Having kept a low profile and ambiguous name since the genesis of her career in 2012, The Japanese House has long eluded her listeners while simultaneously enrapturing them in the heartwrenching lyrics, soft synths and blended harmonic vocals of her songs. The Japanese House is, in fact, only made up of a 29-year-old Amber Bain, born in Buckinghamshire and expert in writing, producing, and playing her songs.
After releasing a number of EP’s and her first full studio album, Good at Falling (2019), Bain most recently released her second studio album, In the End it Always Does, in June 2023.
I meet Amber just after the festival gates open on August 9th, the first day of Outside Lands. It’s misty and wintry out, in classic San Francisco fashion, but the fog thins as the park begins to stir with the anticipation of thousands of attendees. In the media tent, Amber’s tiny brown weiner dog sits up from where it had been curled up underneath (or inside of) a jean jacket on a bench with her tour manager. She scurries over to us and Amber picks her up, settling her in her lap with Joni’s head resting in her arms. “Who is this?” I asked. “This is Joni Jones,” she tells me, named after none other than Joni Mitchell. “The sweetest dog.”
So, you performed at Outside Lands in 2017, at the Twin Peaks stage early in the day. I actually saw you perform here that year.
Was that when we played? 2017? Oh, that was ages ago. That was when I still had acne, I was so young.
You were 21 or 22, joined back then by many of this year’s performers, like Young the Giant, Kaytranada, and Schoolboy Q. How does it feel to be back in Golden Gate Park, 7 years later, playing the main Lands End stage?
Oh did they? I didn’t know to be honest. I’m not much of a music nerd. But it’s good [to be here], I love this festival. I loved it last time, I remember I was playing on the same stage as MUNA, and that’s where we kind of became friends. We’ve met like once or twice before, but they say that was like our friendship anniversary. We just had a good time…it was kind of a crazy time, I loved it.
This has been a big year, celebrating the release of your sophomore album, In the End it Always Does, which came out last spring. You played at Coachella in May, Bonnaroo last month, and Lollapalooza just last weekend, and you have some big shows coming up like at the Greek Theater in Los Angeles. How has your tour been for you, and what has it been like playing at each of these huge festivals?
Yeah, we’ve been touring and playing festivals in between the shows, and it’s different every time. The crowds have obviously been really different, like once we had to clash with Chappell Roan, so that was… I think she had the biggest ever crowd at Lollapalooza.
Oh yeah, I bet.
But we actually still had a remarkable amount of people, so that was good. We’ve had some massive crowds. It’s one of those things that’s kind of the luck of the draw, because you could play your own show and you know everyone who’s going to be there, you know how many people are gonna be there and who’s gonna turn up. But sometimes you play a festival, and you just get a really amazing response and that’s always a good feeling.
You’ve worked with some musical greats on many of the Japanese House releases, including Matty Healy and George Daniel of the 1975, and Justin Vernon [aka Bon Iver]…
And Chloe Kraemer, nobody ever mentions her. She’s a producer, but no one ever mentions her because they just think of Matty and George. And it’s really important that we talk about women producers, because she’s just as much behind it as the boys… and I’m producing as well. She’s a really talented producer.
That’s really important to hear. I was going to ask you what has been one of your favorite works to collaborate on and what that experience was like. Maybe you could share about a track you worked on with Kraemer?
All of them! All of the songs are produced by me, Chloe, and George basically. And Matty came in for a bit of it, writing and producing, and Katie from MUNA did a song called “One for Sorrow, Two for Joni Jones” she points at Joni in her lap Shout out. Collaborating has been an amazing thing on that record, and we really got into our groove which was nice. Charli [XCX] came in for a day and helped me out with a song called “Friends”. That was fun. I think because women are obviously so ignored, and everyone always assumes someone else does all your writing and producing, I think it’s easy to not want to collaborate, because you want to take ownership over all of the work. But actually, once you get over all of that and just do what’s best for the song, that’s when you make the best music.
Can you tell me a bit about your most recent single, “:)”?
It’s a song I wrote before I’d met my now-Fiance. We were just talking online, and I kind of wrote it as a joke honestly, I wrote it in like half an hour. It was kind of like this crazed love song, and I sent it to her and I was like “Oh my god, she’s going to think I’m absolutely psychotic.” But then…she ended up matching my freak, being a psycho too. And it’s kind of just an experiment with writing about happiness, instead of deep depression. She laughs. You can listen to “:)” at the link: https://japanesehouse.ffm.to/smileyface
Yeah, do you feel like most of your previous albums have been focused on this darker emotion?
Yeah, I find that there’s something inspiring about being really sad. And it’s also really hard to dance on the line when you’re writing about happiness and the poignancy of that…it’s almost cringe. It’s much easier to be classy and poignant about sad things. So it’s a good thing to try and learn.
Do you think that’s going to be echoed in the rest of your next album? Is that a mentality that you’re bringing into your work now?
Yeah, totally. It’s like a love album, this album that I’m doing. It’s like a narration of falling in love and how a relationship goes through the stages of learning about someone and falling in love. The stages of when the feeling of drugs goes, and then the romance of the mundane, normal life. And just grasping at it, because you don’t want to forget it.
That’s beautiful. I’m excited for it.
Thank you, so am I!
Now I have a “college radio”-sort-of-question for you. I’m wondering what you would say to a young artist or writer, knowing that you started making and playing your music so young. UCLA is such a hotspot of artists and musicians, do you have any words of wisdom for them?
The thing that I would say that’s made me the happiest, and I don’t know if this is necessarily the best way if you want, like, monetary success, but what’s made me the happiest and therefore I think the most successful, is putting out stuff that I genuinely love. You know, not putting stuff out for an agenda or because you think it’s gonna do well, because you think the radio will play it, or any of that. If anything makes you cringe or you don’t like it, then don’t release it. And I’ve done that, and now I’ve got these songs that embarrass the shit out of me. But then on my last album, every single song that’s on there, I really love. And that album has made me the happiest. So, I’d say just get over the stuff that you’ve done that maybe you’re not proud of. And from this moment on, only release things that you really really love.
Last question: I was wondering if there’s anyone you’re excited to see perform in the park this weekend?
You know, I’m actually leaving today. Is Chappell playing today?
Sunday.
Ah ok. Who’s playing today?
Tonight is the Killers, Daniel Cesar… I’ll be at Daniel Cesar.
Ok, I’ll be at Daniel Cesar. I’ll say him, why not. I’ll check it out.
Well thank you, and good luck out there today. I’m looking forward to it.
Thank you, I am too!
As she stood up, Joni jumped down onto the turf of the media tent, shaking herself off in the persistent San Francisco fog.
For the latest on Amber please visit https://thejapanesehouse.co.uk/ or her socials @thejapanesehouse on IG, TikTok, and FB and @Japanesehouse on Twitter.
