By: Sarah Pittman
Girl In Redcover photo of Pollstar May 31, 2021 issue
While growing up in the small town of Horten, Norway, like many Gen Zers who are now in their early 20s, Marie Ulven listened to “whatever was on the radio, a lot of Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber.” Once she was in her early teens the singer/songwriter better known as Girl In Red started getting into moody indie rock and finding her own music – bands “like The Smiths and The Shins” – but Ulven’s admiration for Swift has been a constant.
“I really looked up to Taylor Swift when I started writing songs and I still look up to her. I feel like I talk about her every time anyone asks me who my inspiration is,” Ulven tells
The Golden Casket, has landed.
It is the second single from Modest Mouse’s anticipated seventh studio album. It follows a new wave tune “We Are Between,” which came out earlier this month. “The song finds [singer Issac] Brock navigating the existential threat of losing our humanity and the interconnectedness that come with it – amidst a constant societal barrage of physical and digital materialism.”
Additionally, you can see the song live, as the band has plotted an extensive 2021 U.S. summer tour, joined by special guests Future Islands for a handful of dates.
Using similar synth sounds and psychedelic beats as “We Are Between” paired with an earworm of a hook, “Leave A Light On” sets high expectations for the rest of the album.
Rolling Stone Rina Sawayama Performs for NPR’s ‘Tiny Desk’ Concert Series
Singer performs “Dynasty,” “XS,” and “Chosen Family” dressed as a CEO at a London office building
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Tiny Desk Concert series and make creative use of their “at-home” mandate.
Sawayama and her band played from the top floor of a London office building dressed in fashion-forward blazers and situated behind a giant conference table covered in notepads, pens, and teleconference devices objects that now feel like they might as well be ancient artifacts.
“I’m the CEO,” Sawayama joked at one point during the set, seating herself on top of the giant desk. She took the opportunity to play a few highlights from her debut album
Original version of Chosen Family appears on her 2020 debut album, Sawayama
Sarah Grant | April 14, 2021 - 12:45 pm
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“Chosen Family,” Rina Sawayama’s soaring ballad dedicated to LGBTQ+ individuals who lost family and friends after coming out, has just gotten a piano-driven makeover courtesy of Sir Elton John. A new lyric video shows Sawayama with flowing, mermaid hair and peony silk gloves, singing beside John in a glistening black blazer.
The new version scales down some of the production of the original. The British singers trade verses over John’s delicate piano playing, before duetting on the triumphant, gale-force chorus: “We don’t need to be related to relate/ We don’t need to share genes or a surname,” John and Sawayama sing, poignantly. “You are, you are, my chosen family.”
Rina Sawayama, Elton John Release Duet Version of Chosen Family rollingstone.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from rollingstone.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.