鈥淎ll of my ghosts are real, all of my ghosts are my home,鈥� sings in her singular way 鈥� sweetness laced with sorrow.
Four years ago, the release of her Grammy-nominated album 鈥淛ubilee鈥� dovetailed with her bestselling memoir 鈥� chronicling her love of Korean food and loss of her mother 鈥� to produce a season of success. Then came a film adaptation of her memoir, for which she wrote the screenplay. With the Hollywood strikes, though, it came to a grinding halt (and later a full stop, when actor and director Will Sharpe left the project).
In the aftermath, Zauner recorded new tracks. She sidestepped the spotlight by moving to Seoul 鈥� where she immersed herself in Korean language and culture 鈥� the subject of her
Zauner talked to The Associated Press about her fourth studio album, 鈥淔or Melancholy Brunettes (and Sad Women).鈥� Out Friday, it's that rare thing: a cerebral yet deeply felt album from an artist with just enough commercial success to secure resources for her still-quite-indie vision.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
AP: The album cover looks like a very sumptuous painting. It鈥檚 very memento mori with the skull and flowers 鈥� and then there鈥檚 oysters and a tray of bloody guts. Where did the idea come from?
ZAUNER: I really loved the idea of being on the album cover, but not showing my face. I was feeling pretty introverted after the years that followed 鈥淛ubilee.鈥� It was a really natural desire to just focus more on the work and less on me as a figure.
I had noticed this kind of trope in many paintings of women collapsed over tables, overcome with melancholy. It looks like I鈥檓 this collapsed, spoiled prince just with a table full of excess, and still miserable.
I dressed the table with little Easter eggs from the album 鈥� almost like a still life where every object has some kind of meaning. There is a bowl of guts that is a line from 鈥淗ere is Someone,鈥� and there鈥檚 milky broth and oysters, which are lines on 鈥淥rlando in Love.鈥� There鈥檚 flowers in a vase, which I mention in 鈥淲inter in LA.鈥�
AP: Melancholy is a motif throughout the tracks. It feels like a different flavor or color of grief than your earlier work. How would you describe the kind of sadness you wanted to capture?
ZAUNER: At this time in my life and the way that I think about melancholy, it鈥檚 very intertwined with time and the passage of it. And this desire to get ahead of it and to keep it at bay 鈥� and the sort of melancholic reality that it鈥檚 forever passing. I think of it not so much as like a violent sadness or longing or heartbreak, but kind of this pensive, anticipatory grief about the passage of time.
It evokes a specific kind of feeling of being sort of on edge. Or, like, a taut feeling. Most of that dissonance, I think, comes from the chord changes or the progressions. I originally wanted to make a creepy album, and those sorts of changes felt really essential to achieving that kind of eerie sound.
AP: You recorded this album, shelved it, went to Korea for a year, came back to New York and are now releasing it. Why did you shelve it for a period of time and what鈥檚 it like now listening back to the recordings?
ZAUNER: My last record was also shelved for a year because of COVID, so I鈥檓 honestly used to that process now. I鈥檝e actually found that I really love my records even more with time away from them.
There鈥檚 so much that goes into preparing for an album to come out, from the visuals to mixing and mastering to prepping for the tour that, honestly, that kind of separation is really nice.
I鈥檓 not someone that鈥檚 super precious. I have a very clear idea of what I want, and I am someone that is good at knowing when to finish.
AP: You鈥檝e talked about the toll that touring takes on the body, and pressures that come with reaching a certain level of recognition. What are ways you鈥檝e learned to take care of yourself?
ZAUNER: It鈥檚 so hard to just eat well on tour because you鈥檙e so confined to what鈥檚 around a venue. I eat a lot of Asian food and sometimes when you鈥檙e in the middle of America, there鈥檚 not a lot of options that are, you know, not Panda Express.
It鈥檚 so hard to just not eat a home-cooked meal for months at a time. I鈥檓 actually going to be bringing a rice cooker on this tour, which is something that I did at the beginning of my tour days that I鈥檓 returning to.
I bring a yoga mat and stretch. Your body just gets like, so f----d from, like, sleeping in a moving bus in a tiny little coffin hole.
I probably am going to be sober for all of my tour time. I always really loved having a couple of drinks to get loose. But if you鈥檙e doing that every day, it takes a toll on you eventually. A lot of the women I know that tour regularly have all sworn off alcohol, and I was very obstinate about it, like 鈥淚t鈥檚 fine, I can do both, I can have it all.鈥� But this is the tour that I finally accept that there鈥檚 probably no drinking.
I鈥檓 also an only child and I need a lot of privacy and alone time. I think that my self-care is just like, 鈥淵ou are allowed to disappear.鈥�
AP: You鈥檙e touring with the same musicians as the 鈥淛ubilee鈥� tour, right? What are you excited about playing, venue-wise?
ZAUNER: I鈥檝e somehow assembled 15 people that I happen to get along with really well, which is extremely rare for me. I feel like that鈥檚 the best thing that I could have ever done for myself is just find 12 to 15 people that you can spend an ungodly amount of time together with and still like each other at the end.
We鈥檝e never played the Ryman in Nashville, and that鈥檚 something that we鈥檙e all just super excited about.
I鈥檝e had such an allegiance to Union Transfer in Philadelphia because the coat check is named after me.
AP: The coat check is named after you?
ZAUNER: Before I became a professional musician, I used to work the coat check there. Once, someone gave me a fake hundred-dollar bill. I gave them like $98 of real change. And the manager was upset about that and told me that I was going to have to pay it out of my paycheck, which was like more than I made in the five hours that I had worked that shift. I had no money at this time.
Anyway, my boss was really cool about it and he stepped in and paid the $100 for me. I never forgot that. Years later, when we sold out five nights at Union Transfer as a band, I paid him back the $100 onstage. After the last night, they surprised me by naming that coat check 鈥渢he Michelle Zauner's coat check.鈥� There鈥檚 like a big hand-painted sign, which is very sweet.
AP: I think a lot of listeners will be surprised to hear 鈥� voice on 鈥淢en in Bars.鈥� Who would be a dream collaborator next?
ZAUNER: I really want to make, like, a sexy album and I really want to work with the band Air. I really love 鈥淢oon Safari.鈥�
I think because I sort of disavowed synths for this album, I suddenly am like, 鈥淥h, I want to make like a sexy, synth record.鈥�
They write just such amazing bass lines and like, such cinematic music. Let鈥檚 just put that out into the world.
Anna Furman, The Associated Press
