How Michelle Zauner Embraces Her Glory On “Paprika”

Photo by Peter Ash Lee

¨A sofa, a refrigerator, a microwave oven and a vacuum cleaner dance and twist their way down a confetti-covered street. Right behind them come the frogs playing trumpets; a group of tipsy raccoons, clutching bottles of sake; and a band of friendly cats, raising their paws in greeting but the scene becomes wilder and stranger, and the mood shifts to something more sinister. Along come robots, anatomical models, masked demons, a swaggering samurai, the Venus de Milo and Godzilla.¨

This is a New York Times review quote describing the chaotic parade scene from the anime thriller Paprika directed by the late Satoshi Kon. Paprika´s parade scene is one of the main inspirations for Japanese Breakfast´s Jubilee’s opening track of the same name. The 2021-released project is the indie band's most positive album they´ve released. Their 2016 debut Psychopomp expresses JB frontwoman Michele Zauner´s grief after losing her mother to pancreatic cancer two years prior. Soft Sounds From Another Planet, their 2017 sophomore album, deals with pain and loss through a science fiction lens. Her 2021-released memoir, Crying In H Mart, deals with losing her mother and her identity as an Asian- American. Jubilee, however, in Zauner’s words, ‘is an album about joy’.

Jubilee is filled to the brim with some of Japanese Breakfast’s best work yet. The upbeat lead single “Be Sweet” takes inspiration straight from the ’80s with an extremely infectious chorus, “Kokomo, In” is a bittersweet love song with a composition inspired by Brian Wilson, and “In Hell” is about Zauner´s mother´s final days sedated on opioids. However, the standout track is the tumultuous parade-like opening track “Paprika”

“Paprika” is about the doubts that Zauner has as an artist about her work. Artists often feel pressured to overwork themselves to death to feel as though they have made something magnificent. They want to make something that is great while forgetting why they are making the art in the first place. Passion. The pressure on Zauner is especially daunting since she is one of the few popular Asian-American artists in the indie music scene and carries a huge responsibility to represent her culture.

Zauner wrote “Paprika” in late 2019, inspired by a dream that she had after taking psychedelics about a large braid unraveling. It’s influence was made obvious in the first verse of the song:

¨Lucidity came slowly

I awoke from dreams of untying a great knot

It unraveled like a braid

Into what seemed were

Thousands of separate strands of fishing line

Attached to coarse behavior it flowed

A calm it urged, what else is here?¨

Kate Bush heavily inspired Jubilee and it is extremely evident in “Paprika´s” lyrical content. Zauner told Stereogum that she wanted to lean towards more surreal Bush-Esque lyrics on the song. Jubilee, in general, is reminiscent of Bush´s 1985 album Hounds of Love.

The most notable part of “Paprika” is its flamboyant production. It makes you feel as though you are in the middle of a busy and bizarre circus. For the first 49 seconds of the song, Zauner once again tries to channel Bush via a Fairlight CMI, and a CS-80 to create slow creeping synths. She also had access to Albion, an orchestral library, that inspired the marching band climax of the song. Craig Hendrix, a longtime Japanese Breakfast collaborator, helped Zauner create the effect by layering drums. Hendrix told NPR ¨I wasn't part of high school drumlines, and I don't have the muscle memory or really solid snare drum chops that a lot of drummers have, so it took some time to replicate those and maintain that momentum that a marching band would have.¨ 

Zauner also reached out to violinist Molly Germer, saxophonist Adam Schatz, and other musicians to create the illusion. The constant addition of new sounds became an issue when Zauner and Hendrix maxed out their Pro Tools session due to the overlapping of instruments. This instrument layering turned out to be successful in the end because when you listen to the chorus, it sounds as if a grand orchestra is involved even though there are less than 10 people involved with the composition.

Zauner begins to question how she feels about being in the limelight when the instrumentation reaches its peak:

¨How's it feel to be at the center of magic

To linger in tones and words?

I opened the floodgates

And found no water, no current, no river, no rush

How's it feel to stand at the height of your powers

To captivate every heart?

Projecting your visions to strangers who feel it

Who listen, who linger on every word

Oh, it's a rush

Oh, it's a rush¨

Zauner embraces her rising influence amongst her fans or the strangers in the chorus. Despite the pressures being tough, Japanese Breakfast’s rise in popularity is a wonder to behold. Pitchfork, Metacritic, and Rolling Stone have given Jubilee high praise, and the album peaked at #5 on Billboard Top Rock Albums and #56 on Billboard Hot 100; making it Japanese Breakfast’s first charting album. Plus, Crying In H Mart debuted at #2 on the New York Times bestsellers list and is still currently on the list as of the week of 9/26/21. Japanese Breakfast also got to perform “Paprika” on Jimmy Kimmel Live in July with Craig Hendrix. Zauner told Harper’s Baazar about her success

“I’m so focused on working as hard as I can... I can’t enjoy the rush of how magical of an experience it is to have people listen to you, and relate to you, and have this type of attention... So I feel like that song is a real reminder to not be so driven by anguish all the time”

According to Zauner, “Paprika” is the thesis statement of Jubilee. A beautiful and joyous beginning to an album about finding joy through the darkness.