Bonnaroo 2024 Artist Spotlight: The Japanese House

Like we’ve been doing for many years now, we’re making it our mission to help you get acquainted with many of our favorite acts from Bonnaroo‘s 2024 lineup. After roaring back to life in 2022, after two years off due to Covid and weather, and feeling fully like its old self again with a great fest last summer, this year marks Bonnaroo’s 21st installment (and 23rd anniversary), boasting not only another great and varied lineup, but also a continuation of some of the big changes and improvements rolled out over the last couple of years, with more flexibility in ticketing and camping, a reimagined “Outeroo” campground area, new activations, and further new ways to Roo. Back once again in its usual June 13-16 timeframe, we’re counting down the days until another great weekend on the farm.

As we dig through the entire schedule, we’ll highlight a spread of performers spanning across genres and stages, big and small, new and old, to bring you some of the most interesting, lesser-known, and most highly-recommended among this year’s crop of artists. And as our time at ‘Roo approaches, we’ll also be bringing you some special features and full list-style daily lineup guides, to help you plan your weekend ahead of the fest. While these previews won’t span every artist, and might omit some more obvious must-see acts, we hope they’ll serve as a way to help you navigate Bonnaroo’s gargantuan lineup, and to make the most of your busy weekend at the fest!

Grab your tickets right here if you haven’t already, and read on for our Bonnaroo Artist Spotlight!

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Amber Bain, better known by her musical alias The Japanese House, has been an important fixture in the indie pop scene for a decade now, despite not even being 30. Hailing from Buckinghamshire, England, and encouraged to pursue her passion for music at a young age by her musician father, Bain met The 1975’s Matty Healy while still in her teens, who, along with his bandmate George Daniel, has been a integral producer and collaborator from the start, leading to The Japanese House (named for a cottage in Cornwall, England in which stayed during a family vacation in her childhood) signing with The 1975’s label, Dirty Hit, ahead of her 2015 debut EP Pools to Bathe In. Early efforts were pretty experimental, drawing influences from electronica, synth-pop, art pop, and even folk, and at the start Bain avoided press and sharing personal details or photographs, and favored a layered, augmented and androgynous vocal production style, which led fans to speculate on her gender and identity early on (with some even believing it could secretly be Matty Healy). She’d soon step more confidently into the public eye though (and has since started using a production style that favors her natural voice), evolving her dreamy, artsy, and etherial sound across several more EPs and on the road both solo and with The 1975, eventually releasing her debut full-length, Good at Falling, in 2019, to critical acclaim. Both in her association with Dirty Hit (a label which has become synonymous with quality over the last decade) and as a solo artist in her own right, Bain- young, queer, lyrically vulnerable, and adept at crafting a supremely modern musical ethos with timeless relatability- has amassed something of a cult following in recent years, and received even more mainstream attention for her 2023 sophomore LP In the End It Always Does, the multifaceted artist’s most introspective, confident, and nuanced work to date, featuring contributions from the likes of Muna, Charli XCX, Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon, and of course members of The 1975. One of the most exciting names in modern indie pop, The Japanese House is one of Friday’s absolute must-see performances at Bonnaroo, and though we wish she had a vibey, later timeslot, we urge you to make the afternoon trek!

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