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By Delia Cai
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Until last spring, if you were a fan of Michelle Zauner and her experimental pop band, Japanese Breakfast, you can rejoice in a respectable amount of self-congratulations for composing the beloved independent’s initial discography, especially her critically acclaimed studio albums. Soft Sounds of the Planet (2017) and Psychopompe (2016). In JBrekkie tradition, Zauner first recorded JBrekkie at his formative years home in rural Oregon after his mother’s death, and then approached the party as a rehearsal first for Glamour in 2016 and then for The New Yorker in 2018.
But when Zauner published his full memoir, Crying in H Mart, last April, the 33-year-old’s overwhelming depiction of the 33-year-old’s grief and loss climbed to the newest position on the New York Times bestseller list (and was selected for a film adaptation). Later that summer, Zauner released Japanese Breakfast’s third album, Jubilee, and embarked on an overseas tour that has since included stops on The Late Late Show, Ellen, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, not a few magazine covers, and a few weeks ago, SXSW. It seems that, through it all, the general public has learned Zauner’s brilliant soundscapes and interdisciplinary ability for lyricism: This weekend at the 2022 Grammy Awards, Japanese Breakfast is competing for Best Alternative Music Album and Best New Artist (the latter category illustrating its notoriously fluffy definition of “new”; more on that below).
Ahead of the biggest musical evening, Vanity Fair spoke with Zauner by phone about next year’s highlights and what he’s doing next.
Vanity Fair: You’re going to the Grammys for the first time, aren’t you?Are you ok?
Michelle Zauner: Yes! I’m excited. Right now, I’m under pressure on what I’m going to wear, so I didn’t realize it would happen so soon.
What look do you think he will look for? You wore a wonderful dress on the tour.
I would love to wear anything yellow or at least quite colorful. Jubilee’s palette is very warm, and I want to represent this era especially because it is the last one at this stage. I would love to find something that is fun and stylish. but also a bit weird. I have a tendency to like structurally strange things, which is why I like other people like Simone Rocha and ThreeAsFour because they make other types of architectural clothing.
Someone you can’t wait to see on the big night?
BTS is efficient! My project for the night is to go out and take a picture with them and send it to my Korean aunt.
Well, now I have to ask: do you have a favorite member?
I wouldn’t say I’m from the army, but I’m necessarily from the army. But Namjoon is the one who speaks English fluently, so I have a slight inclination towards him.
So, within two months, you released a New York Times bestseller and an album that is now competing for two Grammy Awards.
It’s crazy that it happened in the same year. I have the impression that those are titles that you are buried with.
Where were you when you found out that Crying in H Mart was on the bestseller list and Jubilee was getting the Grammy nominations?
I was in exactly the same place: my living room in Bushwick, of course, because it was the pandemic. I’m in a two bedroom apartment, so I took my table to the living room to get closer. My editor told me I was doing a tech check for a virtual occasion or whatever, and when I walked in, my entire team was applauding and presenting the New York Times bestseller list when it debuted.
And then, for the Grammys, I was watching on TV. I had to cancel a podcast I intended to do that day because my manager said, we think you’re looking at it. I said, I don’t need to see it!It’s just pathetic if I’m not nominated!It’s like, no, no, no, I have a very clever hunch about it. So I looked at him and asked Peter, my husband, to film my reaction, and I panicked about a clever response. part one hour.
Is it strange to be nominated for Best New Artist when, of course, Japanese Breakfast has been brewing since 2013?
I am so surprised to see other people who are embarrassed by this. I need to silence them because I don’t need the Recording Academy to notice. I feel like we’ve reached a safe point in our career where we were first identified. on a higher level, and I’m very pleased to be in that category. I will take all the Grammys that the Recording Academy needs to give me.
If you could go back in time a year later, before the ebook and the record, what recommendation would you give yourself?
Seat belt!
Were there other wonderful times of the year that were for you?
We sold five nights to Union Transfer. C is a stall in Philadelphia that is close to my center. I helped open this position, I was one of the first employees. My former boss, Sean Agnew, who runs a concert promotion company called R5 Productions, where he used to do an internship, is a co-owner. And I used to paint in the locker room there. I once took a fake $100 invoice and returned $99 in genuine cash, and the manager at the time told me, you’ll have to return it. And it was a lot of cash, more than I earned that night in the locker room for six hours. And my old boss gave me a $100 bill to cover it. I’ve never forgotten. Because I was like a god, Sean is a kind of status, through my side. I didn’t have to.
And so, six or seven years later, we came back here and sold five nights to Union Transfer. When I came out, I was taken to the lobby. Sean had a hand-painted sign on top of the locker room that read: Michelle Zauner’s dressing room. And next to it, a plaque that read: “May everyone who works at Union Transfer continue to sell five nights here. It was such a crazy moment that it reminded me of the other people who have been a component of my musical life for so long. Definitely a highlight of my career that I will never forget.
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When you went from selling the e-book to the Jubilee tour a month later, did you feel like you had to split your personality between, say, Michelle the and Michelle from Japanese Breakfast?
Yeah, I think Michelle, the writer, is a little smarter than Michelle, the music [laughs]. I feel like I want to be a little more serious, and the Japanese breakfast is a little sillier. But you know, in the end I have no idea how not to be myself. I’m lucky not to have as much personality.
But for a lot of other people, it was hard to get out of the pandemic and have a verbal exchange with someone else, you know?So think you’re coming out of the pandemic and another 2000 people are watching you. I think I must have discovered some braggadocio, because not only had we not played in a long time, but I was also adapting to being back in the world for the first time. I felt uncomfortable during the first few tours because I just remembered how to do it again and I thought, okay, now I have to be a diva.
I was going to say that it must have been a relief to go hiking again, but it also turns out that it wasn’t as undeniable as a transition.
Certainly. It was difficult to regain confidence. Also, I think we all expected to break into the global in this beautiful renaissance of freedom and, of course, it was more confusing than that. There were still so many gray areas, navigating on an excursion and thinking about the fitness and protection of ten other people traveling with you, and the monetary repercussions if something happened. All this is scary. We were not given any protocol or recommendation of how to go ahead with the excursions. It was hard to go back there, but of course it was also very cheerful because we had been out of work for almost two years.
After the Grammys, you’re about to return to the festival circuit. Please tell me you had a vacation between all this.
There were pockets. We were able to move on to Mexico City in December of last year, we did an exhibition and we were able to hang out for a week. It was a lot of fun. But I also love working.
What’s next on your plate? You’re writing the script for the film adaptation of Crying in H Mart, right?
I finished writing the first draft a few weeks ago, and now I’m with the revisions.
Ah, so this is the next project.
Ouais. Et and then maybe, slowly thinking about what to do for the album. You know. Always the same things over and over again!
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