02-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Michelle Zauner is ready to take some big swings
Get Starting Point
A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday.
Enter Email
Sign Up
After returning from Korea, Zauner has fully plunged back into the world of Japanese Breakfast, but this time, with a more contemplative air. 'For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women),' which came out March 21, sees Zauner grappling with that high-intensity, high-visibility period of her life. The record assumes a forlorn spirit, foregoing a well-deserved victory lap in favor of meditative explorations on the pitfalls of desire and over-gratification. On May 7, the band brings its aptly-named 'Melancholy Tour' to MGM Music Hall.
Advertisement
Coming right after this quieter period in Zauner's public life, the tour's reception has fueled a boost of confidence.
Advertisement
'It's really nice to come back and go on tour and sell more tickets than we ever have,' she said. 'It was eye-opening to see that I'm allowed to take that time to myself and people will still be there.'
Musically, the bet on her softer, more artistically complex tendencies has also seemed to pay off, with
' ['For Melancholy Brunettes'] is the first record that I've really had to sit with this discomfort of being compared to my last work. It's the first time that people want my music to be something,' she said, adding that she's loved reading feedback from listeners on how the record resonates with repeated listening. 'I think there's a lot of detail in there that could be missed if you are going into it with preconceptions of what we sound like as a band.'
Revisiting the songs after recording, she's still struck by their complexity and just how much she enjoys performing them.
Advertisement
' I've definitely never spent so much time having to relearn how to play songs on the guitar and they're really challenging,' she said, 'but so fun as a guitarist to really figure out how to master.'
By this stage of her career, Zauner is also more assured in taking big, theatrical swings onstage — like her
While touring her last album, Zauner made many of these technical decisions while on the road. Now, she said, she has a firmer handle on how to scale up the production value of her live performances.
'As a young indie artist, you just don't really ever think you're going to get to that state where you can think about those things and incorporate it into the live show,' she said. ' We wanted to put together a stage design that was reflective of the album and how it almost has a theater-like quality.'
The ever-upward trajectory of Zauner's profile, in some ways, has been at odds with her mind-set as a musician — to keep tinkering with her image and challenging her listeners. 'For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women)' may not have been the cushiest direction for the band to take, but it's one that brings Zauner far more gratification than a rehash of previous sounds.
'It would've been really easy for me to make 'Jubilee: Part Two' or have set my sights on making something popular and more mainstream,' she said. 'But I wanted to make something that felt deeper and more intellectual and interesting and took time to engage with — which I think in this culture is courageous.'
Advertisement
JAPANESE BREAKFAST
With Ginger Root
MGM Music Hall at Fenway, 2 Lansdowne St., Boston. Wednesday, May 7, 8 p.m.
