Michelle’s picks include tracks by Kate Bush, Coldplay, The Cranberries, Harry Nilsson and Kim Jung Mi. Michelle also spoke to Matt about why Kate Bush is her hero, why she went back to university to study Korean, and a special show she performed in Seoul.
Japanese Breakfast’s 5 Best Songs:
Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)
Kim Jung Mi – Haenim
Coldplay – The Scientist
The Cranberries – Dreams
Harry Nilsson – Everybody’s Talkin’
Michelle Zauner on her love for Kate Bush…
I wanted five songs that could come on and just level everyone. I feel like every time this song comes on, it’s just an undeniable leveller. There’s nothing like it. I had to put a Kate Bush song on. I mean, it was tough to pick through her catalogue, but I think this one is just so undeniably great. She’s just the goat, you know? I mean I think she’s such a singular, inventive composer and producer and just no other voice like that, probably like the greatest influence on my music, just a hero … I feel like I was probably a pretty late bloomer when it comes to Kate Bush fandom. Maybe college time, but I don’t think I really fell hard for her catalogue until maybe my late 20s or so … I wouldn’t dare [cover one of her songs], you know? I mean, her voice is just so, I don’t know, she’s one of those singers that I think you’d have to be a real powerhouse to do that well.
Michelle on going back to university to study Korean…
So that was also an incredibly humbling experience because I think there are so many movies and fantasies that one has about returning to school with the knowledge that you have now as a kind of like successful adult and being well-liked and popular and then you go back to school and you’re still just kind of sitting where you were when you were actually in college. And all of the kids were kind of confused about what to do with me because I was quite a bit older than everyone. And we’re all speaking like kindergarten level Korean. And I have this really funny story where we learned the word for celebrity. And we were each tasked to tell a story about a time that you met a celebrity in Korean. Some kids would be like, oh you know, I saw Blackpink in concert or I saw this actor when I went to some studio visit or whatever. I was like, I met BTS and the teacher was like, oh, you met BTS, where did you meet BTS? I was like at the Grammys, I met BTS at the Grammys and she was like, not on TV, we’re talking about real life experiences. She didn’t believe me at all!
And then it was kind of a really heartwarming thing because at the end of the semester, I don’t think she liked me too much because I became kind of this like brown-noser try hard, I just wanted it too badly. I think it made her uncomfortable. Then at the end of the semester, we did this speaking interview and it had slowly gotten around who I was, that I was this writer and that my book is kind of known in Korea even. And she was like, why did you want to learn Korean? I told her my mum passed away and I wanted to learn Korean to remember her and all of this stuff. This teacher who didn’t believe me after this full semester together just started crying, like during our last speaking interview. So stuff like that is going to be the focus of my next book and it’s such a sweet humbling experience to learn another language and make these mistakes and the direct translation of all the stuff that you’re doing is pretty goofy.
Michelle on playing a special show in Seoul..
At that point, it had been maybe the second time I had been to Korea since my mum passed away and, you know, it felt so soft then. I was just like so tender and so vulnerable, touring that album about my mum, getting to see her older sister, which in a way is the closest way that I could have my mum at a show, you know, like they they look similar obviously, they have similar mannerisms, but then it’s like obviously not quite the same. I remember feeling so tender and soft and in disbelief that this was happening, but also so moved by that experience. It felt very special and full circle that this album about my mum, had brought me to to her home country and the country where I was born in and also because ‘Psychopomp’ had this picture of her in her 20s very clearly on the cover, to then bring her back there and then watch all these kids file out of the venue, like holding this photo of her under their arm, like taking her out into the streets of Seoul and feeling like I’ve sufficiently memorialised my mother in a way was a very special experience. I think I’ve cried at almost every concert I’ve played in Seoul because something always flips.
