The Japanese House have returned with a smiley, upbeat new single aptly titled, “:).”
Pronounced “smiley face,” the new single shows The Japanese House’s Amber Bain in an irresistibly positive mood, with a driving arrangement colored by acoustic arpeggios and dreamy steel guitar lines. Speaking about it in a statement, the former CoSign artist explained that it was written when she was “very excited about talking to someone off a dating app.”
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“She lived in Detroit, and I was fantasizing about flying to meet her,” Bain said. “I was in a session at the time for someone else’s stuff, but I couldn’t help this song spilling out of me, I was in some sort of frenzy. Turns out I did buy the plane tickets, now we’re engaged.”
“:)” is the first single from Bain since her 2023 album, In the End It Always Does. It was produced by Bain with frequent collaborators Chloe Kraemer and The 1975’s George Daniel. Stream the song below.
Meanwhile, The Japanese House has a number of tour dates coming up, including headlining shows, support dates for Maggie Rogers, and sets at festivals like Lollapalooza and Outside Lands. Grab tickets here.
For more, revisit Bain’s conversation with Kyle Meredith about In the End It Always Does, touching on influences like Joni Mitchell, ABBA, Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, and more.