Snakeskin by Rina Sawayama Song Info
On the haunting closing track of her debut album, Rina sings about her choice of pouring her personal pain into commercial pop songs. As a closure to a very personal and introspective album that deals mostly with family issues, “Snakeskin” stands as a grand finale into acceptance of your own personal history and reclaim of all personal issues as forms of strength, over a triumphant dancefloor-ready production that samples Beethoven’s “Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13” and interpolates Nobuo Uematsu’s Final Fantasy victory fanfare. "This has a Beethoven sample [Piano Sonata No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 13 ‘Pathétique’]. It’s a song that my mum used to play on the piano. It’s the only song I remember her playing, and it only made sense to end with that. I wanted it to end with her voice, and that’s her voice, that little more crackle of the end. The metaphor of “Snakeskin” is a handbag, really. A snakeskin handbag that people commercialize, consume, and use as they want. At the end my mum says in Japanese, “I’ve realized that now I want to see who I want to see, do what I want to do, be who I want to be.” I interviewed her about how it felt to turn 60 on her birthday, after having been through everything she’s gone through. For her to say that…I just needed to finish the record on that note." - via Apple Music "I wanted this to close the album because I felt like the album itself was my snakeskin; I shed my trauma and made art out of it– now it' s up to the listeners to consume and industry to commercialise. At the end you can hear my mum talking about her intentions as a woman turning 60. The album is about what we do with the trauma and pain we are given, and it' s an invitation for people to explore their own personal histories to create unwavering strength within themselves." – Rina Sawayama, Avex
