An introduction to Rina Sawayama: a thread

Rina Sawayama is a Japanese-British singer-songwriter and model. She was born in Niigata, Japan on 16 August 1990, and moved to London with her family when she was five years old. She grew up and still resides in the UK to this day.

Studying politics, psychology and sociology at Cambridge, she decided to pursue music, taking several part-time jobs over the years to be able to fund her musical ambitions. While in university, she joined a hip-hop group called Lazy Lion with Theo Ellis from Wolf Alice.

Sawayama’s musical influences are diverse, including but not limited to Christina Aguilera, Britney Spears, Sheena Ringo, Lady Gaga, Utada Hiraku, Evanescence, Morning Musume, Limp Bizkit and Korn.

With combine Japanese culture and British culture in her music she creates an eclectic mix of many genres that shaped the 90’s and 2000s musical landscape. Often morphing millennial dance pop, R&B, rock and nu-metal together, she can be described als a musical chameleon.

In 2013 Sawayama began her solo carreer releasing the single “Sleeping In Waking”, a moody, electronic, alternative r&b track with an accompanying video. The track is produced by Sawayama and Hoost.

Two years later, in 2015, she released a music video to her track “Tunnel Vision”, directed by Arvida Byström and produced by Hoost.

Her next single, “Where U Are”, released in 2016 with an accompanying music video co-directed by Alessandra Kurr and produced by Hoost and Sawayama.

The track opens with a swaying guitar riff, transitioning in urging, nostalgic instrumentals and harmonies. Rina herself explained the single explores human interaction with digital media, adding: (c)

(c) "Online, you can present your best edited self [and] your overheating phone substitutes human warmth. Weirdest of all – you're together, but also very alone.”

“Where U Are” achieved recognition from BTS’ RM, when he recommended the track on the group’s official twitter page in 2018. A few years later, Rina mentioned the two virtually wrote a track together, but to this day the collab has not been released. https://twitter.com/BTS_twt/status/1032145319000076288?s=20

Following her 2016 track, Sawayama independently released her EP “RINA” on 27 October 2017. Sawayama says she funded this album herself while working “2-3 jobs for years” to save enough to finally release it. The mini-album continues thematically where "Where U are" left off.

The album consists of 8 tracks:
1. “Ordinary Superstar”
2. “Take Me As I Am”
3. “10-20-40”
4. “Tunnel Vision” (feat. Shamir)
5. “Time Out” (interlude)
6. “Alterlife”
7. “Through The Wire” (interlude)
8. “Cyber Stockholm Syndrome”

You can listen to the EP here:
• On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/0rYXZCRBEsRBc4ZyRo8Y6w?si=NyyF9cLhRSeudwUGTEWUQA
• On Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/rina/1489412324

The EP was praised by the Guardian, calling the body of work “nostalgic” and “capable of shepherding pop into the future”, and by The Line of Best Fit, who said the EP “intelligently uses 90s pop and R&B as a canvas to paint 21st Century missives on internet addiction”.

On 30 august 2017, Sawayama revealed the first music video of the RINA era with “Cyber Stockholm Syndrome”, posted on The Vinyl Factory’s YouTube channel.

She described the themes of the track as “the digital world can offer vital support networks, voices of solidarity, refuge, escape. That's what 'Cyber Stockholm Syndrome' is about: pessimism, optimism, anxiety, and freedom."

After this, the official music video for “Ordinary Superstar” was released on 5 June 2018 via i-D’s YouTube page. The video was made in collaboration with fashion designer Nicola Formichetti.

Rina told The Guardian the track is about "imagining what it is like to be a famous vlogger, so far removed from who you really are”.

In August 2018, Rina releases a stand-alone single with “Cherry”. With “Cherry”, she publicly comes out as pansexual and explores feelings of shame and empowerment around that identity, making the song more personal than her previous work.

In 2019 she drops “Flicker”, a self-assuring pop song meant to uplift people who “feel misunderstood for who they truly are”. The cover art for both “Cherry” and “Flicker” were created by Seoul-based illustrator Inji Seo.