Japanese Breakfast Bring ‘The Melancholy Tour’ to The Ryman Tonight, April 28

The indie pop project of musician, director, and author Michelle Zauner, who cut her teeth performing in the Philadelphia indie and emo scene in groups like Post Post and Little Big League, Japanese Breakfast is a project initially born from grief, which has blossomed into a personal, earnest, and primary outlet of artistic expression for a phenomenal talent over more than a decade. After relocating suddenly to her hometown of Eugene, Oregon, after her mom was diagnosed with cancer, Zauner continued to write music to occupy her time. The result, her debut full-length as Japanese Breakfast (an outlet she’d used more like a side-project prior) Psychopomp, arrived after her mom tragically passed, and within its lo-fi, bedroom pop was a nuanced, poignant navigation of grief, sexuality, and personal transition. For a while, Michelle expected to leave music behind, and to find a more conventional job path that her mom would have approved of. However, the record’s unprecedented success prompted her to keep her creative career going, and with 2017 follow-up Soft Sounds from Another Planet, a record that amassed even wider mainstream recognition and spun off several buzzed-about singles, Japanese Breakfast really matured both musically and in more cosmic, adventurous lyricism, both navigating how grief is processed beyond the immediate aftermath of trauma, and also exploring life in a broader context.

Over the following several years, Zauner and Japanese Breakfast (now treated formally as a band, even if Zauner remains its creative core) became darlings of the indie scene, beloved by critics and adored by a cult following; she and her band have performed at festivals around the globe and toured with increasingly high-profile artists, she provided the soundtrack for indie game Sable, and even wrote her first book, the critically-lauded memoir Crying in H Mart. In 2021, around the same time as Sable and H Mart, Japanese Breakfast released her highly-anticipated and Grammy-nominated third album, Jubilee. Arriving after years of effort on Zauner’s part to improve her craft as a songwriter, the LP felt, for the first time, untethered from the shadow of grief that informed the first two records, embracing happiness and pondering themes of life and the human experience, all boosted by some incredible arrangements, dreamy and lush pop hooks, and excellent vocal stylings, and earning the group even more mainstream recognition.

For Japanese Breakfast’s latest and fourth album, last month’s For Melancholy Brunettes (& Sad Women), Zauner tapped acclaimed producer Blake Mills, and opted to record in a more formal studio setting in Los Angeles for the first time (vs. the warehouses, lofts, and improvised spaces utilized on post records), at the legendary Sound City. Described as “a mature, intricate, contemplative work that conjures the romantic thrill of a gothic novel,” Melancholy is as- well- melancholy as its title suggests, delving into new layers and straying away from some of the extroversion and headiness of Jubilee, while also poetically grappling with an Icarus-esque complex feeling of finally attaining a level of success you so deeply aspired to, among other themes of hope, sadness, and self-reflection. In support of their latest, Japanese Breakfast are currently on the road, and are set to bring their phenomenal and earnest live show to Nashville for the first time in seven years tonight, April 28 at The Ryman Auditorium with indie soul favorite Ginger Root. A handful of tickets are still available right here while they last, so don’t sleep on one of the best shows of the spring!

Japanese Breakfast and Ginger Root will perform tonight, April 28 at The Ryman Auditorium. The show is all ages, begins at 8 p.m. (doors at 7 p.m.), and tickets are available for $59.50-125.