Rina Sawayama Shares Touching New Single, “Catch Me in the Air”

The Japanese-British pop star Rina Sawayama dazzles fans again with her latest single, “Catch Me In The Air.” The track is lifted from her forthcoming album, Hold The Girl, out Sept. 2 via Dirty Hit. Sawayama accompanies the song with a music video that stitches together fan-submitted footage of her performing the previously unreleased track on her recent U.K. and U.S. tours.

“Catch Me In The Air” is an exhilarating homage to Sawayama’s mother, who raised her as a single parent. There’s a sense of weightlessness to the track that makes you feel like you’re floating. As Sawayama praises her mom’s resilience and relentless love for her, the gusty percussion and zero-gravity guitars suspend you in a featherlike state. Sawayama makes it clear how much she treasures her bond with her mom through heart-melting lines like, “But mama look at us now / High above the clouds / Yeah I hope that you’re, hope that you’re proud.”

”’Catch Me In The Air’ was written in between lockdowns with Oscar Scheller and Gracey. I wanted the whole song to sound like it was on an Irish coastline, like a Corrs video. We put in a key change to go into the chorus, at the end of the pre-chorus to make it lift and soar like a bird,” Sawayama says in a statement. “I then worked on it more with Clarence [Clarity] before taking it to Stuart Price. This was the first song that Stuart and I worked on together, and it was the most incredible experience. I’m such a huge fan of his work with Madonna and Kylie so it was a dream come true. We would send each other stock images of coastlines, people doing yoga on a pier, meditating in the middle of a field, hay bales, etc. to get inspired sonically.”

Following her run of sold-out shows in the U.K. and U.S., Sawayama will be touring in the U.K. and Ireland this October. She will also be performing at Summersonic Festival in Japan. You can grab tickets here.