The Japanese House on how a “batshit crazy love song” got her engaged, and working with George Daniel

nme.com:

The Japanese House caught up with NME backstage at Lollapalooza 2024 to chat about her new single ‘:)’, working with The 1975‘s George Daniel and her upcoming performance at Reading & Leeds.Amber Bain – aka The Japanese House – sat down with us ahead of her performance on the Tito’s stage at this year’s edition of the annual Chicagoan music bash in Grant Park.

Her performance at Lollapalooza came a few weeks after the release of her latest single ‘:) (Smiley Face)’ – a bright country-pop track that follows her recent second album ‘In The End It Always Does’.Speaking to NME about the track, Bain shared: “It was kind of a different one for me because it’s finally I’ve written a song that’s not really depressing.

I wrote that song when I was talking to someone online and I had fallen in love with her without having met her.“I basically wrote this batshit crazy love song about her and then I sent it to her.

I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, she’s gonna think I’m like a psycho freak’. She didn’t, well she did, but she was also a psycho freak so it’s fine – and now we’re engaged.”A post shared by NME (@nmemagazine)The 1975 drummer and producer turned solo star George Daniel worked on ‘:)’ with Bain, after he previously co-produced her 2019 debut album ‘Good At Falling’ and 2023’s ‘In The End It Always Does’.“Me and George Daniel have been friends for I think 10 years,” said Bain. “I don’t know, maybe even longer but we work on everything together.