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There are three Asian womentattooedon Rina Sawayamas wrist.
Their bodies intertwine, and a central bare-breasted woman tugs on the ponytails of the pair who flank her.
I loved his representation of sexuality, she says, sipping a soy latte in an east London cafe.
This one photo shows something that the West wont perceive Asian woman as and with this level of solidarity.
A campaign for her irresistible new singleFlickerinvolvesa video calloutfor fans with hard to pronounce names.
Sawayama is gearing up for a killer 2019.
But Sawayama says she is not interested in hype.
Her gaze is more firmly fixed on reaching global representation on her own terms.
I want to break that with every song I do.
I remember my teacher doing the register and butchering my name completely.
I said to her, Can you just just say my first name?
She did get it right in the end, but I was mortified by that.
I wondered how that has come to inform my decision to keep my surname in my stage name.
Cherry was a nuanced record, and that was another point of anxiety.
Have you battled with those feelings of shame?Definitely.
I have Asian parents who have a very racial idealizing of the LGBTQ community.
I think that [lack of representation is] reflected in how accepting they are of different LGBTQ communities.
What does being queer mean to you?To me it means family.
Is there any point in your life that your queer family has really uplifted you?Definitely.
One was when I was 17.
I went out with a teacher.
He was nearly 30, and I got slut-shamed so hard.
The only person who was there for me was my friend Louie.
Hed been out for a while by then, and hed been bullied a lot.
We understood what each other was going through.
And I was like, Oh, right … Id internalized the blame so hard from that period.
Ive written a song about it for this album.
I noticed that BTSshared your musicon Twitter.
Whens the BTS collab coming?[Laughs.]
When they come off tour!
Thats why [RM] wanted to meet me, to talk about how we can work together musically.
I would love to go to Korea and write with them.
Whether its for his [solo] project or for BTS, I dont really care.
I thought, To get to these artists I have to go through a whole web of bureaucracy.
Grimes shes got a lot of creative projects and ideas going on.
Our plan was to write.
Rita Ora did a swipe up on Cherry.
She used to go to school really near my school, so I used to see her around.
I really respect her hustle.
Rita Oras path has beenso convoluted.
As an independent artist, do stories like hers seem like a cautionary tale against major labels?Definitely.
Ive got a two-single [deal] with PIAS at the moment.
Right now Im deciding what to do next.
I just need a team that is fully motivated.
Do they realize that a pop projects going to cost a lot?
Im not happy with just going onstage with a mic.
Im gonna have custom shit made, and thats whats going to make it special.
Your recent show at Heaven [a 1,600 capacity London venue] involved multiple costume changes and stage setups.
Is it your intention to create a scalable show?I hope so.
I dont take it for granted.
For me, the capacity of Heaven is as important for me as any size venue.
I redid the same show in San Francisco for 400 people.
Ive been that person in London going to gigs.
I stole money from my mum to go to indie shows.
I know what its like for a show to uplift you.
Its a fucking tough time for the people that are my fans.
Since then Ive been picking apart different aspects of my life.
Theres a song called Dynasty thats like t.A.T.u or Evanescence, with a crazy black metal guitar riff.
Im also researching my past.
Like what?There was an incident where I was about 10 and I was with another girl.
We were naked and kissing; just playing around.
My mum came and literally dragged me out.
I still deeply feel that shame.
Im really gonna go there.
