rocknroll_n_blues_queens | Want some breakfast?

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2018: Japanese Breakfast: The prolific Philly rock musician talks work, death, dogs, anime, and wanting it all.

Michelle Zauner is in the middle of reading one of my stories when I meet her backstage at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. She’s there for the first of two sold-out shows, but she immediately starts asking about me. What do I like to write about? What do I want to write about but haven’t tried? After sound check, what would I like to eat? Would Korean food work?

The 29-year-old frontwoman of the deceptively upbeat audio/visual/performance tour de force Japanese Breakfast zeroes in on a nearby spot: Lucky Pig, a joint a block away, where the lighting is disorientingly split between incandescent on one side and fluorescent on the other. Dressed in all-black basics and a pair of slides my grandmother might’ve worn in her lifetime, Michelle chats with the staff in Korean and English. The restaurant is so new that it doesn’t have its liquor license yet, so the wait staff directs us to the nearest corner store for alcohol.

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Part of what makes Michelle such a prolific and proficient artist is that she’s been practicing for this spotlight for almost half of her life. Born in Seoul and raised in Eugene, Oregon, she was 15 when she got her first guitar and 16 when she first started working on her own music, initially under the name Little Girl, Big Spoon. As a student studying creative writing and film at Bryn Mawr College, she worked so closely and well with nearby Haverford College’s Federation United Concert Series (FUCS) organization that she became the first Bryn Mawr student to join its booking team. Around that time, she and some college friends started performing as the four-piece Post Post. After school, she built a following in the DIY scene with the Philadelphia-based emo band Little Big League, where she sharpened her non-music-related band skills through sheer necessity.

For much of her run helming Japanese Breakfast, Michelle wore extra hats as the manager of the band and the point person for audience interactions, as well as organizing tours and merch. It’s only recently that the band’s been able to tour with their own front-of-house audio engineer, a luxury to someone who still remembers budgeting and splitting $200 show fees between her bandmates. MORE

Japanese Breakfast Rocks Official Website.