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Michelle Zauner Talks Teaming With The North Face on ‘It’s More Than a Jacket’ Campaign

Michelle Zauner is lending her musical process to The North Face for its latest campaign.

The Grammy-nominated lead singer of Japanese Breakfast is teaming with the activewear brand for the second iteration of the “It’s More Than a Jacket” campaign, which celebrates real-life stories of exploration that were submitted by athletes, customers and brand partners.

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For the campaign, Zauner was tasked with recording a cover of Brandi Carlile’s “The Story,” which is played over videos of people in the outdoors wearing The North Face jackets.

“It’s a bit intimidating because there’s a lot of belting, which is typically not my wheelhouse,” Zauner said. “I wanted to create a stripped down version that relied more on an acoustic guitar and a really beautiful string arrangement and a strong vocal performance. Luckily I had the opportunity to record it at Electric Lady Studios in New York. I feel like the key to recording these arrangements really well is to perform them — it’s really served by performing in a very high quality studio with a really talented engineer.”

As The North Face campaign celebrates exploration, Zauner talked about how the messaging fits in with her own lifestyle.

“I identify as a storyteller and this campaign is very much about peoples’ journeys with the jacket and the stories that you create together,” she said. “As someone who works in many different mediums I feel like that’s always sort of been my motivation — to tell these types of stories.”

Zauner has been the lead singer of Japanese Breakfast since 2013. The band has released three studio albums and has received two Grammy nominations. Zauner is working on turning her bestselling memoir, “Crying in H Mart,” into a film.

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