Rina Sawayama shares fiery new single ‘This Hell’
"I wanted to write a western pop song that celebrated COMMUNITY and LOVE in a time where the world seemed hellish"
Rina Sawayama has released scorching new song ‘This Hell’, the first single from her forthcoming second studio album, ‘Hold The Girl’ – listen below.
“I’m so excited to finally share the first song of the new era,” the pop singer posted on Twitter. “I wanted to write a western pop song that celebrated COMMUNITY and LOVE in a time where the world seemed hellish. This Hell is better with you.”
“Turns out I’m going to hell if I keep on being myself / Don’t know what I did but they seem pretty mad about it / God hates us? Alright then! / Buckle up, at dawn we’re riding,” she sings on the country-influenced track.
Listen to ‘This Hell’ below.
“I just have been listening to so much country over lockdown” she told Clara Amfo on BBC Radio 1. “A lot of Dolly [Parton], a lot of Kasey Musgraves and also the queen of country-pop, Shania [Twain].
“I like to tell stories in my music, and the choruses I like to keep kind of simple and catchy,” she continued. “But if you listen to the verse it’s talking about, ‘I found a poster next to a motel, it says I’m going to hell’ and the idea is, if all these sinners, if we’re all going to hell, then it sounds like a party.”
Yesterday, the singer announced details of the follow-up to her 2020 debut album ‘SAWAYAMA’, after she had teased fans with leaflets and stickers emblazoned with the slogan: “RINA IS GOING TO HELL.”
She made the announcement along with a dramatic trailer, which you can watch below.
In November of last year, Sawayama teased what to expect on her new album, sharing that writing on Zoom during lockdown “somehow they yielded good songs”.
She also revealed that she was working with electronic musician Stuart Price on much of the album, who has worked with the likes of Madonna, Dua Lipa and New Order.
During her UK headline tour last November, Sawayama debuted brand new song called ‘Catch Me In The Air’.
“This song, I wrote it about my mum, who is a single mum. You know how intense that relationship is, they feel like a sister or a brother or they feel like a sibling, or they even feel like a child sometimes,” she said of the track.
“I felt throughout my life my mum and I have caught each other when we’re falling.”
The singer is due to perform at a number of festivals this summer, before heading off on a UK tour this October. Fans can pre-order the album to get exclusive pre-sale access next week.