Japanese Breakfast

From bedroom-pop grief to Grammy-nominated indie rock and a bestselling memoir, Michelle Zauner's Japanese Breakfast keeps transforming loss into art.

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From bedroom-pop grief to Grammy-nominated indie rock and a bestselling memoir, Michelle Zauner's Japanese Breakfast keeps transforming loss into art.

MOODS · melancholic · introspective · cathartic · shimmering · bittersweet

BIOGRAPHY

Japanese Breakfast is the project of Korean-American musician Michelle Zauner, born in Seoul and raised from infancy in Eugene, Oregon. She moved to the Philadelphia area for college, played in the punk band Little Big League, and began Japanese Breakfast as a side project in 2013, releasing a thirty-track tape called June that year. The project became her main focus in 2016 with the debut album Psychopomp, shaped by the death of her mother from pancreatic cancer. Her band, featuring husband and guitarist Peter Bradley, bassist Deven Craige, and drummer Craig Hendrix, followed with Soft Sounds From Another Planet and the acclaimed 2021 album Jubilee, which earned two Grammy nominations. Zauner also wrote the New York Times bestselling memoir Crying in H Mart. Her fourth album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women), arrived in 2025.

WHY THEY'RE COOL

Japanese Breakfast is a rare case of an artist excelling across mediums: Jubilee earned Grammy nominations for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Music Album, while her memoir Crying in H Mart spent over a year on the New York Times bestseller list. From the grief-laden shoegaze of Psychopomp to the maximalist pop of Jubilee and the divisive opulence of For Melancholy Brunettes, Zauner has consistently reshaped her sound while deepening her exploration of identity, loss, and family.