{"id":1263703,"date":"2025-04-04T19:30:49","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T19:30:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/?p=1263703"},"modified":"2025-04-04T19:30:49","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T19:30:49","slug":"japanese-breakfasts-michelle-zauner-on-her-new-album-next-book-and-celine-song","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/pt\/japanese-breakfasts-michelle-zauner-on-her-new-album-next-book-and-celine-song\/","title":{"rendered":"Japanese Breakfast\u2019s Michelle Zauner on Her New Album, Next Book, and Celine Song"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Michelle Zauner wants to clear the air: Japanese Breakfast\u2019s new album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)<\/em>, isn\u2019t really<\/em> about grappling with the weight of her recent success. While it\u2019s an easy connection to make\u2014this mellow collection of songs follows her triumphant album Jubilee<\/em> and bestselling memoir Crying in H Mart<\/a><\/em>\u2014there\u2019s more to it than that. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it was an intense year for me and I\u2019m really grateful for that time,\u201d Zauner says via Zoom, reflecting on those back-to-back debuts in 2021. But although she has discussed the challenges of that success in her recent interviews, the songs \u201chave nothing<\/em> to do with that,\u201d she stresses.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people lead with, \u2018How were you feeling during that time?\u2019 I was just speaking honestly,\u201d Zauner says. \u201cBut I don\u2019t want that to be the takeaway from this record. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s what this record is really about. That was just some of what I was going through at that time. Maybe it made its way in ways that I don\u2019t realize, but I don\u2019t think it did.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Zauner is wearing a black long-sleeve shirt, seated on the floor in front of her sofa in her New York apartment. It\u2019s the week after the album\u2019s release, which she celebrated day-of by meeting fans for a signing at Rough Trade in Williamsburg. (\u201cAnd I ordered two pasta entr\u00e9es at a restaurant afterwards and had one glass of champagne,\u201d she adds.) Behind her, a canary yellow wall speckled with framed artwork nearly glows in the early spring sunlight. <\/p>\n

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Regardless of what\u2019s been said on the press tour, For Melancholy Brunettes<\/em> has garnered overwhelming critical praise. It\u2019s an early contender for one of the best releases this year with its sublime lyrics and delicate yet swelling arrangements. The album lives up to its name, with songs about wishing to be a happier woman, fearing the sudden death of your loved ones, stumbling into the arms of men in bars, and even succumbing to a siren\u2019s song. \u201cI really love the lyrics on this record,\u201d Zauner says. \u201cI think I\u2019ve grown further as a writer and I enjoyed trusting myself to go to a place that was maybe a little bit less obvious.\u201d <\/p>\n

That\u2019s partly thanks to her inspirations from Gothic art and literature, including Wuthering Heights<\/em>, Jane Eyre<\/em>, and Frankenstein<\/em>. \u201cI knew mostly just after Jubilee<\/em>, I wanted a record with a darker palette both visually and sonically. And so I started reading books that were in that Gothic canon to put me in the headspace for that type of writing.\u201d It wasn\u2019t just books; her cinematic influences included Lars von Trier\u2019s Melancholia, <\/em>she told Letterboxd<\/u><\/a>. The New York City Ballet\u2019s A Midsummer Night\u2019s Dream<\/em>, the opera scene in Marie Antoinette<\/em>, and other theatrical productions also informed the elaborate set design for Japanese Breakfast\u2019s next tour, which kicks off later this month. Like the pieces it references, For Melancholy Brunettes<\/em> is a romantic work of art. <\/p>\n

And it isn\u2019t the only thing Zauner\u2019s been working on. She spent the last year in Seoul, immersing herself in Korean culture and learning the language of her homeland\u2014a \u201cprofound experience\u201d and \u201cone of the best years of my life.\u201d It also gave her material for her next book: She wrote 10 minutes a day in her diaries, in English on her laptop and in Korean by hand. She doesn\u2019t hesitate to flip her notebook open and show me a page, revealing rows of characters written in pink ink with occasional, scattered scribbles. She\u2019s already written 250,000 words through this routine. She plans to start weaving them into a narrative arc during her downtime on tour. <\/p>\n

She has her hands in film too, having written original music for Celine Song\u2019s<\/a> next movie, Materialists<\/em>, due out this summer. But as for the adaptation of Crying in H Mart<\/em><\/a>, development \u201cis on pause.\u201d Zauner told Ssense<\/em><\/u><\/a> earlier this year, \u201cThere were issues with the Hollywood strikes, and the director [Will Sharpe] stepped away from the project. I spent a year working on the screenplay, which was a tough but rewarding process. I still have faith it will get made someday, but it\u2019s not happening anytime soon. Right now, I\u2019m focusing on other creative projects, so the film will have to wait.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the meantime, she\u2019s pursuing art \u201cearnestly and honestly,\u201d missing Seoul, challenging the \u201csad girl music\u201d trope, and creating her own definition of success.<\/p>\n

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Pak Bae<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n
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How does one go from making an album called Jubilee<\/em> to For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women)<\/em>? Was there a moment when you realized there was a shift happening?<\/h2>\n

At this point, my creative work feels really in dialogue with itself. After two years of touring an album about joy, you want to express another side of yourself. It\u2019s almost like my first two records were about grief in varying ways, and Jubilee<\/em> was about giving myself permission to feel joy after that experience.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been 10 years since my mom died and I released my first record [Psychopomp<\/em> in 2016]. It feels like this is me returning to my normal state, honestly. I\u2019m not a violently sad person, but I\u2019m also melancholic about parts of life. I think that\u2019s really normal. There\u2019s something romantic about that condition and feeling, and that was the record that I really wanted to make because it felt honest to what I was going through and who I am as a person.
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You said you\u2019re \u201cnot a violently sad person.\u201d Do you get the label of \u201csad girl music\u201d a lot?<\/h2>\n

I am thankfully discovering that maybe I\u2019m slightly less online than I believed myself to be, but I don\u2019t really know what that title triggered in people around certain online discourse. I think that they should read a book. I don\u2019t know. I\u2019ve always liked sad girl\u2014and boy\u2014music, but I think it\u2019s pretty reductive if you were to call someone like Elliott Smith or Thom Yorke \u201csad boy music.\u201d But that\u2019s what that is. So if that\u2019s what we want to call it, then that is the music for me. [Laughs<\/em>]<\/p>\n

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The lyrics on this album are incredible. One that stood out to me in particular was, \u201cAre you not afraid every waking moment?\u201d As an anxious woman, that resonated deeply.<\/h2>\n

My friend, Adam Kolodny, who is the DP in all of my music videos, was like, \u201cThis is the most you<\/em> line.\u201d [Laughs<\/em>]<\/p>\n

You directed a couple of your music videos, too. I really enjoyed the one for \u201cPicture Window.\u201d It feels like a film to me; I would watch a full-length version of that. It was inspired by your time in Korea, right?<\/h2>\n

I knew I wanted to make at least a video where I wasn\u2019t a major part of it. It\u2019s hard to direct music videos because the time is so short and the budget is so small, and if you\u2019re in it, it\u2019s really hard to move seamlessly through the takes. A lot of the times when I\u2019m editing, I am really self-conscious about the way that I look. <\/p>\n

It was also a little bit intimidating for me because I\u2019ve never made a music video with such a serious tone. Because the song is about being an anxious person in a relationship with someone whose death you\u2019re constantly fearing, I liked the idea of this couple where the guy is really gung-ho about moving forward and the girlfriend has some reservations. \u2026 I wanted to really play with the left-to-right tracking as if they\u2019re having what someone described as a \u201ctug-of-war with time.\u201d \u2026 It was really fun making that video. <\/p>\n

Because I was shooting it in Korea and with a mostly all-Korean crew, it became kind of a love letter to my time there because everyone in the party scene is a friend of mine, and all the people I was working with were people that I had met during my time there. It was [set] in various neighborhoods that I had spent time in. There\u2019s a shot where it\u2019s just the buildings moving past\u2014that\u2019s kind of heartbreaking for me because the song is also just about the inability to stop time and your fear of it always moving away from you.<\/p>\n

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How did you go about researching your next book while you were there?<\/h2>\n

My second book is just about studying the Korean language, and I thought I was going to have tons of time to write, but my Korean level was much lower than I [thought]. I spent eight hours a day just studying the Korean language and going to school and doing my homework and only consuming Korean content. I wanted to see what happens if you dedicate an entire year to just one thing. Because so much of what I do as a musician and writer is so much other crap that isn\u2019t actually what I want to do. Like social media or…no offense, interviews.<\/p>\n

None taken.<\/h2>\n

You have to do press, you have to do shows, you have to think about hiring people, you have to think about production, you have to answer questions about merch, you have to practice the guitar, you have to do vocal lessons, you have to write the songs, you have to record. There\u2019s so many things that go into the machine of making and promoting music that it\u2019s nice to just study Korean language. Just that. And seeing how your brain changes and how you improve. <\/p>\n

So I just did that and I kept a diary for 10 minutes every single day, which seems very short, but I actually amassed 250,000 words of raw material. … It was also fun to see how my Korean improved just in writing. I\u2019m re-reading and starting to transcribe my Korean journals slowly, and it was interesting that already I can be like, \u201cOh, that\u2019s the wrong grammar,\u201d or \u201cYou misspelled that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Who needs Duolingo?<\/h2>\n

No one needs Duolingo. It\u2019s not a good way to learn a language. [Laughs<\/em>]<\/p>\n

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Pak Bae<\/span><\/figcaption><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n

In an interview<\/u><\/a>, you said that the next book will be a little bit lighter or funnier. Is that true? Is humor harder to write for you?<\/h2>\n

I don\u2019t know. I haven\u2019t really started to write it. I think everyone wants to think that they\u2019re funny. I\u2019m sure it will present its own challenges. But similar to Melancholy<\/em> coming after Jubilee<\/em>, my writer self is interested in flexing a different part of my person and my work. And I think it\u2019s more lighthearted fare. It\u2019s really funny to be in your 30s in a class full of international K-pop fans in their 20s. And it\u2019s really humbling, the kind of mistakes that you make in another language. <\/p>\n

I think a lot of people are curious about what life is like if you live abroad for a year, if it\u2019s even possible to learn a language in a year in your 30s, and what challenges are uniquely presented in older age. It\u2019s going to be an interesting and fun book to write, and it will be a very different experience from Crying in H Mart<\/em>, which was a massive emotional unearthing.<\/p>\n

Was this trip to Korea the first time you went by yourself without family? I know you traveled there frequently when you were a kid. <\/h2>\n

No, I played shows in Korea, and I did a summer language program when I was younger without my mom, who later joined me. This was just the longest time I\u2019ve stayed in Korea.<\/p>\n

I used to go to the Philippines, where my family is from, every other year growing up. I feel like it\u2019s different going there with your family, where you\u2019re in their bubble, than going yourself as an adult, where you create your own experience. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s something that you felt at all.<\/h2>\n

Oh, 100 percent. My aunt dropped me off in my neighborhood, Mangwon, at one point, and she was just like, \u201cI\u2019ve never been here.\u201d My family sticks to their neighborhoods and their places and it would\u2019ve been really funny to talk to my mom about all this, because she has her relationship to certain places. I remember my lighting designer was like, \u201cOh, we got to go to the lesbian bars while we\u2019re in Korea.\u201d And I was like, \u201cI don\u2019t think that they have that.\u201d Of course they do, but I come from this childhood background where my mom would\u2019ve never taken me there.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI thought that the whole time I would just be thinking about my mom, but really, I think so much of the [next] book and my experience is about finding what that country is for me, what my version of that is.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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It was really cool to get to know the indie scene and the alternative community and the queer community while I was there, these parts of Korea that maybe I was not exposed to but are interesting to me. I thought that the whole time I would just be thinking about my mom, but really, I think so much of the book and my experience is about finding what that country is for me, what my version of that is. I was really nervous that it was going to be really lonely and really boring and hard for me to connect with people, but I actually found it to be the total opposite.
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Would you ever go back and live there part-time?<\/h2>\n

[Nods<\/em>] In a heartbeat. I miss it all the time.<\/p>\n

You wrote music for Celine Song\u2019s Materialists<\/em>. What was it like working with her on that project?<\/h2>\n

My manager said that there were a few people in the running to submit songs for her new movie and if I was interested. I really admire her and loved Past Lives<\/em>. And so I watched a screener and loved it. She wanted something that was like John Prine\u2019s \u201cIn Spite of Ourselves\u201d\u2014I wanted to do a more upbeat version of that. It\u2019s very inspired by the movie. I really got a lot of liberty. <\/p>\n

I rarely have the time to do stuff like that, so it was really fun to write something to contribute to someone else\u2019s work, and especially someone like Celine who I think is so brilliant and special. It was really fun. And when I had a meeting with her, I just fell head over heels for her, so I really wanted her to like it and was very glad that she did too.<\/p>\n

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Throughout this promo cycle, you\u2019ve talked about how this album was inspired by\u2014or a reaction to\u2014the success that you felt with Jubilee<\/em> and Crying in H Mart<\/em>, and how that also took a toll on you. Did that experience make you redefine what success looks like for you?<\/h2>\n

I have to clarify. This is the first time in my life that I\u2019ve done promo for the record, and every single journalist has been like, \u201cHow do you feel after all the success that you have?\u201d Every single interview I\u2019ve done has led with that as a major question. And because I\u2019m not media trained, I\u2019ve just been like, \u201cOh, it\u2019s amazing. It\u2019s great. But there were parts of it that were really challenging.\u201d But I wouldn\u2019t say this record is hugely inspired by that. I\u2019m sure that it made its way into the record. \u201cHere Is Someone,\u201d for instance, is about me preparing to take a year-long break and tell the band that that\u2019s what I need to do. But beyond that, there are no other songs that are about that experience!<\/p>\n

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\u201cThis is not a record about grappling with the perils of fame. I feel like it\u2019s sort of unfairly become the mass narrative of this record.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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This is not a record about grappling with the perils of fame<\/em>. I feel like it\u2019s sort of unfairly become the mass narrative of this record. I don\u2019t think that that\u2019s what this is about. I think it\u2019s a record about feeling melancholic about time, and the passing of it, and how that impacts me both in my work and on tour and in my personal life and looking towards the future.
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So how do<\/em> you define success? What does that look like for you?<\/h2>\n

I don\u2019t know. I feel like I\u2019ve accomplished really everything that I\u2019ve wanted to, in terms of recognition and financial security and being able to support myself with my work. I feel really lucky that I\u2019m in that place, and I feel very successful in that regard. I think success is me being able to just continue to pursue art earnestly and honestly and not being lured to make something that I think is going to have mass appeal and is uninteresting to me or dishonest. <\/p>\n

Honestly, I think that the success I experienced in the last few years really allowed me to be like, \u201cIf that\u2019s it, that\u2019s fine. I just want to make something that\u2019s interesting to me and is exactly what I want to make. And if people don\u2019t get it, then they don\u2019t get it.\u201d If anything, it just gave me the courage to make a real artsy record.<\/p>\n

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.elle.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n