Michelle Zauner describes the whirlwind romance of writing the Materialists’ end song for director Celine Song.
In a recent Ankler interview, Michelle Zauner, who wrote the end song “My Baby (Got Nothing At All)” for Materialists, said she’s only ever dated poor people. Does that mean she’s Team Chris Evans over Team Pedro Pascal?
“I mean, I like both of them,” admits Zauner. “But I think the thing that I keep coming back to is that when Lucy is at her lowest moment, [John is] still the person she calls, you know. And I think the film is about no matter how much someone is right on paper, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re right for you, no matter how much you will it to be. And sometimes it’s just a feeling that you can’t escape.”
Zauner has had a busy year. In addition to crafting the song (in just two weeks!), her band Japanese Breakfast also released a new album.
“You know, they were sort of in response to each other because I had just made a record that was very delicate and kind of intellectual and very melancholic. There was not a lot of repeating sections. It’s not like a feel-good record. It’s sort of willfully difficult in some ways. And so I think for this song, I was really excited to return to something that had a little bit more of a classic pop structure, that was verse/chorus, verse/chorus, big bridge, chorus. The big prompt for Celine was just, ‘This is a love song.'”
I had a fun conversation with Zauner about what classic styles and rom-com songs inspired her. Watch or listen below!
