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Rina Sawayama announces new single, debut album and tour dates

By | Published on Monday 20 January 2020

Rina Sawayama

Rina Sawayama has released new single ‘Comme Des Garçons (Like The Boys)’ through Dirty Hit. The track is taken from her debut album ‘Sawayama’, which she’s just announced will be out in April.

“When I was writing this song”, she says, “I wanted on one hand to lyrically explore the idea of people having to adopt negative male tropes to appear confident, whilst on the other sonically paying homage to the early 2000s dance tracks that made me feel confident”.

Explaining that theme in more detail, she goes on: “The idea that the socially acceptable version of confidence is in acting ‘like the boys’, otherwise as a woman you get called a bitch – but in the club, we reclaim the word ‘bitch’ as a sign of ultimate confidence – ‘yes bitch’, ‘work bitch’. I wanted to sit these two together and make a club fashion banger that makes you feel like THAT bitch whoever you are”.

On the album she expands on these ideas further and in a wider context. She adds: “The album ultimately is about family and identity. 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”.

The album is out on 17 Apr and you can listen to ‘Comme Des Garçons (Like The Boys)’, here.

Sawayama will also be heading out on a short tour of the UK in May. Dates as follows:

14 May: Glasgow, King Tut’s
15 May: Manchester, Gorilla
16 May: Birmingham, Institute 3
20 May: London, Electric Brixton



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