("Cyber Stockholm
Syndrome" by Rina Sawayama)
♪ Came here on my own ♪
♪ Party on my phone ♪
♪ Came here on my own ♪
♪ But I start to feel alone ♪
♪ Better late than never
so I'll be alright ♪
♪ Happiest whenever I'm with you online ♪
- [Presenter] There are countless
studies and articles about
the relationship between
the internet and psychology.
From people's addictions to their phones,
to their obsessions with
developing a social following.
But not many people are
making pop music about it.
U.K. based singer-songwriter,
and sometimes model,
Rina Sawayama, has taken a pre-occupation
with digital life that calls
back to millennium-era pop,
and applied it to the present day.
The result is her debut
Rina EP, which gives
a glittering and glitchy soundtrack
to meditations on what
happens when people lose
touch with their lives
outside of their phones.
- I was just getting so
anxious from being on
social media for too
long, and the Street Cast
agency and the modeling
agency was obviously,
I think this was like three years ago,
three or four years ago so they were like
encouraging us to build
our social following.
And, and I guess everyone sort
of kind of do that, right?
And, it was making me so anxious.
Once I realized what it
was that was affecting me,
like all the lyrics came afterwards.
It was so easy to write.
I approached writing
like I approach, like,
this is so lame, this is
gonna sound super geeky
but like I would approach
a dissertation or an essay.
For me, that album was
like a project where
I read a lot around it, so I was reading
um, like, academic books and like articles
to do with social media
and the effects on young
people and their self-esteem
and just the presence of
phones on like a table
and what that does to
social settings and stuff,
super interesting.
I think some of my most
favorite songs have been
like a result of me researching the truth
behind it and then, and
then making art from it.
- [Presenter] It's that
careful consideration
for synthesizing the human
experience of technology
that makes Rina's songwriting
as relatable as it is unique.
And you hear the attention to detail
in the languid loneliness
of Tunnel Vision.
("Tunnel Vision" by Rina Sawayama)
♪ Spinning plates ♪
♪ Relationships going down the drain ♪
Or the oddly upbeat,
Cyber Stockholm Syndrome.
("Cyber Stockholm
Syndrome" by Rina Sawayama)
♪ Came here on my own ♪
♪ Party on my phone ♪
♪ Came here on my own ♪
♪ But I start to feel alone ♪
Rina started singing as a kid,
performing all through
her childhood in bands,
gospel choir, and a Black
Eyed Peas-channeling
pop, hip-hop group called Lazy Lion.
Due to her rigorous academic
schedule, Rina's music
took the backseat when
she attended England's
prestigious University of Cambridge,
where she majored in politics,
psychology, and sociology.
But that's also where her intellectual
approach to songwriting was forged.
Her sound, which combines
2000's R&B and pop
with a nostalgic love of Jpop artists
like Utada Hikaru and Kristal K,
finds its roots much earlier.
- My music taste was
not cool, it was like,
it was just super mainstream pop,
I mean I would love to say
I did guitar because of like
Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan,
no, it was Avril Lavigne.
- [Presenter] It's a shared
love of the collaborative
relationships that define
the sound of the 2000's,
like Justin Timberlake and Timbaland
and Brittany Spears and Max Martin,
that brought her together with
her current go-to producer
Clarence Clarity.
- Well, I was introduced to his music
and I didn't really like it at first.
(laughing)
Cause it's too much, it's like so extra,
it's really glitchy and I was like,
okay fine I'll do a session with him
and then he produced Alterlife.
("Alterlife" by Rina Sawayama)
♪ You know what to do so go and find it ♪
♪ This is your alter life ♪
It's very, very similar to how it like,
how it is now to how he
produced it in the first
session and I was just not ready at all.
I was like, whoa.
I did ghost him for a bit!
(laughing)
Like, for like six months maybe?
And then we went back to
it, and then I loved it.
- [Presenter] Her lyrical topic
of choice, and her specific
throwback sound aren't
the only things that
make Rina unique in
today's musical landscape.
She's one of just a handful of Asian women
breaking through on the global stage.
Something she's had to struggle with since
the earliest days of her career.
- I was just constantly su, like subtly
being told like that they didn't know
what to do with someone like me, so then,
when I eventually unpacked that,
and realized what they were saying,
and then looking at the
industry and seeing that,
the way people talk about certain people,
so even a producer
that I've been introduced
to they'll be like,
ah, he's the next, you know know
and there'll be so many comparisons
and it'll be often comparisons to people
who look like them as well.
Especially with pop
singers, female singers.
Like, you've got to sound
and look like someone
who's succeeded before in
the industry, otherwise
they literally don't
know how to market you.
- [Presenter] While being otherized
by the music industry was
initially discouraging,
Rina has emphatically taken up the mantle
of responsibility that often
comes with radical existence.
Speaking candidly about her experiences,
her struggles with white-washing,
and finding a balance between
embracing her culture,
without being tokenized by it.
- That's why I'm just doing
it on my own, and just,
you know, just trying to,
trying to make it easier,
so that someone in like
the generation younger
than me can then succeed.
(upbeat music)
(techno music)
(keyboard typing)
