Track-by-Track: Sarina Breaks Down Her EP ‘Break Out!!’

There is a lot of excitement that has formed around Tokyo, Japan artist Sarina, and it’s for good reason. The young singer and songwriter has started making waves with her 2010s-flavoured pop-punk sound. Those waves are about to start coming larger and faster with the release of her new EP, Break Out!!. Released last week via her own SyrenSong label, the songs are filled with catchy punk melodies and lyrics that will resonate with you. As an artist, Sarina explores both the highs and lows of life. Her music is poppy and fun, but it also explores themes of mental health and personal struggle. It’s these ingredients that make her songs relatable and emotionally powerful.

Sarina is fully bilingual, born in Hawaii to a Lebanese mother and a Japanese father. She was primarily raised in Tokyo and remarkably was already learning piano at age two. Her talent was clear right from the get-go with her debut single, “Identity.” It emphasized her many musical talents as she played all of the guitar, bass, piano, and drum parts in the song. While signed to the Sony RED label, she released several singles and the EP Foreword. Now, Sarina has co-founded her own label SyrenSong, which launched this past May. It’s all illustrative of an artist who relishes big challenges and can skillfully rise to the occasion.

Sarina joins us today for an exclusive Track-by-Track rundown of Break Out!!. She shares with us the stories and secrets behind each song.

1. “Living in the Moment”

“‘Living in the Moment’ is a song about how hard we try to be someone or something and in that desperation, often end up losing ourselves and our present. You know, it’s easy to lose sight of where we are NOW, of who we are NOW and even easier to forget to enjoy the moment we’re in. How often have we missed a kind smile from a passing stranger because we were worried over how much that one girl from high school accomplished compared to us? How often have we stewed in our own perceived inadequacies instead of noticing how beautiful the city looks at night?

“Especially in the information age of social media, it’s so easy to get caught up in what we aren’t doing and what we think we ‘should’ be doing. ‘Living in the Moment’ is a song about recognizing that being alive, and noticing our moment and reveling in it!”

2. “Skip a Beat”

“This song has a whole story that I won’t get into because it’s long. To make it sweet and concise, although written to sound like a messy breakup, it was inspired by a business agreement that didn’t quite go as promised. I lost out on an opportunity in a way that felt particularly crappy so instead of taking it as a reflection of myself and my own worth, I pulled on some false bravado until it became real! It felt like a good lesson no matter the situation: Sometimes other people go against their word or reject you in a particularly hurtful way. That’s more a reflection of them than it is of you.”

3. “Don’t wanna break your <3”

“We’ve all had a crush or two in our lives (I think). And how often is the object of our affection a friend? Maybe someone we’re really close to? Personally, I’ve never heard a song from the other perspective. As a girl who has had a few guy friends, it’s a fine, fine balance between friendliness and the anxiety of accidentally putting out more than friendly vibes. We don’t choose who we crush on and that’s fine and dandy, of course. But I’m sure a fair few of my girlie friends out there can vouch for me when I say there is a particular brand of hurt and self-blaming that comes when you lose someone you thought you had a friend in because they caught the fee-fees.”

4. “Artist with an E”

“This song is just… man it’s just how I feel about my life most of the time. ‘Artist with an E’ (because we’re fancy like that) is all about how much bullshit we spew to get by in life. I don’t know how to do a lot of stuff. Like a LOT of stuff. Things I feel like someone my age should know how to do! And a lot of my friends feel the same. I kind of just realized, ‘Oh. We’re all bullshitting our way through this and hoping for the best.’

“I don’t know what those little symbols on my clothes mean in reference to laundering. I just hope for the best. And I don’t know what the definition of a lot of words I use is, I just kind of know the context of how they’re supposed to be used. I have been tricking people into thinking I’m some kind of worthwhile artist with my music but I’m just a weirdo recluse with an obsessive hobby! We’re all artists and bullshit is our canvas. (Shout out to Miroslav on IG for inspiring the song with that line.)”

Sarina ‘Break Out!!’ [EP] album artwork

“Gosh, this song. Ok so, ‘Hold Me’ is probably one of my most emotionally raw pieces and one of the very few ballads I’ve written. Though I wrote it to be ambiguous enough to fit a few different situations, when I wrote it, it was about never being good enough. It didn’t matter how badly I wanted it, or how much potential I seemed to have, nothing I did was ever enough. I couldn’t work as hard as I thought I should be working, I couldn’t reach this supposed limitless potential, I was wasting everyone’s time, everyone’s money, everyone’s love and support. I was a fraud, a fake, and a liar. It was just a matter of time before everyone else figured it out.

“The worst part was that the ship was mine, I was the captain, and I was the one letting it sink. I could have stopped it, but I just couldn’t get myself to and I didn’t know why. This song is a desperate plea for someone to somehow absolve me of this guilt, and yet not feeling worthy of that freedom.”

6. “Why am I so sad?!”

“‘Why am I so sad?!’ This song is just so fun and bratty and so relatable! I do have a few different quirky little diagnoses that routinely kick me into a downward spiral and although I’m on top of my triggers and work hard to keep myself stable and ok, sometimes I’m just sad. Just down, just a bit low, and it’s for no discernible reason.

“Gotta say, being really low and not knowing why is, personally, so much worse than knowing why I’m sad. At least if you know you can comfort yourself and validate your feelings. When you’re just sad… cuz… I can’t fix that? Like I can’t just snap my fingers and figure out what is causing the sad and get rid of it, It’s just there. Mocking me. So I asserted dominance by mocking it back with this song and the silly upbeat vibe.”

7. “I know nothing”

“What is very close to my favourite track on this EP. ‘I Know Nothing’ is the campfire side song with all the little camp instruments about the comfort of truly not knowing anything. Everything we know we just kind of think we know. You could say, ‘I know the sun will rise tomorrow’ but like… no, you don’t.

“This whole universe is a smorgasbord of unknowns and that’s terrifying but also so freaking beautiful and unifying. None of us really know anything! We know a few things like maybe you know how to file your taxes and that’s so cool and awesome! I know how to make my hands look like a little frog boy! But in the grand scheme of things? I don’t know ANYTHING!

“I thought I’d have figured out more by now. I’m turning 23 soon-ish and I’m getting the feeling that a lot of people just kind of… Don’t know things. How awesome is that? We all don’t know anything for sure and there is something so wonderful about that.”