Rina Sawayama flexed her matured songwriting with her recently-released sophomore record Sawayama. The effort is packed with commentaries, some aimed at societies and others directed inward. Sawayama’s track “Bad Friend” is an example of a song inspired by an introspective dive into her past actions. Now, the singer returns with a visual accompanying the reflective track.
Directed in a film noir style, Sawayama’s “Bad Friend” video depicts her as a quiet local bar regular. Sawayama encounters a rowdy old friend and her gritty true colors appear at the video’s close, concluding with regretful violence.
In a statement accompanying her visual, Sawayama says it was inspired by the feeling of realizing she had played a role in the dissolution of a friendship:
“The ‘Bad Friend’ video was one of the last videos we shot before UK lockdown with director Ali Kurr. We had so much fun making this, as it was my first time doing stunts and being in prosthetic makeup. The song is about the heartbreak of losing a friendship and realizing that you were the cause of the breakdown. When you hear the song this is not the video you imagine – but that’s exactly what we wanted. The music video is a reimagining of the themes in ‘Bad Friend’; of longing, loss, self hate and ultimately self love. Choosing a slow, film noir style focuses all the attention on performance and acting, which was definitely very daunting but I had so much fun making a video that is so wildly different from my previous videos.”
Watch Sawayama’s “Bad Friend” video above.
Sawayama is out now via Dirty Hit. Get it here.
