Rina Sawayama, our April Artist of the Month, is back with a new music video for “Bad Friend”. It comes in support of SAWAYAMA, her recently released debut album of “brilliant” and “lyrically complex, refined pop.”
Directed by Ali Kurr, the film noir-style clip sees Sawayama play the role of a man drinking down his breakup sorrows at a bar. Though initially reserved and private in nature, after a few too many shots, he completely lashes out and attacks his drinking companion. For Sawayama, this was the first time doing her own stunts and working with prosthetic makeup.
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In a statement, the Japan-born, UK-based pop artist talked about the purposefully shocking tone of the visual,
“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.”
Kurr, who directed Sawayama’s previous clips, shot “Bad Friend” just before the UK’s pandemic lockdown. Watch it below.
