a gift,” Zauner tells NME over Zoom three days after the album’s release. “It’s really hard sometimes to be like, ‘OK, we could totally play this festival, take an overnight flight and then play this other festival across the country or world, because it’s amazing that they even want us to play there. Let’s say yes to everything, let’s play six shows in a row for six weeks.’”
“I just learned that I can’t, that it takes a physical toll on you… if you’re traveling every day you get sick a lot. We used to play like 12 shows in a row without a day off. It’s just learning how to say no, to protect your physical and mental health.”
The Japanese Breakfast project has always been about learning and doing the work. Zauner’s first songs under the moniker began as material she turned out as part of a monthlong challenge to write a song a day. Besides the music, Zauner has been instrumental in crafting the visual world of Japanese Breakfast, directing nearly all of their music videos to date (more on that later). Even after the towering heights of ‘Jubilee’, there was no question that Zauner would take some step forward as an artist for her next record.
“I think ‘Orlando In Love’ is the best music video I’ve ever made, but the numbers don’t showcase that”
The gorgeous ‘For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)’ delivered: With its swooning strings and rich arrangements, it’s the most immersive Japanese Breakfast record yet. It was also the band’s first album recorded in a professional studio setting, with sessions taking place in Sound City in Los Angeles.
After a decade of recording in “semi-professional warehouse spaces where the heat is broken”, working in a studio for the first time “felt really hard won”, Zauner says. “I’d always prioritised the time and lack of pressure of being in a space where I could explore many different creative avenues, without the ticking clock of the studio day-rate. This time, I just felt ready to focus. I really understood what a studio had to offer, and felt comfortable enough in my career and artistry to feel like I belong in a space like that.”
At the storied Sound City, Zauner knew that “there was gonna be a fidelity to this record that I’d never had on any of my other records”, as well as a “real focus on performance” with acclaimed guitarist, producer and engineer Blake Mills at the helm. “I wanted to work with someone that had a long history of working on other artists’ records, who was an exceptional guitar player, and was going to push me out of my comfort zone, and I definitely got all of that with Blake.”
The pristine polish of ‘For Melancholy Brunettes’ feels appropriate as Zauner grows into an ever more subtle songwriter. But the internet still groaned when she first announced the album title in January, perhaps out of weariness with the ‘sad girl indie’ discourse that’s circled the drain for a few years now.
“It’s just a quote from a John Cheever book,” Zauner says now. “Do you think that he’s catering to the sad indie girls?” She laughs. “I liked having a long-winded title, and for me it was just supposed to indicate that this is gonna be a record that’s really different from ‘Jubilee’… a very narrative, lyrically focused record.”
“You’re just showcasing your imagination – it’s not so serious”
Zauner would be the first to acknowledge the self-importance of the title – and to puncture it, whether through obvious innuendo in the lead single ‘Orlando In Love’, or through a whimsical storyline in its music video. She directed all the videos for this album, as she has for years now, though circumstances have changed, not least the dwindling interest in the medium. “You can just unfortunately see it in the view count,” Zauner says, matter-of-factly. “I think ‘Orlando In Love’ is the best music video I’ve ever made, but the numbers don’t showcase that.”
The ‘For Melancholy Brunettes’ videos – the VHS home video vibes of ‘Mega Circuit’, ‘Picture Window’’s filmic sprint through Seoul – were indeed labours of love, exuding the warm, homespun energy of making art with your friends. That was the same spirit Zauner wanted to summon for a special preview show of the album: a stripped-down recital at a museum in New York, filled with “weird theatrical gags” like costumes and a puppet show, and personal touches like individualised playbills.
“One of the things that’s kind of tough about becoming a bigger artist is that the shows are bigger and you have less time to do these personal things for the people that really care about you as a band and love your music,” Zauner says.
“I used to sell my own merch, I used to write handwritten letters to everyone and mail out cassette tapes, and I felt really comfortable with that relationship. Now that I don’t have time to do those kinds of personal, intimate things, it’s a little bit heartbreaking. I feel less deserving of that attention in some way, because I’m not able to make those kinds of connections the way that I used to.”
Zauner speaks passionately about doing her fans justice with her shows – to stage a long, dynamic “journey” that feels worth the ticket fees. Japanese Breakfast will be touring North America, Europe, Asia and Australasia later this year – with some festival dates sprinkled in between the headline shows. At those, the pressure is mercifully off.
“With festivals, the sets are short. The [audience] probably bought the ticket for Olivia Rodrigo or something, you know what I mean?” Zauner reasons. “You get to be the shiny, flirty bonus, and you try to win people over.” This year, Japanese Breakfast will also play Glastonbury, in what Zauner calls “redemption” for their eleventh-hour cancellation in 2023. “I’m just the appetiser, you know? I’m just the amuse-bouche of Glastonbury,” she laughs.
It’ll still be a hell of an opening course, if their set at Coachella weekend one was any indication: a giant fabricated clamshell for Zauner to sit in, matching costumes for the band, a Gorillaz cover with US supporting act Ginger Root. Zauner’s been having a ball of a time back on stage, living lessons that she’s learned from those dizzying days of ‘Jubilee’.
“Mentally, I’m in a place where it’s just like: have fun. Don’t overthink it, don’t stress out,” she says. “At the end of the day, you’re just showcasing your imagination – it’s not so serious. You’re not doing brain surgery. You can just have fun doing it.”
Japanese Breakfast’s ‘For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)’ is out now via Dead Oceans. Find tour dates and tickets here