Rina Sawayama Dissects Identity On New Album & Talks ‘John Wick’ Lead Role

The British-Japanese future pop phenom Rina Sawayama defied COVID-19 pandemic panic in 2020 by releasing her brilliantly transgressive debut album, SAWAYAMA. Now, amid ongoing global volatility, she's rolling out an exhilarating – and empowering – follow-up, Hold The Girl. Next, Sawayama is poised to become a hot Hollywood property with a leading role in a John Wick movie. There's no derailing her.

Initially, Sawayama sounds frazzled as she Zooms from Dirty Hit's UK headquarters – the video off as the star feels insufficiently glam. Indeed, she's running late due to taxi dramas. "It's just a bit of a nightmare at the moment with London," Sawayama apologises. But, demanding promo schedule aside, she soon settles in, archly declaring, "Let's crack on!"

Because of COVID-19, Sawayama belatedly embarked on her trans-Atlantic Dynasty Tour last November, wrapping in May after Coachella. For an artist who prefers creative over logistical risks, returning to the road was reassuring – the atmosphere "very charged". Sawayama had worried about attendance, citing an average 25 per cent drop-off arising from COVID infections or "insecurity". Fortunately, Sawayama's fans, dubbed Pixels, turned out.

"Everyone's just so happy to be back, I can tell you," she says. "The first show that I did in Dublin, they just probably came out of lockdown, like, two days or three days before – so, yeah, that was incredible.

"I'm so grateful. I think there was just such an energy amongst the fans who had held on to tickets for two years.

"I mean, personally, I felt a little bit rusty, 'cause it had been two years, but I did do a lot of rehearsing. But nothing can kind of prepare you for actually being there in front of an audience and being in a big group of people where you haven't seen anyone in a long time."

Sawayama was born in Japan but, at five, emigrated to the UK, where she was raised by her mother. Sawayama studied Political Science at Cambridge University, but says incidentally, "I have quite a short attention span and find it quite hard to focus on things that are academic." She established herself as a high fashion model. Meanwhile, Sawayama performed in the hip-hop group Lazy Lion. Yet she only pursued music seriously on graduation, circulating solo singles.

A digital age consumer, Sawayama imaginatively hybridises genres. In 2017 she issued a buzz EP, RINA, having bonded with Clarence Clarity – the avant-popster now a regular collaborator. This cyber'n'b Janet Jackson joined industry bestie Charli XCX on tour. But, picked up by the independent Dirty Hit, Sawayama finally arrived with SAWAYAMA – a critical rave that dominated 2020 'Best Of' lists.

Subversively, Sawayama latched onto nü-metal with songs like STFU!. And, alongside rapper Rico Nasty, she's credited with, if not reviving nü-metal, then recontextualising it in an electro-pop paradigm. Sawayama, who is pansexual, also celebrated her queerness, expressing solidarity with the LGBTQIA+ community in the Lady Gaga-mode ballad Chosen Family (later transformed into a duet with Elton John).

Last year Sawayama covered Metallica's Enter Sandman for The Metallica Blacklist, impressing the band's self-appointed gatekeepers. "I actually kind of went down a bit of a comment hole with that one on YouTube," she laughs. "People were really positive about it – so I was really happy."

Even more than SAWAYAMA, Hold The Girl – out in September – is liberatory, maximal and almost omnipresent with its stadium volume. The lead single, This Hell, is a camp country bop, Sawayama enamoured of Kacey Musgraves. And the singer expands musically, embracing alt-rock instead of (hair) metal. Sentimental, Sawayama assembled a sonic moodboard for the album – and namechecks The Pussycat Dolls. Above all, Sawayama wanted Hold The Girl to have immediacy. "When I was growing up, the gigs I used to go to were all British indie bands. So I really just love the sound of live drums and live bass and live guitar. That's just the thing that gets me excited."

In the studio Sawayama connected with big names: the Grammy-winning producer Paul Epworth, an Adele cohort, and Stuart Price, renowned for his work with Madonna and Dua Lipa. Music journalists often probe acts on what a producer brought to a project – but recording is an interactive process. So what did Sawayama teach her seasoned partners? "I think maybe my playfulness is somehow a little bit unexpected," Sawayama ponders. "I would literally send pictures to Stuart of people meditating on a pier or, like, an Irish coastline – and send him videos, rather than audios, to be inspired by for production."

Sawayama's first track with Price was the breezily rhythmic rock Catch Me In The Air, penned for her mum. "I could just tell that he had so much fun – and I think he also really loved the fact that it had heart."

Sawayama laments that she isn't more of a musician. "I still feel like I'm quite new to songwriting. I'm quite new to just music in general – like I can't play any instruments. For example, I always just write with my voice and write my lyrics on a Notes app. I wish I could play guitar or piano, but I can't." Nonetheless, Sawayama appreciates that her "non-traditional" approach has its merits.

Crucially, Hold The Girl is profoundly personal. Lockdown was tumultuous emotionally for Sawayama – past trauma resurfacing. "It was really hard. Professionally, the pandemic was the busiest time for me. Things were going much better than I ever expected them to – and so that was amazing – and just seeing people listen to my music and react to my music during this horrible time was such a blessing. But, personally, I was really struggling with my mental health – like a lot of people I know have."

"I still haven't gone back to Japan to see my family. I was feeling pretty isolated. I think it was an opportunity to really reflect on, like, the stones that have been left unturned in my therapy. So I kind of went back to therapy."

"I guess the things that were all brought up made it to this record – and it would be pretty tumultuous. It was pretty intense. But, obviously, the therapy and also creating this record really helped push that out. I feel pretty happy and healed."

Hold The Girl has a resonant overture in Minor Feelings – the symbolic title borrowed from a collection of essays by Korean-American poet Cathy Park Hong. The song represents the LP's "thesis" – Sawayama, a Third Culture Kid, contemplating her identity and life as a minority (the longtime UK resident successfully challenged exclusionary eligibility criteria for British awards like the Mercury Prize).

"At the time, I was really seeing a lot of Asian hate going on and kind of not enough furore around it – people weren't saying it loud enough. It was just this kind of symptomatic-ness of the Asian experience – about feeling lots of things, having lots of micro-aggressions and now real proper aggressions and hate crime happening during the pandemic and the rhetoric around the pandemic not being helped by Trump, obviously… It just felt like, these have been minor feelings and now they're majorly getting me down… I guess it was kind of like to address these deep-seated issues that I needed to address."

Early in the pandemic, Sawayama enrolled in an Oxford online writing course centred on biography. "I always try and draw inspiration from things other than music," she says. "I always think of myself as a storyteller first and then songwriter." However, Sawayama didn't complete the program. "I did a little bit of it," she demurs. "I chickened out in the bit that I had to reveal my stories."

Latterly, Sawayama has ventured into acting. "Again, I love telling stories. I love getting into character. I wanted to get into acting, because I just loved doing that for my music videos." In 2019 Sawayama appeared in Idris Elba's Netflix sitcom Turn Up Charlie – Elba portraying a DJ-cum-nanny. "He's so great!"

In 2023, Sawayama will star on the big-screen in John Wick: Chapter 4 – the hit action franchise a vehicle for Keanu Reeves. Director Chad Stahelski was determined to cast Sawayama as Akira on viewing her dynamically choreographed videos. "I think, with pop artists, it's always one of the big goals is to look really hot in music videos," she quips. "But, for me, that wasn't a priority for my first record – I don't know if you've noticed. But, in XS and Bad Friend and Comme des Garçons (Like The Boys) – yeah, so I don't really look that hot, but I'm glad that I acted and that got me John Wick."

If Sawayama has signed an NDA for John Wick, then she's circumventing it. "I'm just so excited to be in the film, let alone a film with the scale of, and fanbase of, John Wick," she shares. "It was really, really crazy to be asked to do that role.

"I'm doing stunts – I trained for it. There's some really, really insane stunts in there. Chad has shown me the edit of the movie and it's just so cool. I love it so much…

"I guess I'm the lead female character – I mean, it's crazy to say that, but I guess I am… I'm pretty badass in the film."

The DJ/writer Skeme Richards has tweeted that today's hip-hop interviews especially are "so business and honestly boring" – artists rarely quizzed about their favourite things, like video games. A pop culture buff, Sawayama contentedly discloses recent discoveries.

Travelling with a Kindle, Sawayama has lately read bell hooks' "beautifully written" 2000 tome All About Love: New Visions. As far as films, she recommends the absurdist comedy Everything Everywhere All At Once – Michelle Yeoh leading an Asian cast. "It just completely blew my mind," Sawayama stresses. "Most people who've watched the movie can't even explain what the movie is about, because it's such a multi-genre movie."

Musically, Sawayama admired Lorde's Solar Power – "a controversial choice," she concedes. "I really loved the world that she and Jack [Antonoff] created. Also, I saw her live and then it kind of made it make more sense. I thought the satire behind the whole thing was very clever. It just shows how capable Lorde is as a lyric writer, a songwriter – it was fantastic."

Plus Sawayama has a new hobby in mind. "I like to try things I'm scared of," she divulges. "I don't really have time to do it at the moment, but I would love to try horse-riding. I'm really scared of horses, but everyone says they're like big dogs… and I love dogs."

Alas, Sawayama is less sanguine about reality – her concerns the UK's cost of living crisis, exacerbated by Brexit, and prevailing religious conservatism Stateside. "I try and be positive, but I'm not really," she rues. "I'm not very hopeful for the politicians in power to get anything right, to be honest." Sawayama "fumes" about political corruption, particularly vested interests. "But," she pivots, "what I do have faith in is community… I really think that, with the lack of support from the top, always grassroots is the only thing that's left." Privately, Sawayama gives to charity. "But, what I can do as an artist is to – even if it's 1000 to 3000 or 5000 people in a room, if I can make them happy and leave them feeling empowered, then that's really all I can do."

Auspiciously, Australian Pixels can anticipate a Hold The Girl tour. "We're definitely working on it right now, yes," Sawayama teases. "Australian fans have been so kind to me, and I've never been to Australia, so I would love to come."