Japanese Breakfast’s Michelle Zauner sings to the rafters of KCRW’s Annenberg Performance Studio.

Video directed by Kylie Hazzard. All photos by Sarah Shen

Japanese Breakfast: KCRW Live from HQ

Intimate performances, fresh sounds, and candid conversations with a view.

Written by Marion Hodges May. 07, 2025

Conceived as a side project/songwriting challenge for frontwoman Michelle Zauner (while she was part of the Philly indie rock band Little Big League), Japanese Breakfast has steadily expanded its scope and style over the past decade: from spare and confessional bedroom-pop beginnings, to the glossier space it occupies now. Since forming the project in 2013, Zauner has navigated major life changes: cross country moves, intensive caretaking for her mother, the eventual loss of her mother, and then processing the loss of her mother through her New York Times bestselling memoir, Crying in H Mart.

Japanese Breakfast’s latest album, For Melancholy Brunettes (& sad women), picks up not too far from where 2021’s Grammy-nominated Jubilee left off, with its sugar rush singles like “Be Sweet” and “Savage Good Boy.” But a strong current of musical maturation runs throughout the new LP as the sounds careen smoothly from bright and wistful, to heavy and discordant, to soft and reflective, and back again many times over.

Check the video above to hear it in action as Japanese Breakfast — Zauner (lead vocals, guitar), Peter Bradley (guitar), Deven Craige (bass), Craig Hendrix (drums, keyboard, backing vocals), Lauren Baba (violin, synth, backing vocals), and Adam Shatz (saxophone, keyboard) — makes their KCRW Annenberg Performance Studio debut between weekends of Coachella 2025. They’re sharing For Melancholy Brunettes cuts “Honey Water,” “Mega Circuit,” “Picture Window,” and “Winter in LA.” Plus, in conversation with KCRW’s Novena Carmel (video below), Zauner describes how she wanted to use her new record to express “a melancholic thoughtfulness about the passing of time.”

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Credits:

KCRW Music Director: Alejandro Cohen
Interviewer: Novena Carmel
Director/Director of Photography: Kylie Hazzard
Editor / Colorist: Angie Scarpa
Camera operators: Milana Burdette, Kylie Hazzard, Ali Ivosevich
KCRW Recording / Mix Engineer: Katie Gilchrest
Assistant Engineers: Hope Brush and Nick Lampone (Front of House)
Executive Producer: Ariana Morgenstern
Senior Producer: Anna Chang
Event Producer: Maggie O'Rourke
Digital Producer: Marion Hodges
Digital Editorial Manager: Andrea Domanick
Lighting Design: Jason Groman
Art Director: Evan Solano