Interview The Japanese House takes on America

Photo: Aysia Marotta

Anonymity rarely exists with a new musician, so it was intriguing when The Japanese House mysteriously burst onto the scene in mid-2015. The only way to identify the at the time unknown artist was through dark, experimental songs. Fast-forward to spring 2016 and a face - Amber Bain’s - has since emerged into the spotlight alongside head-turning EPs, enabling an ever growing fanbase to recognise her on the stage and on the street, even all the way across the pond in America.

Amber just recently wrapped an epic month-and-a-half tour across the US, opening alongside label mates Wolf Alice and for The 1975 – ultimately creating the perfect Dirty Hit records trifecta. While on the road and playing for audiences of no less than 5,000 people, basement venues such as the Courtyard Theatre in the Hoxton district of London have quickly become a thing of the past for Amber.

“It’s really quite bizarre how fast this has all happened,” she explains excitedly from her dressing room backstage at The Mann Center in Philadelphia. It’s just an hour or so before she’s set to hit the stage for a crowd of nearly 10,000 people. However, Bain has learned to adjust, considering audiences this size - and larger - were the norm while on the road with The 1975, whose second album ‘I Like It When You Sleep For You Are So Beautiful, Yet So Unaware Of It’ topped US charts back in February.

“I used to have terrible panic attacks before my gigs,” she remembers, “and I actually had one right before playing ‘Sugar Pill’ on stage in Oxford, at our first gig as a band. I just had this moment of, ‘Oh, it’s happening.’ But now, I feel so lucky to play these shows, y’know? The nerves aren’t really there as much anymore. At first, on this tour, it was obviously quite nerve-wracking for me. The first big show we played was in Australia, and just seeing thousands of people watching you freaked me out a bit. But I’m definitely getting used to it.”

Her career was born in a bedroom, with the help of programmes such as GarageBand. But Amber recognises that her music is now taking her places, way beyond an initial, confined space. She shot her own album artwork for her EPs in Iceland, made her first music video for ‘Cool Blue’ with a friend in Barcelona and Berlin, recorded some songs for her EP in Los Angeles last spring, and she’s now finally beginning to conquer the rest of the United States.

She’s been working on a lot of new material while on the road in the US, and plans to have an album out next year. “I’m planning on releasing a few more EPs before then,” she laughs, “There will definitely be a full album out next year though.”