Listen Rina Sawayama releases new song ‘Bad Friend’

It comes ahead of her debut album release on Friday (17th April)!
With her debut album ‘SAWAYAMA’ set to land tomorrow (17th April), Rina Sawayama is getting us all excited for its arrival, sharing our final taste of what to expect with heartfelt pop bop ‘Bad Friend’.
All about a trip to Tokyo that went disastrously wrong, the track focuses on a deteriorating relationship, but also mentions drinking and getting kicked out of clubs. “I wrote about how Westerners come to Tokyo and have a great time but can be very disrespectful to Japanese people,” Rina told us for our February 2020 cover interview. “But if you go back to ‘Bad Friend’, I was that person. I was taking my Western brain there and thinking it’s OK to get so drunk in a karaoke booth that I was naked, just causing havoc.”
“The album ultimately is about family and identity,” she elaborated about the record’s themes. “It’s about understanding yourself in the context of two opposing cultures (for me British and Japanese), what ‘belonging’ means when home is an evolving concept, figuring out where you sit comfortably within and awkwardly outside of stereotypes, and ultimately trying to be ok with just being you, warts and all.”
Listen to new track ‘Bad Friend’ below.
See Rina live at the following dates:
SEPTEMBER
20 - Glasgow, Scotland @ King Tuts
22 - Manchester, UK @ Gorilla
23 - Birmingham @ O2 Institute3
24 - London, UK @ Electric Brixton
OCTOBER
28 - Los Angeles, CA @ Regent Theater
30 - San Francisco, CA @ Great American Music Hall
NOVEMBER
01 - Portland, OR @ Holocene
02 - Seattle, WA @ Newumos
07 - Minneapolis, MN @ TBC
08 - Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge
10 - Toronto, ON @ Mod Club
12 - Washington, DC @ Union Stage
TBC - Philadelphia, PA @ TBC
15 - Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
16 - New York, NY @ Webster Hall
Records & Merch

Rina Sawayama - Sawayama CD
£10
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