ONE FOR SORROW, TWO FOR JONI JONES
IN THE END IT ALWAYS DOES LP // 30 JUNE
UK TOUR // OCTOBER
THE JAPANESE HOUSE has shared new single ONE FOR SORROW, TWO FOR JONI JONES, the closing track on her forthcoming second studio album, IN THE END IT ALWAYS DOES, out 30 June via Dirty Hit.
Written with MUNA’s Katie Gavin and co-produced by The Japanese House’s Amber Bain with Chloe Kraemer, the single is a stripped-back track soaked in glimmering piano, named after Bain’s sausage dog, who in turn is named after Joni Mitchell.
Of the track coming to life, Bain explains: “This is my favourite song, which I wrote as a piece ages ago when I was playing the piano and [producer] Chloe would record me playing the piano loads with my dog on my lap. We sat on the music for ages then Katie from MUNA came down to the studio and put the rambling lyrics over the music in a Joni Mitchell kind of way.
“I’m trying to encapsulate that feeling, a sort of ode to that feeling when Emma Thompson stands there and cries when she’s holding the CD in Love Actually. The lyrics are about the confirmation that my relationship was dead, and it’s the only song in which I’ve ever cried during the vocal take.”
Pre-order / pre-save In the End It Always Does
The Japanese House recently announced headline tours of the UK and North America in October and November. The UK tour will follow Bain supporting The 1975 at their sold out London Finsbury Park show on 2 July. Full UK dates as follows:
OCTOBER
Thu 12 GLASGOW SWG3
Sat 14 NEWCASTLE University
Sun 15 MANCHESTER New Century
Mon 16 NOTTINGHAM Rescue Rooms
Wed 18 BRISTOL Trinity Centre
Thu 19 OXFORD O2 Academy
Fri 20 SOUTHAMPTON 1865
Sun 22 BIRMINGHAM O2 Academy
Mon 23 LONDON Outernet (Sold Out)
Tue 24 BRIGHTON Chalk
It’s been nearly a decade since Amber Bain’s breakout in 2015 when THE JAPANESE HOUSE was a mysterious unidentified figure shrouded in mystery and reverb. These days though, Bain’s sound and style is characteristically wide open, her vulnerabilities, thoughts and innermost feelings stitched into a tapestry of gorgeous, elevated pop music.
Featuring the singles Sunshine Baby, Sad To Breathe and Boyhood much of the album lives in the contradictory: beginnings and endings, obsession and mundanity, falling in love and falling apart.
Written during a creative burst at the end of 2021, In The End It Always Does is primarily inspired by the events preceding it – including Bain’s first time moving to Margate, being in a throuple and the slow dissolution of those relationships. “[These two people] were together for six years and I met them, and we all fell in love at the same time – and then one of them left,” Bain recalls. “It was a ridiculously exciting start to a relationship. It was this high; and then suddenly I’m in this really domestic thing, and it’s not like there was other stuff going on – it was lockdown.” The album came together just as that chapter in her life was falling apart, with each song almost acting as a snapshot in time.
Four years after her widely celebrated debut Good At Falling, this album sees Bain lean even further into the pop realm – with help from Matty Healy and George Daniel from The 1975, Katie Gavin from MUNA and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon among others. Bain credits Gavin especially with injecting her with creative energy and inspiration throughout.
The album also sees Bain work alongside producer and engineer Chloe Kraemer (Rex Orange County, Lava La Rue, Glass Animals), an experience she describes as “life changing” due to the unspoken, shared understanding between marginalised genders in a creative space. “I’d never worked with a woman or queer person in that way before,” says Bain. “It’s nice to have someone who completely understands your standpoint and shared experience. Also, I say ‘she’ in every song … so it’s important that someone understands that.”
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My life is a soundtrack, i track my life through music, photography is my passion, my escape, my expression. Without both i have pieces missing, thankfully i’m blessed and get to combine both.
Born in Manchester, lived in Australia for 22 years where i was heavily involved in the Australian Music Industry, firstly in bands (Singer) and then managing bands (all original), I moved back to the UK, Wales specifically 10 years ago and married my childhood sweetheart and life is good.
