Rina Sawayama.Photo:Michael Kovac/Getty
Michael Kovac/Getty
The “STFU” performer said she was 17 years old at the time and unprepared to process such a relationship, adding that she now feels protective over her young self in that situation.
Rina Sawayama.Karwai Tang/WireImage
Karwai Tang/WireImage
“Seventeen to me is a child. You’re in school. If a school teacher is coming onto you, that’s an abuse of power,” explained Sawayama. “But I didn’t realize until I was his age.”
“I dissociated from my body. I just felt so afraid,” continued Sawayama, who told theBBCshe’s since gone to a therapist that specializes in sex and relationships. “I would revisit my 17-year-old self, hold her close, and tell her that it wasn’t her fault.”
Rina Sawayama.Gareth Cattermole/BFC/Getty
“I am the number you can never divide / You crossed the line but multiplied the lies / I survived a social suicide,” she sings on the nu-metal track. “Decisions were not mine / You closed me off, a jail personified / Yeah, I survived a social suicide.”
Sawayama continues on the emotional song: “‘Cause now that I’m your age / I just can’t imagine / Why did you do it? / What the hell were you thinking?”
Upon the album’s release in September 2022, Sawayamaspoke to PEOPLEabout writing and recording the project throughout the pandemic while working through painful moments from her past.
Rina Sawayama.
“‘Hold the Girl’ was the first song I wrote. That came after a very intense therapy session I had that morning, and it was about how do you deal with a new perspective in trauma as an adult, basically; it’s about reparenting and holding your inner child,” she said of the title track at the time.
The rest of the album features similarly weighty subject matter, which Sawayama said she’s comfortable tackling at this stage in her life.
“I came into this [industry] very kind of late as a standard for pop musicians, I would say — I signed my first album deal when I was 29 — but it really allowed me to have some incredible experiences outside of the music industry that I feel have given me the kind of unique perspective and sound that I have now,” she said. “Whether people say you’re too, people can’t say your surname or whatever…You work hard, you do it right, and you will get there.”
source: people.com
