bicRungadotnet

 

Stuart Lloyd:	Typically how many songs would you write in a year?
Bic Runga:	Maybe two good songs in a year, but when you're signed to a record label you're given this arbitrary period of time to be able to put out a record, and it's usually one and a half years...I don't know where they snatch that number from - out of the air, I guess...
SL:	...the finance department!
BR:	(laughs) Yeah...so if I were to present them with a good album every one and a half years I'd probably give them 3 songs, you know...
SL:	Three killer singles...
BR:	...3 songs and the rest would be filler...it's a sad reality.
SL:	How do you know when a song is complete or spot on?
BR:	I don't know who said it before..."a recording is never finished, it's only ever abandoned." Which is true - sometimes you just have to finish when you run out of money, yeah (laughs).
SL:	You recently said that the best songs write themselves, which they do. So tell us about the other songs. How do you write those?
BR:	The other songs I don't think should ever be written. If I have an idea in the middle of the night, if I don't remember it in the morning, or if it doesn't finish itself, it probably wasn't worth completing. Sometimes when you're trying to fill an album out you have to go with those other songs which don't quite write themselves. But the timeless songs often come in their own time...
SL:	...and you do remember them in the morning. What's your process? It sounds like they all gush out in one go...words, music, titles, etc.
BR:	Yeah, sometimes. But more often than not it's just labour - work ethic - and it's hard to have a work ethic with something like songwriting 'cause it's not a nine-to- five job.
SL:	So how do you build that in, particularly when you're on the road surrounded by people?
BR:	I don't...I've been on the road probably too long actually. I'm kind of...I've forgotten what the point to this whole thing was (laughs) and I remembered vaguely thinking that the whole point was writing songs, and I haven't written songs in so long, do you know what I mean?
SL:	So you're not writing as you go at the moment?
BR:	No. It's pretty hard to write on the road. There are a couple of lucky people that are good at writing on the road 'cause most of their life has been on the road.
SL:	How has "the road" evolved your songs, and how does it pre-empt what's coming down the track?
BR:	When I recorded the record (Drive) I hadn't really done a lot of pre-production. I hadn't been on the road a lot and that was a mistake I think...the songs developed themselves a lot after months and months of playing, and I think your voice gets a lot fitter after a tour, so I think the best time to record a record is just after a tour.
SL:	Are you a great notebook keeper?
BR:	Because I've had writer's block for the last year I've been starting to write notebooks. I've been trying all sorts of new ways to write songs because my old theory of songs falling out of the sky hasn't happened in a while, so I've been trying everything else, notebook keeping, word association stuff, newspaper cuttings, anything inspiring that can be dreamt up.
SL:	Let's talk about a few lines from your current album. "Rain falls from the concrete coloured sky" (Drive). Nice alliteration - where did that come from?
BR:	That used to be "rain falls like custard from the sky," but it doesn't!
SL:	Not on a good day, no...another one is "Fire inside my shoes" (Suddenly Strange)...
BR:	(laughs) Where did that come from? I think it's like people have itchy feet...yeah, like that.
SL:	And how many stereos have you managed to keep, as in Suddenly Strange?
BR:	Aah right, from ex-boyfriends (laughs). I have one amplifier, and I had two guitars...
SL:	"Looking round the pantry for a box of sorries" (Sorry)?
BR:	Aah right. Um, well you know, to me apologizing is just the weirdest thing to do in the world, and I kind of like the idea of just being able to buy them.
SL:	Off-the-shelf apologies?
BR:	Yeah, right.
SL:	How much crafting and rewriting do you do, from the divine inspiration 'aha' moment of realising there's a song there.
BR:	As little as possible. I mean, there's a temptation to, once you've finished a song, sit back and look at it and say "how can I make this more clever," but songs don't need to be clever. So often their first incarnation (is the best).
SL:	So you go with the moment?
BR:	Yeah.
SL:	What is Bic Runga's musical signature in her short career so far -your favourite composition trick, interval jump or something that works for you?
BR:	(pause) I think 7ths and 2nds are the most divine intervals and they work so well in string arrangement, in melody lines...there's something magical about the major 7th interval. It's strange because all it is really is like lengths of waves, and for some reason it is particularly nice.
SL:	So we can expect more of that in your upcoming work?
BR:	7ths and 2nds.
SL:	And you've got loads of musical ideas buried away?
BR:	Yip...
SL:	Do you keep those jotted down or somehow tabulated?
BR:	No, they're always there though.
SL:	And I have to ask - any xylophone heroes...who's the Jimmy Hendrix of the xylophone world?
BR:	No idea. To me the xylophone was always an instrument that we played at school 'cause the school wanted to buy them in bulk, and it was kinda like a toy instrument to me. But it is an amazing instrument right now that I've discovered.
SL:	You play one song live - or about 8 notes to be exact- on a xylophone. Why's that?
BR:	Yeah. It's just a texture that I really like and people don't use it in pop music very much. It's got such an innocence about it and you have to use it sparingly 'cause it can be a little cheezy after a while...
SL:	...a bit like your own personal innocence - use it sparingly! (both laugh)

© Copyright 1999. All rights reserved by Stuart Lloyd