Beatroute Magazine BC Print Edition - September 2017

MUSIC
JAPANESE BREAKFAST
experimental pop sensation is killing it softly
MATHEW WILKINS
Two months following the release of an enormously strong sophomore
album Soft Sounds From Another Planet, Japanese Breakfast (AKA
Michelle Zauner) continues to establish itself as an alternative
pop project with a serious knack for thoughtful lyricism, sonic
experimentation and brilliant melodies that get stuck in your head with
gravitational strength.
The album maintains distinct sounds and styles from the previous
release, unmistakably due in part to the small, tight-knit community
of friends who continue to aid and influence Michelle Zauner in the
creation and performance of her music. Japanese Breakfast’s bass player
Craig Hendrix, for instance, —who co-produced Soft Sounds From
Another Planet and played many of the instruments on the album— is
responsible for mixing and mastering the debut album These Are Good
People by Zauner’s other project Little Big League back in 2013.
The opening track “Diving Woman,” however, is at once an indication
of how and where this album departs from previous material, weighing
in at a full four minutes longer than any track off of 2016’s Psychopomp.
The song features Zauner’s dreamy, airy vocals meandering over
drawn out, rhythmic instrumentation that’s reminiscent of bands like
Sophtware Slump era Grandaddy or American Football. “When I made
Psychopomp, it was not nearly as deliberate as this album,” Zauner says.
“I was making that record for myself and it was a record that I didn’t
think anyone would really hear.”
Her deliberation on this new record is apparent elsewhere as well,
as vocals and instrumentation alike lend a wonderfully cohesive and
particularly spacey sonic quality to the music— a move that was
anything but incidental.
“We really wanted to have this feeling of floating in space… I had [my
synthesizer]’s little blips sounding like robots or satellites talking,” she
says of the instrumental track “Planetary Ambience”.
Soft Sounds From Another Planet had in fact began as a concept
album, after Zauner and co-producer/drummer Craig Hendrix worked
together to produce the track “Machinist”— a song about a woman
who, after having her heart broken by her robotic lover, flees Earth to
colonize Mars. The initial attempt at a sci-fi theme had been made as
a reaction to the extremely personal tone of the last album, which was
written and recorded two months after Zauner’s mother passed away
after battling cancer. The project was soon abandoned however, as
Zauner’s personal life continued to inevitably influence her writing.
“Soft Sounds was written a year and a half after processing everything
that happened. I had success as an artist for the first time and gotten
married… This tremendously sad thing had happened simultaneously
with two really celebratory things in my life.”
Zauner describes the album as an attempt at processing grief and
moving forward in the wake of tragedy. Songs like “Diving Woman” and
“The Body is a Blade” speak to the immense difficulty in dissociating
from trauma; how pouring yourself into hard work, routine, and
regimen can occasionally help sooth the potent pain of loss. “Till Death”
and “12 Steps” conversely explore the other side of Zauner’s life, moving
forward from her mother’s death as she describes the love she feels for
her husband, Peter Bradley, occasional bass player for Little Big League.
Soft Sounds From Another Planet is a faultless followup to Japanese
Breakfast’s debut album, from its introspective yet accessible lyricism to
its nuanced musicality. Zauner has further honed in on a personal style,
providing us with an album further demonstrating her musical diversity
and prowess, yet maintaining themes and styles so beloved by the fans
she’s already gleaned.
For those interested in the forgotten idea of a heavy-handed concept
album, rest assured Zauner plan to one day tackle such a project is
still bubbling beneath the surface as she waits for a moment when fan
attention begins to wane and she can get away with something a little
more “funky and weird”. But don’t hold your breath; should Japanese
Breakfast continue releasing music of the same calibre as Soft Sounds
or Psychopomp, the spotlight currently focused on Zauner’s incredible
talents will only burn brighter.
Japanese Breakfast performs at The Fox Cabaret (Vancouver) on
September 26.
Michelle Zauner embraces the pull of non-fiction with her latest
release as Japanese Breakfast.
CIGARETTES AFTER SEX
love is the answer
SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: multiple listens may lead to romantic celebration
and brooding lamentation
18
WILLEM THOMAS
“Love to me seems to be the thing that makes life worth
living.”
For Greg Gonzalez, all roads seem to lead back to love.
As it’s unabashed champion, he employs the emotions
tied to love, and equally love lost, with often devastating
effect as the primary creative force behind the Brooklynbased
Cigarettes After Sex. Blending his ethereal,
cinematic approach to dream-pop with an introspective
mix of romantic celebration and brooding lamentation, his
debut LP (released back in June) is a 10 song package of
Gonzalez’s experiences in love and loss.
Gonzalez toiled for years in relative obscurity in his
hometown of El Paso, Texas before finding the increasing
success Cigarettes After Sex have now achieved. It was the
move to New York that really made things come together.
“It was a much different and tougher life when I first
moved to New York, but I really loved every minute of it
[and] my days were full of the delight of just discovering
a new life.” Cigarettes After Sex also found responsive
fanbases online, and Gonzalez quickly found himself with
youtube uploads of his songs collecting millions of views.
“We didn’t have any promotion when we first started.
Many of our fans found the music in this spontaneous,
magical way where it’s very personal to them,” he says.
Reached by BeatRoute in Europe in the midst of a world
tour, Gonzalez is now performing for largely sold-out
crowds, and his music is becoming more widely known,
thanks in part to an apt placement of “Nothings Gonna
Hurt You Baby” in the television adaptation of The
Handmaid’s Tale. “I think they did an absolutely beautiful
job with the scene & it’s amazing to me how well the song
fit,” he says. Since then he’s been focused on upping the
ante of their live show as the crowd sizes grow. “I love
every part of being on tour, it’s exactly what I set out to
do. Losing your luggage is about the worst of it.”
As Gonzalez travels the world on the back of the LP,
he’s already planning for the future. The committed,
romanticized themes of love he explores with Cigarettes
After Sex may lead to another artistic avenue. “The
main far off notion I have is that I’d like to be a director
someday,” says Gonzales. Listing off some of his favourites
(Scorsese, Rohmer, Kubrick, etc), Gonzalez makes it clear
the passion he brings to Cigarettes After Sex was almost
made to not only accompany film, but to maybe create it
as well.
Cigarettes After Sex play Vancouver at The Imperial on
September 2017