Kicking off this year's Musicians on Musicians podcast – also running as a special series on Rolling Stone Music Now – singers Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Michelle Zauner of Japanese Breakfast have come together to discuss their songwriting craft, growing up Korean-American, and the cathartic pleasures of smashing glass.
LISTEN NOW: Rolling Stone Music Now: Karen O + Michelle Zauner
Karen O, who recently released her fifth studio album with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Michelle Z, who in just the past two years released her GRAMMY-nominated Japanese Breakfast album Jubilee, and bestselling memoir, Crying in H. Mart, join the podcast this week to answer the burning question of what happens when you task two great artists to interview each other the first time they meet in person.
Michelle says she grew up idolizing Karen O and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs even though her only live experience with them had been via their DVDs. Meeting in person for the first time, Karen admits she shares her admiration for Michelle and her music, with both remembering the supportive texts Karen sent while Michelle was rigorously touring, saying something to the effect of, "If you ever want to break a table with me..."
"The best thing to do in that situation is smash some glass," says Karen. "For me, it was a poster of us. I put my foot through it. It takes the edge off."
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"I had seen the Yeah Yeah Yeahs as music listed under people’s LiveJournal music posts," Michelle tells Karen of her discovery of the YYYs. "It was always someone that was way cooler than me. So, I had heard the name, and then I saw the DVD. It starts with 'Y Control' and builds, and then you just come bounding off of the side. I’d just never seen that type of showmanship," she says of Karen's stage presence. "Not just [from] a woman — and not just a half-Asian woman, which I didn’t even know you were at the time — but I’d never seen someone that was able to have so much control over their movements, but also feel so raw and chaotic. There’s bravado, but there’s also a lot of joy. It’s a very uniquely singular part of your performance that is so captivating and exciting."
Karen shares the feeling, saying, "I felt like it was a pretty wild experience reading your memoir, because I’ve just never read a memoir that I related to so completely. I’ve never read a half-Asian — halfie, that’s what we’ve always called it — but half-Korean, half-American woman’s memoir, who started a band. There’s just so many parallels. It was a really awesome experience. Even the ties of you going to Korea with your mom, I had the same thing. It was pretty profound to be able to read such a raw and incredibly soul-bearing memoir, but also, it [was] from someone like me. It made a huge impression on me, and it’s brilliant."
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Listen to the full Rolling Stone Music Now episode featuring Karen O and Japanese Breakfast's Michelle Zauner -- now playing on Audacy -- and follow along for more conversations with the writers and editors of Rolling Stone, bringing listeners inside the biggest stories in music.
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