Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) is Creating a Language of Her Own

Talk Easy with Sam Fragoso

Lemonada Media

Society & Culture, Film Interviews, Tv & Film

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 8 June 2025

⏱️ 66 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Michelle Zauner (Japanese Breakfast) has long turned to music to make sense of the past. Today, she joins us to unpack all of the emotional terrain covered in her latest album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women).

We discuss the literary (6:08) and musical (7:32) influences that shaped the new record, her transformative year spent living and writing in Korea (13:12), and the daily diary she kept while abroad (15:44). We then celebrate her late mother (18:56), her exploration of identity in Crying in H Mart (23:19), and the song “Heft” born out of that ongoing grief (29:49).

On the back half, Zauner recounts her breakout performance at SXSW (35:30) and unpacks her evolving relationship with her father in the wake of her mother’s passing (43:17), her plans for a second book (56:40), and how she’s coming into her own on this latest world-wide tour (58:02).

Thoughts or future guest ideas? Email us at [email protected].

This episode was recorded at Spotify Studios.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, I want to let everyone know that on June 14th in New York City, as part of the Tribeca Audio Festival,
0:06.4	I'll be doing a live show with none other than Oscar-winning actor, Sam Rockwell.
0:11.5	You've seen him in three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri, seven psychopaths, moon,
0:16.0	and of course, most recently, his turn in season three of the White Lotus.
0:22.3	We'll be sitting down at the SVA Theater in Manhattan for the kind of deep dive, talk-easy-styled conversation we have here
0:29.0	each and every Sunday. If you're in town, it can make it, the good people at Tribeca are offering
0:35.1	talk-easy listeners 50% off all tickets.
0:39.2	Just head to Tribecafilm.com slash Talk Easy and use the code T.F. Talk Easy 50.
0:46.1	That's TF, like Tribeca Festival, Talk Easy 50.
0:50.5	Again, the link, Tribecafilm.com slash Talk Easy.
0:54.7	Our live show also happens to be the closing night event of the festival,
0:58.6	so with your ticket, you gain admission to the closing night party,
1:02.8	and I hope you'll join us for that as well.
1:05.1	Tickets are going fast, but there are still a few left,
1:08.1	and so if you can come by, it's Saturday, June 14th, with the one and only,
1:12.3	Sam Rockwell.
1:15.4	Lemonada. This is Talk Easy. I'm Sam for Goso. Welcome to the show.
1:38.7	Welcome to the show. Today, musician and author, Michelle's honor.
1:55.4	You likely know her as the front woman and songwriter behind Japanese breakfast.
2:00.4	Since 2016, the band has released a series of
2:03.5	genre blending records, psychopomp, soft sounds from another planet, Jubilee, all of which
2:09.4	are bound by a kind of shared exploration of memory and longing and joy. Michelle grew up in
	...

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