New Zealand's Bic Runga 'drives' Sony Debut To Top

Bic Runga's risky decision to produce her debut album, 'Drive,' has been vindicated by the set's phenomenal success here.
'Drive' spent four weeks at the top of the Recording Industry Assn. of New Zealand (RIANZ) album chart and was recently certified triple-platinum (45,000 units), easily making the 21-year-old singer/songwriter the biggest-selling New Zealand female artist.
Sony is now preparing Runga's move into the international market: 'Drive' has already been released in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia and is scheduled for release in Europe and Australia in March and the U.K. in April.
In the U.S., 'Drive' is due to hit stores April 28 on Columbia. 'Sway' is the first single to be unveiled in America and will be serviced to radio this month.
Runga shot a video for the track in early December in Los Angeles and found the experience an eye-opener. 'There were about 40 more in the crew than there would be on a New Zealand shoot, and the budget was 10 times more,' she says. 'It was interesting to see just the difference in the standard of the catering!'
To coincide with the single release, Runga will do advance press and showcase gigs in late February in Los Angeles, before returning to tour in the U.S. and Europe during the Northern Hemisphere's summer.
Runga was signed to Sony Music NZ in September 1995, after GM of A&R Paul Ellis (now with Sony Music Publishing in New York) heard Runga's first demo recordings. In December of that year, Sony released an EP titled 'Drive'; the title track became a hit on college radio nationwide, and Runga walked away with the award for most promising female vocalist at the 1996 RIANZ Music Awards.
At that stage, Runga had already abandoned two album sessions with local producers, as she was unhappy with the direction being taken. At the suggestion of Sony, Runga traveled to Ballyvourney, Ireland, to work with producer Nial Maccan and former Crowded House bassist Nick Seymour. Again, the project ground to a halt.
'I wouldn't express anything,' recalls Runga. 'I was on some ridiculous humble trip. I thought that everyone was doing me big favors 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.'
Shortly after her return to New Zealand, Runga was involved in a serious car accident, and, while recovering in the hospital, she made the decision to produce 'Drive' herself.
That idea initially concerned Michael Glading, managing director of Sony Music NZ. 'I thought for somebody so young and so relatively new in the recording process, it's a big task,' Glading says. 'Her argument was, 'I've tried the people you said I should try, and I believe I could do a much better job.' She was so confident that she could deliver it, we had to give it a go.'
Runga and her three-piece band recorded 'Drive' in Auckland in March 1997, then, as requested by Sony Music in the U.S., the record was mixed in Los Angeles by Matt Wallace (Faith No More, R.E.M.).
The New Zealand release of 'Drive' on July 14 was bookended with two industry awards for Runga: top female vocalist at the 1997 Music Awards in April, and in November acknowledgment from the Australasian Performing Rights Assn. for 'Sway' as the most-played local song on New Zealand radio that year.
According to Roger Klamp, PD at Auckland modern AC station More FM, 'Sway' struck a chord with listeners. 'It was a very popular song,' he says. 'We had lots of phone calls on it.'
Although Runga was initially adopted by the college radio network, widespread airplay on commercial radio and a massive nationwide promotional blitz by Sony saw her cross over into the mainstream with 'Drive.' While touring throughout the country, Runga has found the expansion of her audience confusing. 'I'm playing a lot of gigs at the moment, and all sorts of people are coming--there is not any one type of person.'
For a local artist, the public response to Runga was unprecedented, and for the first 16 weeks after its release, 'Drive' remained in the RIANZ top 10. When Sony Music International senior VP Peter Asher and Columbia U.S. director of international A&R Gerard Babitts presented Runga with a double-platinum disc marking 30,000 sales (Billboard, Dec. 6, 1997) after her Auckland concert in November, no one was more surprised than Glading.
'When we first made the record, I thought we could do double-platinum on it over a 12-month period. But ('Drive') has just had an amazing track record here; it's just captured the imagination, I think.'
Roger Marbeck, owner of Auckland store Marbecks Records, says buyers can't get enough of Runga. 'The sales have been phenomenal--it's one of the most successful albums we've had in a long time. There was huge, unprecedented demand for it . . . For anticipation, 'Drive' took the cake. Sony had done the build with the singles, and people were ready for it.'
Although sales of 'Drive' have slowed since the Christmas period, Marbeck says he expects that pattern will be reversed when Sony re-advertises the album in March. 'It's got a lot of sales left in it yet; the album has a pretty universal appeal.'
The 1998 New Zealand Music Awards take place in Auckland in April, and although nominees are yet to be announced, industry speculation tips Runga to clean up. But it's unlikely she'll be in the country to attend the ceremony. If all goes according to plan, Runga will be in the midst of a stateside trek promoting 'Drive.'
Runga says that America is 'going to be main the focus because most territories take their cue from that market, so if you can do the groundwork in the States, you're saving yourself a lot of energy.'
Glading says Columbia U.S., and in particular Babitts, have shown great commitment to 'Drive,' and for that reason he shares Runga's opinion that America should be her priority.
To attempt to cover all bases would be pointless, he adds. 'When you live in this part of the world, you can't be all things to all people. We're going to concentrate specifically on certain parts of the world. Make no mistake: Internationally, Bic's going to be working this record for quite some time.'

(c) BPI Communications, 1998 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED