Fit To Burst Bic Runga

Rip It Up, Issue 239, 1 July 1997, Page 20

Fit To Burst Bic Runga

' Recent times have been strange for Bic Runga, and chances are they’re about to get stranger. This month, after several aborted \ recording sessions, a serious car crash, and a lengthy, frustrating “humble trip”, Runga celebrates the release of her first album, Drive. Its unveiling also delivers her into the ; centre of major record company wheeling and dealing. And as Runga reveals, it can be a tricky place to be. — —

Three years ago, Runga was taken to Sony Music NZ’s headquarters in Auckland by drummer / producer, Wayne Bell, and introduced to the label’s General Manager of A&R, Paul Ellis. At the meeting, Runga played Ellis a demo recording of her

song, ‘Drive’, and while he remained

non committal at the time, Ellis told

Runga later, he was, “quietly wetting his pants”. Shortly thereafter, Ellis signed Runga to a four album deal with Sony. Back then, at age 19, Runga already had a high media profile, not as a musician, but as host of the local music

video show, Music Nation, that screened on TV2. Today, sitting on a couch in the boardroom at Sony’s Symonds Street office, Runga reveals she was uncomfortable with her public image.

“I was definitely worried about that. I’ve always seen myself as a musician, so to be recognised only as a face on television was a really weird trip.” In December 1995, Sony released the Drive EP, featuring songs from Runga’s original demo recordings, and put the wheels in motion to record her debut

album. Then, Runga says, “there were lots of false starts.” Recording sessions with Wayne Bell, and later on, with former Supergroove vocalist, Karl Steven, were abandoned midway through, as Runga was unhappy with the progress being made. While pointing out that she did have a resolute idea as to how her music should sound, Runga admits she was too shy and insecure to speak up in the studio.

“I wouldn’t express anything, I was on some ridiculous humble trip, I thought that everyone was doing me big favours and that I had no right to say what I wanted. The failure of those sessions was my own fault because I wouldn’t say a word.” With the situation at a standstill, in August last year, Runga travelled to Sulan Studios in Ballyvourney, Ireland, to work with producers Nial Maccan, and former Crowded House bassist,

Nick Seymour. Again, the project ground to a halt.

“It was possibly my own fault again, I just didn’t speak up and say what I was after. But the two producers... well, I don’t think they had it sorted out between themselves what they wanted to do.”

Runga says it wasn’t her choice to record in Ireland, the decision was made by executives at her record company, based half a world away; ‘lt was Sony America’s idea, they’d heard my demos and heard the single, and they thought it would be a good place to go. I just wanted to see Ireland [laughter], and I suspected it wouldn’t work, but they wanted me to use a well known producer.” From the Irish recording sessions, Sony NZ released the single, ‘Sway’. “Everytime it comes on the radio I think, ‘doh!’”, says Runga. After returning to New Zealand,

Runga was scheduled to enter the studio in December with a new producer, musician Dave Dobbyn (who has previously produced two albums for former Go Betweens singer/guitarist, GW McLennan). But a month prior, Runga broke her collar bone when she was involved in a head-on collision while

returning from the first Michael Jackson concert in Auckland, and was unable to make the sessions. While recovering, Runga made the decision to take control of the project, and assume the production role herself. Looking back, she says, the abandoned recording sessions were massively beneficial. “I do blame myself for the whole mess, if I had just been a little bit

stauncher I wouldn’t have farted around so much. But at the same time, I learnt so much from each session, and I couldn’t have produced it myself if I hadn’t learnt so much.”

Runga was confident in her production abilities, but was it a battle to convince Sony? “It was a little, I had to write a proposal to them saying, ‘I want to do it myself and it’s going to sound

like this’, but they were pretty cool about it.”

Runga began recording Drive, last March, at Revolver Studios in Royal Oak, Auckland, with her live band; Andrew Thorne on guitar, bass player Aaron McDonald, and Bell on drums. Aside from shedding the odd tear (“but not in public”), Runga is stoked with the result.

“It was a real relief to do it myself. It’s like giving a baby away if you have to

give a producer your songs, because a producer’s role is to actually give you a sound. I did this record the way I wanted to do it, and I’m roughly 100% happy with it. It’s not a perfect record by any means, but it’s all mine.” At the request of Sony America, Runga had Drive mixed in Los Angeles

by Matt Wallace (Faith No More, REM). “I didn’t want to record in America, like Sony wanted me to, but mixing it there was a nice compromise”, she says. While completing the album at Brooklyn Studios, Runga had her eyes opened to some of the games played at major label level in the USA.

“On six different occasions people came into the studio and said, ‘these songs are really good, who writes them?’. When I’d say they were mine, they would ask if I’d written them with someone. It’s a real American thing, there are lots of artists over there who are just the face of songs written by somebody else. When I was in LA, I found out that a lot of female singer/songwriters that I thought were cool, actually don’t write their own

songs, but because they’ve been marketed as singer/songwriters by their record company, of course you assume that’s the truth.” As Drive hits the record stores, it’s now up to Sony Music to promote and sell the album. Runga will spend the next 12 months on the campaign trail, here and overseas, doing interviews, making TV appearances, and fronting up for countless promotional commitments. To avoid being misrepresented by the label, Runga has ensured she has the option to veto any marketing strategy that she may disapprove of. ‘The last thing I want to be seen as is a record company product, I want to be true to myself. I have a really good contract that gives me complete artistic control, it’s a real pro-artist contract, which most of them aren’t. I give the OK for photos and album artwork, all that sort of thing. The sad reality is, for another year, all I’ll be doing is interviews and other things that have nothing to do with music. But I’ve got this excellent opportunity with my music, and even though there’s all these things I don’t like much, they’re all part

of it. I’m taking acting lessons and dancing lessons, and I’m getting people to teach me how to be interviewed, it’s all part of it. I just have to make sure things happen the way I want them to.” In the past, Runga has learnt that lesson the hard way. Two years ago, she featured in a Coca Cola advertising campaign that also featured the Exponents, Pumpkinhead, Grace, and Rikki Morris. Each act was rumoured to have been paid $lO 000 for their appearance, but Runga now regrets that she was involved; “The Coke ad I really do regret, that is the single biggest thing I would look at and say, ‘why didn’t I say no to that’. I didn’t like the way I looked.” More recently, Runga has appeared

in a series of commercials promoting

TVNZ. There is a school of thought that says if a performer appears in a commercial, then they are compromising

their artistic integrity, because it is proof they can be bought if the price is right. Runga doesn’t subscribe to that theory. “At the end of the day, I make squat money for what I do, which is really unfortunate but really true. I just got paid far too much money by TVNZ to

turn down that ad. In fact, I did say no to it, and I kept saying no until the price got higher and higher. I’d really like to tell you how much, but I shouldn’t — but we’re talking tens of thousands of dollars. I think the TV2 ads are fine, we were paid to be ourselves, and I think that’s the most important part.” Does it bother you that you might be associated more so with selling a television channel, than with your music? “I don’t think I am seen that way, but hypothetically if I was, it wouldn’t bother me because I’m so secure with what I do, the music I really do. Do you think I’m the face of TV2?”

It’s very possible the public would recognise you more as a face on television, selling Channel 2. "... I don’t know... you’ve totally caught me out, I’m not sure about

that... I don’t think it compromises anything to do with this record. So I did some TV2 ads and got paid shit loads of money, it doesn’t really matter. And these ads are only going to run for another six months and they’ll be over, and no one will remember them... well, I hope.” Runga’s own plans for the next six months are still undecided. If Sony America decide to release Drive this year, then Runga will be required to tour in that territory to coincide with the album’s launch. If that eventuates, Runga would not tour Drive in New Zealand until the new year. During July, Ellis and Sony Music NZ’s General Manager Michael Glading will travel to New York and London, to attempt to secure USA and European releases for Drive. Ellis says a Northern Hemisphere release is “not guaranteed”, although he is confident, and believes a decision will have been made by August. In the three years that Runga has been involved with Sony Music, it is obvious the label has invested a lot of money in her; local recording studios aren’t cheap and neither are trips to Ireland and Los Angeles, nor the fees of well known producers. Whatever the amount spent on Runga, it will have to be paid back by her through sales of the Drive album. At the moment, she says, that is about as much as she’s hoping for. “I’d like the album to recoup [laughter]. There’s a little man up here who keeps a record of how much money I’ve spent, and I have to pay that back in sales, which is the way every record contract works. But it shows a commitment to me that Sony have spent lots of money, and they feel confident that they’ll make it back. A good record company, which Sony are, they’re marketers, they could market a pile of shit and make money. If Sony have the desire to make something work, then it will, and they’ve shown a commitment to this record.

“Personally, I do want this album to do well overseas, but at the same time, I don’t want it to do too well. This is the career I’ve chosen and I don’t intend it to be a short one, and I think I’ve got lots of time to develop.”

JOHN RUSSELL