Michelle Zauner is the subject of a new feature in GQ Korea, which the Japanese Breakfast leader is touting as her first interview in Korean. It is indeed in Korean, a language I do not speak, but thanks to Google Translate I think I’m getting the gist of things.

Much of the interview is about how Zauner has been learning Korean so she can talk to her aunt about memories of her late mother — whose death informed both Japanese Breakfast’s debut album Psychopomp and Zauner’s bestselling memoir Crying In H Mart — as well as read her mom’s old diary. She also talks about wanting to become a mother herself soon. And somewhere in there, she talks about how she made a new album that she expects will be released this coming March. Apparently it’s a depressing listen, at least compared to 2021’s joyous Jubilee. Here are here translated comments about the prior album and how it relates to the new one:

The third album was about happiness. And I used a lot of instruments. There were a lot of horns and string instruments. So when I performed for that album, I didn’t play the guitar much. I just sang. So I missed the guitar a lot. I play a lot of guitar for this album. And it’s a gloomy album…

I got tired of happy topics. Hahahahaha. So I went back to gloomy topics. I think it’s a little more mature. The third album used a lot of yellow and bright colors, but I got tired of that style, so this album will probably have different colors. I always want to make it different from the last album. And I think a lot about my age these days.

Check out some of the photos from the GQ feature in Zauner’s Instagram post below.

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