London-based artist Rina Sawayama has made a career of setting millennial worries—from sociopolitical anxieties to technology-driven loneliness—to future-minded R&B instrumentals and glossy cyber-focused visuals. Sawayama, whose sleek sound typically draws from Aaliyah and Destiny’s Child, goes industrial-meets-electropop in her latest track “Alterlife.” Poppy 80’s drums accompany a racing guitar line on the dynamic, genre-melding track, all while Sawayama sings lines plucked from Chicken Soup for the Insecure Millennial’s Soul: “Why are you so scared of falling?/Hold your head up high.”
The Clarence Clarity-produced tune draws from “the intense, guitar-heavy music from racing games like Gran Turismo and Need For Speed,” Sawayama told The Fader. “‘Alterlife’ is about finding yourself through trying to become other people,” she said. “Everyone tries to conform to what other people think but part of growing up is being able to create your own path.”
Sawayama’s debut album is reportedly slated for release sometime this year.
