-Welcome, I guess, back
to "The Tonight Show,"
even though you were on our show
through Zoom or whatever.
Yeah, but I appreciate you being here in person.
-Thank you for having me. -Yeah.
I have a lot of questions for you.
One, I'm just going to start this off, is
a few years back,
Japanese Breakfast released a song called
"Jimmy Fallon Big!"
[ Laughter ] -Yes.
-Can you explain to me what that was or...?
[ Laughter ] -Yes. Yeah. So, for our second record --
-Or maybe don't explain.
♪♪
I like the rumor. What is?
-No, it's a good thing. -Sure.
-Before Japanese Breakfast, I used to be
in a very unpopular punk band called Little Big League
and our bass player left to join another band,
that was more popular.
He sat me down at the table and was like,
"You know, I love this band.
I wish we could continue on together,
but this other band has invited me to play
and we're going to be Jimmy Fallon big
[ Laughter ] and so I have to pursue my dream."
And it's like, you know, my bandmate is like a brother,
so it felt like I was losing a brother, in a way,
and I felt all this shame that we weren't big enough
to keep him in the band.
And then he --
-He meant like "The Tonight Show"?
-Yes. Yeah.
Actually, they never even played here.
They played "Seth Meyers," so. -Okay.
[ Laughter and applause ]
And then they fired him. -Yeah.
-And then a few years later, I started Japanese Breakfast
and we brought him back into the band
and then we actually got to play "Jimmy Fallon Show" together.
-That's a great story!
[ Cheering and applause ] Oh, I'm so happy!
That's a great story. -Yeah.
-Oh, my gosh! That's full circle.
You've also been on the show because you're one
of the finalists of our book club --
"Crying in H Mart."
Man, congratulations on this.
This was a genius piece of work.
I loved it. It was beautiful.
It was brilliant.
We did a thing where I just read the first line of every book.
Can I just read it? -That's intense. Yeah.
-That's intense. [ Laughter ]
It really is.
"Ever since my mom died, I cry in H Mart."
And that kind of sets up the whole book for kind of --
It was the perfect first sentence of a book.
Tell me about this and how did you get
to start writing the full thing? Did it start as a book?
-It started as an essay.
I am half Korean and my mom is Korean
and so, in a way, it felt like I was losing
a part of my culture, on top of losing my mother,
and so I started going to H Mart
and learning how to cook Korean dishes.
And so every time I came home,
it was a way of me remembering my mom
and staying connected to my culture.
And so, yeah, ever since I started going to H Mart,
I would get really emotional seeing, you know,
different things that my mom used to make at home
or seeing Korean parents and their kids.
And yeah, I just thought it was kind of a cute story.
-It's this beautiful story. It is great
and now it's being turned into a movie.
-Yes. -And you're writing it.
-Yes, I'm writing it. -This is fantastic.
[ Cheering and applause ] -Thank you.
-What's it like writing?
How's the screenplay going?
-It's going well. -Yeah? Good. Okay.
I finished the first draft and I'm working
on the revisions. It's a really crazy process
because so much of writing a book is,
you know, it's like a really meandering process.
You get to kind of take your time
and, with a screenplay, you have to really know
what all the acts are and where it's going.
And so, yeah, it's been really different doing so much dialogue
and it's kind of nice. It's kind of feels like I am
like having conversations with my mom again
because you get to literally write her dialogue.
-I imagine the soundtrack is going to be
fantastic as well. -I hope so, yeah.
I'm going to, hopefully, write my Oscar bait original.
[ Laughter ] Join --
-Yeah, exactly. I know, exactly right.
-Join Questlove in the EGOT club, yeah.
-I know you got nominated for a Grammy Award,
which, congratulations on that. -Thank you.
-That's a big deal.
[ Cheering and applause ]
You said, going in, you're like, "Okay,
if I'm going to the Grammys, I have one goal,"
and what was that goal?
-Well, you know, my goal was to win a Grammy,
but that didn't happen, so. [ Laughter ]
-Second goal, second goal. -After after I had lost
two Grammys, I was like, "Well, I have to get a picture
with BTS [ Laughter ]
and send it to my aunt in Korea,
so she knows that I have a real job."
[ Laughter ] And, yeah,
so it was during a commercial break.
They had just performed. It was amazing.
And then Megan Thee Stallion came out
and took a selfie and my drummer and producer,
who was sitting at the table with me is like,
"No, go, this is your chance."
And so I went over and I was like --
[ Speaking Korean ]
And I was like, "Oh, maybe they won't be like annoyed,
if I like say it in Korean."
And they were kind of like, "Oh, okay."
And I don't know if that's even the right way to say it
in Korean. I think that might mean,
"I want photo, please."
[ Laughter ] -I get it.
-But I think they got it and they were like okay with it.
-Here's the photo right here.
Look at you guys, looking gorgeous. Come on.
[ Cheering and applause ]
Fantastic.
But then you posted this on the socials
and it went ballistic. -Yes. Yeah.
I was like at the table while like Billie Eilish
was playing. I was like, "Oh, my God,
there's like 100,000 Army likes on this.
-BTS Army. There's nothing like those fans.
They're the greatest. Yeah.
But I like this other photo that you posted.
It made me laugh and it just made me love you even more.
After the Grammys, everyone usually goes to these
crazy, big parties or something wild and fun.
You, instead, went to Nathan's and had a hot dog and a beer.
[ Laughter and applause ]
Yes! Why? How? How did this happen?
-It was such a busy day, getting ready, and I was so hungry.
All I ate was like gruel in the morning
and so I like didn't want to take off the outfit
and get stuff on it, so I just like
didn't really eat anything that day.
And it was in the MGM Grand this year
and so, on our way to the show,
we passed like a Nathan's hot dog in the food court
and I was just like, "Oh, I'm going to hit that up later."
[ Laughter ] And, the entire show,
I was just kind of like, "I can't wait to go there."
[ Laughter ] And we actually left like during the last award,
me and Craig Hendrix, who is our live drummer
and he's also the producer of our Grammy-nominated record.
We went to the food court and got
like a two-for-one hot dog deal.
[ Laughter and applause ]
And it was just really sweet because we were just
in a food court in Las Vegas at the Grammys
and it was like two DIY kids who, you know, stayed up late
in a freezing cold warehouse, making this record,
eating a lot of junk food, full circle,
like at the Grammys, getting to share a hot dog,
so it was really sweet. -Isn't it great,
how life works sometimes? -Yeah, it was really sweet.
-I just thought maybe, in honor of "Saturday Night Live,"
maybe we could destroy a couple dogs.
[ Cheering and applause ]
-Oh, yes, yes, yes! -Cheers.
-Yes. Cheers. -Congrats on everything.
-Thank you. -Michelle Zauner.
Japanese Breakfast, "Crying in H Mart,"
and she's on "Saturday Night Live" tomorrow night!