News Articles
The
Herald Sun, Australia
19 September, 2002
From the Bic of Beyond
Original content copyright 2002 to Herald and Weekly Times
"She's back: New Zealand singer Bic Runga returns to the international music scene."
Original article is at: Herald and Weekly Times
Date: Thursday, 19 September 2002
By: NEALA JOHNSON
AS A 21-year-old, Bic Runga made New Zealand music history when her self-produced debut, Drive, sold more than any other local artist's album - ever.
Over the next two years, the pop singer/songwriter with the divine voice toured the album, scored a hit in Australia with Sway, and recorded the duet Good Morning Baby - a gem hidden on 1999's American Pie soundtrack - with Semisonic's Dan Wilson.
But there, it seemed, the Bic Runga story came to a halt.
In truth, Runga's profile remained high
at home, where a tour teamed her with local legends Dave Dobbyn and Tim Finn and
later produced a hit live album.
But Runga's international story didn't start up again until July this year when
she finally released her second album, Beautiful Collision.
"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."
Preceded by the single, Get Some Sleep,
the new album is another seductively sweet collection of indie-pop songs. Runga
is joined on it by her old friend Dobbyn, Neil Finn, and her sister Boh,
vocalist with successful Kiwi band Stellar.
"If you hear a sound you want, the only way to get it is by getting the
right person," Runga says of her guest players.
"You can't instruct the wrong person to do something they have no experience of. There's something really fortunate about the people I've met musically - how they are is exactly what I want, anyway."
At 26, Runga may still be the baby of NZ music's upper echelons but she sees the Dobbyns and Finns of the world as her peers, not her elders. "I feel like an equal to them, I really do, and I think they feel the same way. "There's no doubt they've done a lot more than me, and I respect them enormously," she says, "but I've done really collaborative things with Neil and Dave and Tim, at shows where we play each others' songs and sing each other's backing vocals, and there's something really, purely democratic about singing with other singers."
Beautiful Collision (Sony) out now. Bic Runga, Cornish Arms, Sun-Tues (sold out) and Wed, $25, venue 9380 8322.
Original content copyright 2002 to Herald and Weekly Times
