Beautiful Collision Interviews

Le Matin
17 September, 2003

A Big Sentimentalist
By KARINE VOUILLAMOZ

"In the title "She Left on a Monday", one finds Boh, Pearl and Sophia Runga. Is the music a business of family?

Yes, certainly. My two sisters and my mother sing with me. It is besides the best moment of the recording of the album. All three are singers who perform regularly in New Zealand."

For a copy of this article, go here.

NZ Herald
4 December, 2003

Bic Runga with the Christchurch Symphony: Live in Concert
Russell Baillie review

For a copy of this article, go here.

Women Who Rock magazine
December 2002 / January 2003 issue.

Bic Runga Interview / Pictorial
Photography by Robert Sebree

"Born to a Maori army dad and Malaysian lounge singer mom, the ethnic New Zealander has had to overcome major obstacles on her journey to stardom, including the preconceptions presented by her preponderously white “biscuit of a country” and her own considerable cynicism. “If I as a music fan were looking at myself I’d say, ‘Look at her. She got signed because she’s a chick and she’s Chinese.’” Right. If only it were that easy."

For a copy of this article, go here.

Pulse Magazine (from Tower Records)
December, 2002

Bic Runga Interview
Tom Lanham

"I can't put my finger on it, but New Zealand music does have a unique flavour", says Runga. "The sound is really dark, and someone once called it 'not very good guitars, played completely out of tune'. But there's something to be said for a slightly out-of-tune guitar, which feels a bit lo-fi.

For a copy of this article, go here.

Stuff.co.nz
5 December, 2002

Bic bringing it back
Nick Gormack

Fresh from playing sell-out concerts in America and Australia, Runga kicks off her New Zealand tour – her first in four years – just as Beautiful Collision hits triple-platinum sales at home and the single Something Good is the No. 1 radio single in the country (as was first single Get Some Sleep).

For a copy of this article, go here.

Stuff.co.nz
28 November, 2002

Down to earth Runga contemplates beautiful collision
Mike Houlahan

"It helps ground you, to know you have company as a musician and not out on your own blowing in the wind trying to break America or make a record that might get played on American radio and all those kind of concerns, that are totally irrelevant."

Runga freely admits that such concerns were weighing heavily on her mind when trying to complete Beautiful Collision: "I went quite far down the track of making a record that was trying too hard to be too cool," she says.

For a copy of this article, go here.

Brisbane News
20 November, 2002

Sweet Nothings
Trent Dalton

"What do you believe in?

Creativity. It's one of the nicest things about being a human being.

What was your greatest deed?

I'm always mindful of doing what I say I'm going to do. Even if it takes months to do it. Even if it's just sending records to the crew who worked on a video; it might not happen till Christmas, but it will happen."

For a copy of this article, go here.

OurBrisbane.com
20 November, 2002

Bic Runga - Intimate Intentions
Sam Lee

As well as being feminine, Beautiful Collision is also her most intimate and personal record to date: even if the initial intentions of her songwriting now seem distant.

“It’s pretty personal, but I can’t really hear the songs anymore as I’m so close to them now. It’s very intimate. Writing intimate songs is something I can’t help. You’ve just got to live with it: it’s not easy telling people all your personal details and stories. There’s not much else to do except lie and I’m not really interested in doing that.”

For a copy of this article, go here.

FMsound UK
15 November, 2002

Bic Runga - Beautiful Collision
C.J.Pec

Before listening to her sophomore album Beautiful Collision on Columbia Records, I’m sad to admit I had never heard of Bic Runga. But as the beginnings of the acoustic first track “When I See You Smile” came over my speakers, I realized it seriously was a shame I had never experienced her hauntingly beautiful voice before. And now I’m on a mission to make sure everyone gets to listen to her at least once in their lives.

For a copy of this article, go here.

Shakenstir UK
10 October, 2002

BIC RUNGA - Sheila Pham Interviews New Zealander Bic Runga
Sheil Pham

New Zealand may be a small island in the Pacific, but it's produced a mass of musical talent in recent years. Neil Finn's solo career has been a little under-whelming since the split of Crowded House, but there is now a younger generation ruling the airwaves. Some names you might start hearing a lot more of are The Datsuns and The D4. But perhaps the biggest thing to come out of New Zealand since the All-Blacks is a 26 year old female singer-songwriter-musician named Bic Runga. Her raw and melodic debut DRIVE is the top selling Kiwi record of all time, going seven times platinum there (and beating the pants off Split Enz and Neil Finn in the process).

For a copy of this article, go here.

Otago Daily Times
10 May 2002

Runga brighter under a cloud
Dianne King

Central Otago sunshine was not what the director ordered for a video for Bic Runga's latest single. He wanted cloud formations.

And American director Jim Gable, on his first visit to New Zealand, had his wish come true at Clyde yesterday.

Runga was delighted to be working with Mr Gable, who had worked with the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Matchbox 20 in Australia and New Zealand group the Feelers.

For a copy of this article, go here.

Otago Daily Times
6 July 2002

Runga's release after lengthy production
Shane Gilchrist

For the former Cashmere High School pupil who took up drums when she was 11, guitar and piano in her mid-teens, and moved from her Hornby home to Auckland in 1994 to further her musical ambitions, the success has had more than a few spin-offs: a publishing deal with giant Warner-Chappell, a couple of Auckland houses (neither of which she lives in at present, preferring instead the surroundings of her boyfriend's flat), and a financial stability that few of her Kiwi peers enjoy.

For a copy of this article, go here.

Sunday Star Times
3 November, 2002

Double Trouble
Grant Smithies

"We had quite different musical influences during those years," says Bic, "which probably helps explain why we've gone in such different directions musically.

"I'd certainly say we have very different audiences. The people who go to a Stellar concert probably don't go to my shows. There's probably some crossover there but not as much as you might think for a couple of sisters making music."

Boh skirts diplomatically around the fact that there are probably a lot more grey-haired old codgers in Bic's audience. "Hmm, well, I guess Bic's audience would definitely be a lot broader and span a larger age-group than mine." Much laughter ensues.

For a copy of this article, go here.

NZ Musician Magazine
August / September, 2002

Bic Runga's Long Drive to 'Collision'
Natasha Francois

Despite the time and money spent Bic admits the finished record is nothing like she'd originally planned. She initially intended to steer clear of the singer/ songwriter genre and more towards beats-orientated songs.
"I don't know why I did that," she shrugs. "I think it was just a reaction to the singer/songwriter record I'd made before, which I was just totally sick of.
"But then, you can't be someone you're not and I eventually came round to making a record that was more honest."

For a copy of this article, go here.

Courier Mail
2 August, 2002

Beautiful Collision
Noel Mengel

"Most of the musicians who really blow me away are either dead or over 50," Runga admits on her website, and there is something traditional about a song like Honest Goodbyes, a piano ballad which might just as easily have been written in the '40s as in this century.

For a copy of this article, go here.

Go Asia Pacific
2 October, 2002

In Focus
Bruce Hill

HILL: Of the two things that you do, singing and song writing, is there any one that you enjoy most or is it all part of the same creative process?

RUNGA: There both different - like the song writing is kind of more personal and the singing is more social. So like when you sing live your really speaking to people but with the song writing it comes from a more introverted place.

For a copy of this article, go here.

The Herald Sun, Australia
19 September, 2002

From the Bic of Beyond
NEALA JOHNSON

"The record took a really long time to make, but I wasn't actually doing anything else, I was pretty much devoted to it. But it did my head in," says Runga, by way of an excuse.

"I'd taken on too much work, because I was producing the record myself and trying to write every single song. I don't know why I wanted to do that, but I did,"
she laughs.

"And I'm glad I did, 'cos I learned a lot."

For a copy of this article, go here.

The Herald Sun, Australia- Sunday Magazine
15 September, 2002

Artist MOST likely
ANGELA PULVIRENTI

"Runga says the recording of Beautiful Collision was a drawn-out process. "It took three years for me to feel content with this album. I worked in eight different studios in five different cities. I probably overthought a lot of things, but you can't be too spontaneous when you're still learning."

She makes no attempt to deny her "control freak" tendencies. "I do piss off people who I work with," she offers good-naturedly. "But I want what I want and not everybody gets that. I did work with 12 different engineers on this album - most of them are still speaking to me.""

For a copy of this article, go here.

The Daily Telegraph
12 September, 2002

Bic's Collision Course with fate
MATT FRILINGOS, MATTHEW FRILINGOS

" "I'd love to be Missy Elliot,'' says Bic Runga. It's a strange sentence to hear coming from a singer best known for acoustic guitar-based ballads.

Made internationally famous in 1997 by her song Sway, a moving acoustic number which was eventually added to the American Pie film soundtrack, Runga now admits she struggled for a great deal of time trying to produce an album peppered with hip-hop beats."

For a copy of this article, go here.

The Age
17 September, 2002

The pain, the pain
Karl Quinn

"Bic Runga is, by her own admission, not the most easy-going person on the planet. "I'm a pain in the arse to work with," says the New Zealander. "I produce my own records, so there's no objectivity really."

For a copy of this article, go here.

Time Magazine (Pacific Edition)
September, 2002

When Worlds Collide
Michael Fitzgerald

"Producing Beautiful Collision (as she did Drive) Runga likens to directing a movie. "You have to pull a performance out of a player, and you have to know what's worth keeping and what's worth trying again," she says. "You have to know when to stop." 

For a copy of this article, go here.

www.smh.com.au
13 September, 2002

Bic from the brink
Alexa Moses

Runga, a straight shooter in conversation, says she found it difficult to make the second album after the enormous success of her 1998 debut, Drive.

"There was no self-awareness the first time around, then I got all self-conscious," she says.

For a copy of this article, go here.

www.nzherald.co.nz
13 July, 2002

Bics leaving home
Eleanor Black

Pity Runga then, because New Zealanders are fascinated by the enchanting 26-year-old Maori/Chinese singer with the heartbreaking voice. Speculation over the five-year gap between Drive and Beautiful Collision has raised expectations for this follow-up, especially when it comes to the American market, which got a taste of Runga with the sleeper hit single Sway, that made its way on to the soundtrack for the successful teen comedy American Pie.

For a copy of this article, go here.

www.theaustralian.news.com.au
22 July, 2002

Stay tuned for the next Bic thing
Iain Shedden

"YOU know right away that Bic Runga is realistic about her place in the music industry. "If I'm destined to remain obscure for the rest of my life I think that's totally cool," the singer says.

It's not the usual line that you find in media biographies, but it illustrates Runga's determination to make it on her own terms."

For a copy of this article, go here.

News.com.au
18 July, 2002

Bic's Collision Course
Jon Hart

"Time was never going to be an issue, she says -- the three years helped heal the wounds that opened when she faced the media and its opinions of her music the first time around.

"I saw my record go into this little media machine and it just got munched up and it felt like it had nothing to do with me," Runga says."

For a copy of this article, go here.

Selector Magazine
July 2002

Bic Runga - Beautiful Collision
Selector Magazine

"This rings true for Beautiful Collision. The songs aren't as catchy or as bound to get loads of airplay as past tracks like Drive but they are beautifully crafted and her enthusiasm is audible in the music. There's an obvious layering of talent in the first single, Get Some Sleep, with backing vocals by Pluto and guitar from Dave Dobbyn. Runga has real friends and role models in Dobbyn and the Finn brothers - she has recorded at Neil Finn's home studio, toured with him and asked him for advice."

For a copy of this article, go here.

SqueezeTV Review

Squeeze TV
July, 2002

Bic Runga - Beautiful Collision
Jane

"Bic Runga seemed slightly jaded when I spoke to her. She'd been doing a lot of interviews, and her foreseeable future involves a lot more of the same..."

For a copy of this article, go here.

XtraMSN Album Review- "Beautiful Collision"

XtraMSN Entertainment Section
26 June, 2002

Bic Runga - Beautiful Collision
Bruce Davis-Goff

"The tracks themselves, a mix between ballad, soft rock with odd influences such as harmonica, double bass, a Wurlitzer courtesy of Neil Finn, a banjo and a country waltz backing. Throw in guitars courtesy of Dave Dobbin and Bic's trademark voice, and song structures and the whole mix comes across as almost coherent, sometimes almost too "samey" but always very listen-able."

For a copy of this article, go here.

"Driven to Collision": An interview with Bic by The Dominion newspaper in Wellington, NZ on the eve of her new album launch.

The Dominion
27 June, 2002

Bic Runga: Driven to Collision
Bess Manson

With an album that was three years in the making, there was plenty of time for ups and downs.

"When I knew what it was that I wanted, it made everything flow a lot quicker. When I knew not to try to make an innovative hip hop record and I knew not to go down a dishonest path, then it made everything a lot easier."

For a copy of this article, go here.

Review of Beautiful Collision album by NZ Herald Entertainment Editor Russell Baillie

NZ Herald
21 June, 2002

Bic Runga: Beautiful Collision
Russell Baillie

"So what's it like, this already much-trumpeted, long-awaited second coming of our pre-eminent female singer-songwriter?

Well, despite its worrying background - a three-year gestation involving eight different studios, enough backing musicians to form a sizeable Kiwi supergroup and American session players including Joey Waronker, who can now alliterate that he's backed both Beck and Bic - it's really very good."

For a copy of this article, go here.

Southland Times
09 May, 2002

Southland appears in song's video
Patricia Soper

Bic revealed some details of the GET SOME SLEEP single due to be released in June, during the shooting of the video in Southland, NZ.

The single includes Dave Dobbyn on the guitar, and Pluto (who have done backing for Bic at her Odeon gigs)on backing vocals.