After releasing her debut EP, ‘Business Trips’ in June to critical acclaim, Japanese-born, London-based art school graduate Rié - pronounced “ree-ay” - returns with her second release in 6 months, with the ‘Levels’ EP, due out on November 3, 2017. Rié now returns with the video for single 'Save You', the final piece of the 'Levels EP' which precedes her debut London headline show at The Islington on November 9th. Watch the video for ‘Save You’ here.
The EP-titled track was written following a short trip to London whilst Rié was previously living in Japan. Facilitated by her collaborator, the London-based Ivor Novello award winning songwriter/producer, Cassell The Beatmaker (whose previous collaborations include The Streets, Plan B, Akala), ‘Levels’ lyrically identifies the level of commitment, time and effort, as well as patience, that it takes to pursue a passion in life. This notion is reflected in Rié’s own relocation to the UK, done with the ambition to develop her career in music outside of Japan.
‘Levels’ diversifies from Rié’s debut EP, this time with Rié touching upon UK rap - a spontaneous venture taken up with the talented studio assistant/artist, Deacon during recording sessions. The 'Levels' video finds Rié examining the significance of determination in different contexts – says Rié of the filming: “I worked with an amazing athlete Sarah Piercy, winner of the London Marathon women’s wheelchair competition, who has gone through significant levels of challenges and obstacles but has proven her strength through incredible achievements.”
As with her previous EP, Rié draws from her adopted home of London and her birthplace of Tokyo. The Levels EP looks at a prominent British influence, particularly with ‘Levels’ and the production credits (Cassell produced ‘Levels’ and ‘Secrets’ with Theme Park working on ‘Save You’) but Rié returns to Japanese poetry as a source of her influence. “Japanese poetry and writing are all about saying something through something else, implying obliquely,” she muses. “In a Japanese poem, if something is beautiful, you never use the word ‘beautiful’; you refer to it without spelling it out.”
Whereas ‘Levels’ explores personal nuances, ‘Secrets’ looks at the world around us, an environment that Rié argues is full of deception. Rié explains “that those deceiving tendencies have become more prevalent in recent years through media, politics and so on,” she continues, “the old science fiction/future fantasy films are not far-off from what we see today, and I started getting into classic films like Metropolis, 1984 and Brazil and the connoted imagery. As I dug deeper into the video archives, I found propaganda footage set during World War Two and found it ironic that we are still repeating the same thing, the media itself embodying and functioning as a demagogue.”
Finally, there is ‘Save You’, a song that explores depth in the term ‘soulmate’. Sidestepping clichéd notions, Rié argues that we are not attracted to each other’s strengths but in fact weaknesses, and the reason for two people to be together is to simply save each other. “That’s why the other has everything you don’t have, and you have what the other had been missing.” Rie continues, “when you find a soulmate, you feel rescued and saved. But just because you are saved, it doesn’t mean you are safe. It’s only the beginning of the endeavours to face what the future brings—“holding on to each other, we”ll go through it all together” —hence this song is not a love song, but a fight song.”
The ‘Levels EP’ adds to Rié’s abundant back-catalogue – having studied Fine Art at London’s Central St Martins, she began to immerse herself in music shortly after graduating, which along with painting, became her binding trait. Following a torrent of songwriting, the young lady earned a recording and publishing deal with Sony Japan at the age of 19 using the name Rie Fu, earning herself widespread recognition with the release of her debut album at home. Subsequent albums followed, with Rié also becoming well known for sync placements of her music into Japanese film and TV, as well as her live performances across Asia. Rié relocated to the UK to pursue a new music scene in spring 2016 and, has developed critical support throughout summer 2017 from UK outlets including DIY, The Line Of Best Fit and Clash following her debut UK release, the ‘Business Trips' EP.
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