("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)