TYING UP LOOSE ENDS
Singer Michelle Zauner takes advantage of some down time
Sometimes, miracles do happen.
In Michelle Zauner’s case, it came in her having two weeks off tour.
“I don’t know how it happened, but I’m taking advantage of it,” she quips.
Truth be told, just because she was off tour, doesn’t mean Zauner wasn’t working.
“There’s always something going on,” she says. “Some loose ends always need to be tied up. It’s just a process.”
Zauner performs under the moniker Japanese Breakfast.
She is touring in support of the album “Soft Sounds from Another Planet,” which was released in 2017.
The album was written in the weeks after her mother died of cancer, as she thought she would quit music once the album was completed.
“It was a very different process than the first one,” she says. “I tend to work pretty quickly, and it was a month of recording and writing. It was a concentrated month of time. I prefer writing that way. And we recorded it in our studio. I wanted to just play, and have the album just be playful and not a stressful experience.”
Though she wrote for nearly a month straight, not all the songs made the album.
“Some songs are just bad,” she says with a laugh. “The songs that were bad were easy to cut. Sometimes, it’s better to call it a lost cause and move on. Though when a song gets to me, that’s when I take proper care with the entire process.”
Zauner’s editing process has also grown over time.
“The longer I’ve been an artist, I’ve realized that my taste level has grown,” she says. “There was one song that (producer) Craig (Hendrix) really knew that wasn’t going anywhere. It was like this spaghetti Western and really felt like a Carly Rae Jepsen rip off. There was a big trap beat in the chorus. It just didn’t fit. He entertained the idea for a while before moving on.”
Zauner has her work cut out for her leading up to her tour.
She not only has to prepare for being away for weeks, but also has to figure out a new set list.
“We’ve been playing the same set order for mostly a year,” she says. “I’m so used to playing it that way and I enjoy it. I do have two records to choose from now. So, I’ll play my favorite songs and I like closing out the set with the more upbeat songs.”