{"id":335552,"date":"2023-10-18T16:53:07","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T15:53:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.co.uk\/?p=335552"},"modified":"2023-10-18T17:28:17","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T16:28:17","slug":"the-japanese-house-is-on-a-cyclical-journey-of-self-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gaytimes.com\/amplify\/the-japanese-house-is-on-a-cyclical-journey-of-self-discovery\/","title":{"rendered":"The Japanese House is on a cyclical journey of self-discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amber Bain, aka <\/span>The Japanese House,<\/span> on being unapologetically candid and her sophomore album In The End It Always Does<\/em><\/span>. <\/span><\/p>\n

WORDS BY JOSH OSMAN<\/strong>
\nPHOTOGRAPHY BY HANIFAH MOHAMMAD<\/strong>
\nCREATIVE DIRECTION BY UMAR SARWAR<\/strong>
\nART DIRECTION BY ANISA CLEAVER<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cPeople liked talking about my \u2018anonymity\u2019 a lot,\u201d Amber Bain, aka The Japanese House, says with a smirk, sitting cross-legged from the floor of her Detroit apartment. In conversation she\u2019s refreshingly candid, just as she is on her emotionally forthright new album, <\/span>In The End It Always Does<\/span><\/em>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As Bain herself notes, an air of mystery has long followed the singer-songwriter \u2013 even as she makes efforts to be more forthright as both an artist and a public face. The reason points back to her low-profile beginning as a musician, where she opted to dodge the media and her identity was surrounded by speculation.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nowadays, the question of anonymity is something Bain finds absurd \u2013 becoming increasingly outspoken on songs and in the press, she doesn\u2019t feel like she\u2019s hiding. \u201cI\u2019ve always been very frank in my lyrics and in interviews,\u201d she notes. \u201cI find it funny when people think I\u2019m trying to be mysterious, because I\u2019m like, \u2018What more do you want? Do you want to know my period cycle?\u2019\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Signing to Dirty Hit in 2012, Bain has long been heralded as an artist to watch. But, in recent years, the musician\u2019s profile has rapidly transcended past underground artist status. Bain\u2019s 2017 debut EP, <\/span>Pools To Bathe In<\/span><\/em>, marked her as an unconventional pop star and now, with her sophomore project, the singer-songwriter is rewriting the record and stepping out as a major name.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right now, she seems surprisingly relaxed – but it\u2019s easy to see that her career is on the cusp of serious change. Currently finding herself on a whirlwind press cycle promoting her new alternative-pop album, she\u2019s preparing for a slew of US and UK tour dates that will take her everywhere from Southampton to Washington DC.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Transformation \u2013 in all its forms \u2013 has been embraced by Bain. Since her 2019 debut release, <\/span>Good At Falling<\/span><\/em>, Bain has been through substantial change \u2013 she\u2019s moved twice, once from London to Kent, and once across the Atlantic, questioned her gender identity and fallen in love with multiple people at the same time, and also broken up with them. Among this, the singer finds humour in how much things have evolved. \u201cI don\u2019t think anyone was looking at me and thinking that\u2019s a straight person,\u201d she jokes, recalling how she struggled to discuss her queerness as a new musician.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, things couldn\u2019t be any more different in her album. Bain openly details her life, decorating songs with outright honesty.\u00a0 On \u2018Morning Pages\u2019, her collaboration with close friends MUNA, she sings: \u201c<\/span>You wait for a feeling, it never quite hits<\/span> \/ <\/span>And you wait for the moment she reaches your lips<\/span> \/ <\/span>She never quite hits<\/span><\/em>\u201d. The singer also treads into more traditional pop territory on the album, with more guitar-led riffs and piano ballads, while still embracing the \u201cmessy\u201d electronica of her earlier days. Working alongside queer producer Chloe Kraemer steered the album\u2019s \u201cmagical\u201d personal direction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Elsewhere, gentler moments on the album are found in tragic liminalities \u2013 things that never quite come, and things that are fated to end. \u201cThere is a beauty in sadness when the dramatic moments of heartbreak aren\u2019t always the <\/span>drama<\/span><\/em>,\u201d she says. \u201cSometimes the heartbreak doesn\u2019t look like heartbreak, it just looks like a normal day, but it\u2019s just the worst day of your life, you know?\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The musician is also aware of the nuances that come with queer love and relationships: \u201cIf you\u2019re queer, you\u2019re used to not necessarily following the main road when it comes to how you have relationships because you\u2019re already breaking normal standards and barriers.\u201d Her first experience of polyamory, where she entered into a relationship with a couple, may have only lasted three months, but it was both ephemeral and revelatory. \u201cIt really did make me think about relationships and love in a different way. I was witnessing so many things and then experiencing them afterwards.\u201d To her, the experience was \u201cstrange and rare\u201d, watching two people already in love with each other fall in love with her at the same time. \u201cI got to see them try to manage the really complex feelings surrounding jealousy, love and loyalty and see everything being thrown up in the air and landing around me,\u201d she reveals. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Vulnerability<\/span> colours Bain\u2019s songwriting surrounding her experience of a polyamorous relationship, which appears throughout <\/span>In The End It Always Does<\/span><\/em>. \u2018Friends\u2019 is a \u201csexy tongue-in-cheek song about having two girlfriends\u201d. While \u2018Over There\u2019, chronicles Bain\u2019s yearning after one partner left the relationship. \u201cIt was really difficult, but there are parts of it that felt like being on the cusp of something magical,\u201d Bain reminisces. Though she often realises the impact of certain events long after the time has passed, she is adamant that she \u201cknew the magic\u201d of this experience while it was happening. \u201cI didn\u2019t want to let go, because I knew it wasn\u2019t gonna last long,\u201d she says.<\/span><\/p>\n

Looking back on it all, Bain reflects that she has no \u201cspecific opinion\u201d on how she loves. \u201cI don\u2019t even know if it is for me, being polyamorous, but you never know. It\u2019s like reading a new book and seeing things from a completely new standpoint. It\u2019s inspirational and you can\u2019t escape from that,\u201d she explains. The space to consider these questions is a privilege she feels lucky to have, after spending the last five years \u201cshaking off guilt and shame about being gay\u201d. While the artist still doesn\u2019t have an answer for how she entirely identifies, she\u2019s \u201clearning to accept that that is another key thing about feeling comfortable with it\u201d. Finding a label, or exact answer, is no longer the goal for Bain \u2013 particularly when it comes to gender. \u201cYou can sit with it for as long as you want, don\u2019t feel a need to have a definite answer, I just use genderqueer because I don\u2019t f**king know!\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Self-exploration is central to <\/span>In The End It Always Does<\/span><\/em> and in moments of introspection, the album interrogates the external events which shape us from the outside-in. \u201cThere\u2019s tragedy in recognising that the things that have happened to you are part of you,\u201d Bain reflects, as if recognising that no matter where you go, the past will always follow you \u2013 it\u2019s carried within you.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But despite the adventures of change, agony and acceptance, Bain is already confidently ready for her next project \u2013 before she\u2019s even put her second album to bed. With six new songs already written, the musician is ready to revisit the process of understanding herself and her sound.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The Japanese House\u2019s album In The End It Always Does <\/em>is out now via Dirty Hit. You can buy tickets to her tour here<\/a>.<\/p>\n