Japanese Breakfast‘s Michelle Zauner released her memoir Crying In H Mart in April and it debuted at No. 2 on the New York Times‘ Best Sellers List (behind George W. Bush). The book was about her complicated feeling surrounding her South Korean identity and how the death of her mother allowed her to connect to her roots through food. But Zauner also says the book led to a “new chapter” of music on Japanese Breakfast’s upcoming album.
Zauner recently sat down to discuss her book and album Jubilee in an interview on The Daily Show. The musician explained how writing the memoir helped her move past grief and begin prioritizing joy, which is a running theme on the upcoming LP:
“After writing my first two records, which were largely about grief and loss, and then an entire book about the experience, I felt really ready to start this new chapter and run to the other spectrum of human experience. So the new album, which comes out on June 4, is called Jubilee and it’s about joy. Through the process of writing this material, I was giving myself permission to embrace that and feel that and fight for that in my life.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Zauner said she hopes the internet allows for the younger generation to feel more connected to their identities. “It’s my hope that a lot of the younger generation is learning how to celebrate their differences,” she said. “A big part of that is the online community and how we’re able to share this sort of experiences, whereas when I was younger, it felt so isolating and something to shirk. Unfortunately, I came into it later. I guess my advice would be I hope that people are able to be proud of their background before they come into it a little bit too late. I’m sure it was such a pain for my mom to witness me trying to shirk off that part of my identity for some time.”
Watch Zauner’s full conversation on The Daily Show above.
Jubilee is out 6/4 via Dead Oceans. Pre-order it here.