The Japanese House

Amber Mary Bain, known professionally as The Japanese House, is an English indie pop musician from Buckinghamshire whose music blends guitar, keyboards, samplers and layered vocals. She began writing under the name The Japanese House in 2012, after meeting Matty Healy of the 1975 as a teenager. Healy offered to help produce her work through Dirty Hit, the label that would issue her early releases.

Bain first drew wider notice with the single “Still,” a critical success that premiered on BBC Radio 1. Her debut EP, Pools to Bathe In, arrived in 2015, followed the same year by Clean. Those records placed indie pop and synth-pop at the centre of her sound while moving through dream pop, folktronica and electropop. In 2015 and 2016, she toured with Dirty Hit labelmates the 1975 and Wolf Alice before beginning to headline her own tours.

Her third EP, Swim Against the Tide, was released in 2016 and took influence from 1980s synth-pop. The following year’s Saw You in a Dream extended her work with electronica and rock. Across these releases, Bain handled vocals while building arrangements from guitar, keyboards and sampled elements, using the solo project as a flexible frame for pop songwriting and electronic production.

Bain co-produced her first full-length album, Good at Falling, with George Daniel and American producer BJ Burton. Released in 2019, the album was followed that year by The LA Sessions, an EP of live reworkings of songs from Good at Falling and Saw You in a Dream. Her second album, In the End It Always Does, was released in 2023.