Japanese Breakfast is the solo musical project of musician Michelle Zauner. Under the alias, Zauner has released two studio albums: Psychopomp and Soft Sounds from Another Planet.
Background
Michelle Zauner was born in Seoul, South Korea to a Korean and Jewish family. Her family moved to Eugene, Oregon when she was nine months old. Before her solo project, Zauner fronted a solo project under the moniker Little Girl, Big Spoon. As a student at Bryn Mawr College, Zauner fronted Post Post, an indie pop band with other students from Bryn Mawr and Haverford Colleges. Later, she started the Philadelphian emo band Little Big League. Zauner fronted the band between 2011 and 2014, before returning to her hometown of Eugene, Oregon in 2013 as her mother was diagnosed with cancer. While in Oregon with her family, Zauner began recording solo music. She described the project as having much more to say after Tropical Jinx, the 2014 studio album by Little Big League. Originally Zauner began to record samples of music as a meditative exercise and "instant gratification". On April 1, 2016, Japanese Breakfast released its first studio album, Psychopomp, under Yellow K Records. Zauner described the debut album as a confrontation of her mother's death as well as "dark and heavy-handed", although she had a desire to make the music urgent and "sonically upbeat." On June 23, 2016, Japanese Breakfast was signed to the Dead Oceans label. Her second album, Soft Sounds from Another Planet, was released on July 14, 2017, to "universal acclaim", with a Metacritic score of 83. In Brian Shultz's review for The A.V. Club he gave it an A- grade and said, "there’s a confidence and crispness to Soft Sounds that shows just how fully realized Zauner’s formerly homemade experiments have become." In 2019, Japanese Breakfast released two singles under the W Hotelsmusic label, "Essentially" and a cover of the Tears for Fears song, "Head Over Heels".
Artistry
Michelle Geslani of Consequence of Sound has described Japanese Breakfast's sound as experimental pop. Anna Gaca of Spin has described it as lo-fi. Zauner has said she hopes her work can influence more Asian-Americans to be involved in music. On February 28, 2019, it was announced that the publishing rights to Michelle Zauner's memoir, Crying in H Mart, were won at auction by Knopf.
