Feature
The Japanese House: "I still don't know what my album is going to sound like"
When The Japanese House dropped her first EP over a year and a half ago, mystery swelled as to who this new voice was. Yet underneath the mystery and the songs is 21 year old Amber Bain - who has her sights firmly set on releasing the defining sound of a generation.
Published: 12:07 pm, November 11, 2016


[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]It’s a chilly autumnal morning in West London. The streets are full of builders and plumbers, working away on the latest two story development, cradling polystyrene cups of tea like it’s the last fire standing at an adventure camp. On one side of the road is a large wooden cover, with the words “Coming Soon” scribbled over it in thick black paint. On the other side, is Amber Bain, the voice and soul that is The Japanese House, making herself at home in the offices of her label Dirty Hit with a smoke on the balcony outside. Having just finished moving house once again (the third time in eight months) she’s catching up with those who have been there through some of the most exciting years of her life.
“I really like it here,” explains Amber. “There’s not that many artists on the label, and I know all the people here so well - like I started working with Jamie here when I was 17 and now I’m 21. So literally from my last year at school until now. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, that kinda scares me when I think about it.”
Looking around the office you see the dazzling highs that have been reached from inside these walls. Sold out shows, awards, sales plaques and more - it’s the sort of thing that would inspire anyone, even if you couldn’t play a note.
“Yeah, it’s all The 1975 stuff at the moment, I need to get a few things up here!”
Wall space is certainly ready for The Japanese House. Over the course of the past 18 months, she’s become one of the most adored new artists in the country, bringing the harmonies of The Beach Boys and the electronic flourishes of modern indietronica into one delectable mix that’s left crowds around the world spellbound. It’s a culmination of everything Amber grew up on, that desire to be making great music and to do so with the freedom to explore new sounds and textures, something that’s lead the way in her mind since she first picked up the guitar. Whether that’s school plays, early remnants of bands or the foundations of songwriting - it’s music that courses through her veins to this very day.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row full_width="stretch_row_content" gap="25" content_placement="middle
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[/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]If you head back to the early 2000s, you’ll find Amber Bain transfixed by music. Growing up just north of London in the leafy Buckinghamshire hills, she picked up the guitar when she was just six years old and was never one to seek out a neat cover version, always striving to create her own songs, her own sounds and her own identity."pull" text="I would always beg my friends to be in bands with me and they never would.
"pull" text="The chance to fuck around and write songs for two years is really cool.
"pull" text="I got really bad stage fright actually at first.