Quotes

My desert island discs are First Love by Utada Hikaru, To Pimp a Butterfly by Kendrick Lamar and Greatest Hits: My Prerogative by Britney Spears.

I love clothes from the 1990s. My wardrobe is full of slip dresses and bucket hats - and my power accessory is a choker.

I'm obsessed with my PlayStation 4; I'm planning on getting a VR headset.

I watch a lot of films by Studio Ghibli, an animation studio based in Tokyo; I've probably seen My Neighbour Totoro more than a dozen times.

I tend to read essays and memoirs.

So, my name is Rina Sawayama, and I found out one label exec jokingly called me Rina Wagamama. I was pursuing a deal with them, but you know, that's gone.

When I was younger, I was listening to pop-rock and the pop-metal stuff that was happening, and so I was really itching to do something that was inspired by like N.E.R.D. or Evanescence or like t.A.T.u., or some of the heavier Britney [Spears] stuff. That's the kind of sound I want to hear in the mainstream right now, and I feel like it wasn't really there.

We can't just normalize using Japan or Japanese culture in the way that we've been doing. We don't have any respect for the people whether they're living here or there.