Orient Express

Interview from

Website address: www.reaction.co.nz/nzmusic/nzmain.htm

Bic Runga has conquered New Zealand and now our first lady of pop is taking on the world. John Matheson spoke to her during her whirlwind tour of Asia.

No one told her that it would be easy but then no one told her it would be this hard either. Just as Bic Runga was getting used to life as New Zealand's No 1 selling artist of 1997, just as she was getting comfortable with being the main attraction at concerts instead of the support act and just as all the hard work seemed to be paying off, she found herself overseas and unknown.

"I was just beginning to really enjoy myself in New Zealand," says Runga. "Now I'm in Singapore and I'm a big fat nobody! Its funny because when you're growing up you have this image of what it will be like to have a hit record. You think about the fame, the fans... but in reality it's a lot of hard work. I just keep telling myself it's going to be worth it."

Runga's debut album Drive, with its hit singles Sway, Bursting Through, and the title track debuted on the NZ charts at No 1. Eighteen weeks later, its still in the top 10 but there has been no time for the 21-year-old to relax. Promotional tours to Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Malaysia were followed by a trip to New York to shoot the video for her new single Roll Into One.

"It's been a really mad time," she says. "I'm meeting a lot of record company representatives and doing a lot of interviews which is cool but I really miss doing what I love, which is creating music. A lot of bands suffer from second album syndrome and I can understand why now. You have all your life to prepare for the first album and if it's successful you have so many other committments that when it comes time to recording the follow-up album, you realise that there hasn't been much time to sit back and really take the time to be inspired. Even now when I'm playing showcases in Asia for retailers and the media it's hard for me to get into the songs. I'm like a machine at the moment... I just get up there and sing these songs that I vaguely remember writing."

Runga's energy levels have been boosted recently with the news that Drive will be released in the US on 24 March. "That's a real thrill," she says. "It's so hard to get a release in the States. It's like they have so many of their own bands they don't need someone from New Zealand trying to sell records over there."