Backstage at Lollapalooza, Amber Bain told NME about working on her upcoming "happy love album" and memories of her first Reading festival before she makes her return this month 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 �.