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Pulse Magazine

Bic Runga Interview

Original content copyright 2002 to Pulse Magazine

Original article is at:    Pulse Magazine

Date:                          December, 2002

By:                             TOM LANHAM

In her native New Zealand, asserts exotic Maori/Chinese tunesmith Bic Runga, "there's only one thing that will kill you - the katipo (a tiny but venemous spider). And you've only got 36 hours to get an antidote once you've been bitten. So unlike Australia, where everything will kill you, New Zealand is paradise, it's beautiful; I've got no complaints about living there at all".

So why relocate to Los Angeles? "I can't stay in New Zealand forever, or I'll start to fester" says Runga, whose '97 Drive debut went platinum seven times-over Down Under. "I've sold as many records in New Zealand as I can, really, and reached the saturation point in the public eye- I'm on the brink of people OD'ing on me there".

Runga despised Southern California until she encountered the communal folk-pop spirit of L.A.'s Cafe Largo, where equally serious tunesmiths like Rhett Miller, Fiona Apple, and Aimee Mann regularly ply their trade. Through residencies at Largo and other West Coast folk clubs, she'll be introducing songs from her sophomore Beautiful Collision (Columbia). Delicate new material such as "Get Some Sleep", "When I See You Smile", and "Listening for the Weather" all feature that off-kilter jangly lilt that, like the katipo, is distinctly Kiwi.

"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.

In addition to those guitars, Runga played drums, keyboards, and produced Beautiful Collision, with a vocal assist from Crowded House veteran Neil Finn. "I couldn't think of a better place to come from as a singwriter than New Zealand. Just to be in the company  of Neil Finn, Tim Finn, the Mutton Birds- there's a whole tradition of the travelling bard, the poet-songwriter in that small, beautiful country. As people, New Zealanders are kind of subtle and understated, and it's all too easy to just go to the obvious chord change or the obvious melodic tricks. But my record has a purity about it, because I don't do what's obvious, as a erson or as a musician.