“The song is about insecurity, particularly what it’s like to love someone who isn’t physically attracted to you.”
Japanese Breakfast is the moniker of Michelle Zauner, who you may know from her work with Philly indie rock act Little Big League. In 2016 she made her solo debut with her full-length Psychopomp and then returned last year with her critically acclaimed 2017 album, Soft Sounds From Another Planet. One of the dope tracks on that sophomore album of Zauner’s is the slow dance worthy “Boyish” which now has a dreamy video to match.
Directed by Zauner herself and made in collaboration with DP Adam Kolodny, the video features a high school dance that takes the classic “girl is sad she doesn’t have the guy” narrative and turns it into something much more powerful about representation. It also features Lindsey Jordan of Snail Mail. As Zauner explained in a press release…
“The video for Boyish was always sort of our magnum opus for Soft Sounds. I think it took Adam Kolodny and I working on so many videos together to prepare for the enormity of a school dance–lighting and decorating such a large space, casting and dressing so many extras. The song is about insecurity, particularly what it’s like to love someone who isn’t physically attracted to you. It’s an old song, the meaning of which has transformed for me over time, but it has always been about a tension and rejection perfectly encompassed by a school dance. I did not attend my own senior prom, so it was the perfect opportunity to bring my own vision of a gorgeous, space dance to life.”
Also the ending makes me cry.
Watch the video for “Boyish” by Japanese Breakfast below…
Soft Sounds From Another Planet is out now via Dead Oceans, give it a listen + Catch Japanese Breakfast live on tour at the dates below.