Hold The Girl

British-Japanese pop iconoclast Rina Sawayama shares her process of learning to reparent herself and her postmodern take on music.

- Ian Loh

You’ve been doing a lot of festivals and concerts—what’s it like to be back in front of crowds, in real life and online?

It’s been incredible! It’s my favourite thing to do. I just played a festival I went to as a music fan when I was 21, Summer Sonic in Japan, where my whole family came to see me. It was the first time I’d been back to Japan in three years so to be going back to perform in front of such an amazing crowd was surreal and magical.

I really admire that you are not afraid to speak out and take a stand with your music. Why is that important to you?

Thank you! Yeah it’s something that’s hugely important to me. I feel a duty to speak out on issues. Even though creating major change is so difficult, I feel like as an artist I should start conversations and really it’s about emphasising community when the world feels so disconnected, when people feel really alone. Even at my level, which I see as really “small”, if you’re someone talking about things that people are going through, you’re helping those people feel part of something bigger and they aren’t the only ones feeling that way. And people struggling with things can feel they are part of a community, which is the best way to enact meaningful change—by doing it together.