Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast may be one of the most important rockers to arise in the 2010s. Since 2016’s Psychopomp, Zauner has experienced personal loss and indie success. She now holds a strange, new elevated status in music. The past five years have been a whirlwind and 2021 seems likely to be one of Zauner’s busiest yet.
Born in South Korea and raised in the United States, Zauner fronted Philadelphia rock band, Little Big League before launching her most successful project, Japanese Breakfast. The group’s two records, Pyschopomp and its follow-up, Soft Sounds from Another Planet (2017) are quick listens — a 1-2 emotional punch that worked through her mother’s diagnosis and death.
On these records, Zauner hones in on her sound from Psychopomp’s blurry, rocking indie into Soft Sounds’ spacious immaculacy. Although these aren’t full-on concept albums about her experience, they carry a meaningful weight. That is to say, the breezy rock of “Everybody Wants to Love You” may alone sound like a fun, raunchy jaunt. When followed by the ambient title track, which includes a recording of Zauner’s mother post-diagnosis, the sweat of the indie road trip in the first half turns to tears. Traveling across the “Rugged Country” to where? The uninitiated blissful contemplation of the opener, “In Heaven” is filled with dread. While the cover follows a retro photo trend of indie music, the picture takes on another layer as you realize who the familiar woman reaching out is.
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Soft Sounds from Another Place goes down much smoother, with little details like cymbal tapping on “Road Head,” and the sax solo on “Machinist.” Earlier songs like “Jimmy Fallon Big!” are reworked into this spacious orbit. Old demos and even recent live performances show that these pieces are easily adaptable to Earth. There’s still sadness, but Zauner’s sense of humor and cleverness comes through in a more refined sense than in the former. The distance from her loss is its own character on the record. Zauner’s explanation to NPR on “The Body Is A Blade” can be expanded to the rest of the record: “It’s about disassociating from trauma.”
When I discovered her music, it was through her covers of “Dreams” by The Cranberries and “Head Over Heels” by Tears For Fears. Dolores O’Riordan would be proud. I then listened to “Road Head” and “2042,” and for a long time, those were her only songs to me. There was an air of achievement to her music, the feeling that something good was happening. I have been too cynical about the current state of music for too long, but listening to music shaped by both strong influences and an unimpeachable personality opened up more textures and feelings. Without having heard her LPs, I knew I had found someone special! In an age of removing the art from the artist, or at the very least a larger, more obvious discourse about the relationship between the author and the work, Japanese Breakfast makes functional and beautiful music inextricably tied to Zauner and her experience.
Rising through the indie ranks, the existence of such an artist raises some questions. What does it mean to be a “rock star” in 2021? While no one can really consider rock music “dead” anymore, it’s been called a working-class genre, and that may be true. I continue to stand by the idea that the best rock music of today is being made by an increasingly diverse group of mostly female or non-binary artists from all over the world. But why did it take draining money out of the industry and lowering rock’s status in the general musicscape for this to become apparent? Should we lament the niche-becomings of our favorite genres, whose brightest and best remain unknown to the rest of society? If no one listens to the radio anymore, then why is the nebulous, monolithic pop mainstream still looming so large? Why does such an entity still exist in the supposedly ultimate democracy of the streaming age? While Tik Tok and other trends may be attempting to upend or infuse new blood, we can still expect Drake albums in their entirety at the top of Spotify streams and Taylor Swift at the Grammys every year. When I discovered Japanese Breakfast, it seemed like I had just discovered a known hero, but now as a fan, I understand that today she can both be a darling and an utter unknown.
Zauner’s work ethic, however, is to spread her influence beyond medium and mood. Though a new listener in the COVID-19 era may only be aware of the extremely consistent — if brief — discography, there’s much to explore and look forward to. Her third record, Jubilee comes out in June as Zauner also begins a new tour. Besides listening to Little Big League, there’s so much to explore, such as her music videos, including the one she directed for Jay Som’s “The Bus Song” and the new ones for “Be Sweet” and “Posing In Bondage” off the new album.
Crying in H Mart, an intimate memoir focusing on Zauner’s experiences and relations regarding food rather than music is out and the author is on a book tour chatting with figures such as Korean American YouTuber, Maangchi, fellow musician Lucy Dacus, and Saturday Night Live comedian Bowen Yang. Casual fans may have missed BUMPER, her quarantine collaboration with Crying’s Ryan Galloway. Together they released a breezy EP titled, quite sensibly, pop songs 2020. If this all isn’t enough, there is the highly anticipated and long-delayed video game, Sable, first announced in 2017, which features scoring from Japanese Breakfast. Many fans, myself included, find themselves returning to Youtube to watch the trailer for the beautiful graphics, and also for the beautiful sneak peek at what is musically in store.
Attendees of this year’s online Cal Day festivities may have had the chance to catch Japanese Breakfast in a recorded performance and live Q&A hosted by Superb. Starstruck by her presence in the Zoom chat, the pizzicato accompaniment on the acoustic performance of “Be Sweet” led to a few brand new tracks, and wonderful covers of Dolly Parton’s, “Here You Come Again” and Sufjan Stevens’ “Michigan.” Though the conversation around Jubilee is already heavily focused on a purposeful change of mood from Japanese Breakfast’s previous work, one of the most insightful bits from the Q&A seemed to link this musical goal back to food.
On Jubilee’s cover is Zauner, made up on the floor with tattoos exposed, more visible and open than on the shadowy cover for Soft Sounds, and a far cry from the implications of her mother’s image on Psychopomp. Hanging, on the floor, and in her hand are persimmons, which she explained in the Q&A act as a metaphor for her new direction: a bitter fruit often hung up and dried, made sweet.
Written by Stanley Quiros