For ‘Sway’ singer Bic Runga, being a musician is the greatest job on earth

Whenever kids are asked what they want to be when they grow up, it isn’t out of the ordinary to be told that they dream of becoming magicians, princesses, astronauts, or superheroes. And it’s just as normal when they end up pursuing something entirely different when they enter adulthood.

Not for Bic Runga, though. 

Hailing from New Zealand, the acclaimed singer-songwriter has always known that being a musician was in the cards for her — a realization she’d made as early as 11 years old. What’s more, her mother was a singer, so car rides would usually turn into impromptu karaoke sessions of the top 40 songs on the radio at that time. 

American and British music from the ’60s and ’70s continue to shape Bic’s sound as we know it. When she went on to write her first song on a whim at just 14 years old, she would never look back. 

“It was just something I decided to do. It’s like a commitment. There are so many times where it wasn’t going well, but you just have to keep going because you decided to years ago,” Bic said. 

And 30 years later, she’s still here. 

Timelessness as a philosophy

Music is something that has become intertwined with the 50-year-old artist and everything she does. Time and time again, it’s what she’s fallen back on for the past three decades — so much so that if it were to be taken away from her for whatever reason, she wouldn’t quite know what to do. 

“If you’re a really committed musician, it’s almost like if you don’t do it, you don’t feel right. I’ve been doing it for over 30 years, but I realize it makes me feel normal. If I’m not singing or making music, I always feel kind of stressed out,” the singer-songwriter explained. 

Bic had just been a naive teenager on the cusp of her 20s when it came time for her to work on her debut studio album Drive. 

It had been a rather chaotic time in her life, where everything had just seemed to be happening all at once. She had just been signed to a record label. She had just packed up her things to move from Christchurch to Auckland. Overwhelming as it was, she had surpassed it all by fully throwing herself into her craft. 

“I was such a young, determined person,” Bic said, describing the state she was in while writing Drive. “I wasn’t thinking about the outcome. I was just thinking about doing a good job at the time.” 

Since then, Bic has called several other places home. Outside of New Zealand, she has lived in London, New York, and most notably, Paris, where much of her latest record Red Sunset was made. 

She was just in her mid-20s when she relocated to the city of love. Coming back to the French capital 25 years later, it almost seems as if everything has changed. 

“There’s all these apocalyptic things happening, so there was lots to reflect on and write about because so much time has passed and I’ve been going for such a long time that I wanted to connect again with how I felt about things when I was younger,” she said about the album. 

But all these years later, Bic’s core has pretty much remained the same. She attests that she still has the same objectives and values, and still can’t quite even believe she’s here. Perhaps it’s why timelessness seems to be the great big quality her music has always taken on. 

“I’m always trying to [make something timeless] because I’m sort of old,” Bic quipped. 

“I don’t think I can try to chase the trends and I don’t think it’s a good idea to do that. Even if you’re young, actually, because usually if you’re trying to copy something that’s happening right at the same time as you, it’s too late by the time it comes out. So I’m always looking for that thing that makes any artwork timeless.” 

Keeping human creativity alive

Obsession seems to be the habit the “Sway” singer hasn’t been able to separate herself from. It’s not something she’s looking to unlearn, though. In fact, it’s an essential part of her creative process as an artist. You’d often find her awake at odd hours just to finish recording, and it’s something she says she genuinely enjoys. 

Bic is also a self-proclaimed perfectionist. She was the type to stop at nothing until the song sounded as good as it could be. But these days, things have changed. 

These little flaws that used to send musicians like Bic over the edge are now thought of as treasures — and it’s all thanks (or no thanks) to the rise of generative artificial intelligence in creative spaces. 

And if it’s traces of minor mistakes that allow humanity to shine through, even just a little bit, then Bic is all for it. 

“I just still believe in human creativity. It’s kind of exciting that we have all these other digital tools and AI tools. But human expression is still the most important part of art. Wanting to express yourself and say something is kind of the essence of it, really. Even though it seems like a really hard time to go into art of any kind. But it’s still really important because in a way, nobody quite knows what’s real anymore. But art still is quite real. Because it’s just human expression.” 

There are a lot of things Bic wishes she knew back then, like knowing how to read a contract, knowing how to preserve her energy better, and knowing how to nurture friendships and understand the people around her better. 

All this wisdom eventually comes with age, though. But there’s one thing that doesn’t seem to get easier: navigating life in the spotlight. 

“It always is a bit uncomfortable,” Bic confessed. “I just want to have a real life. I want to have real relationships. A lot of it can feel like you’re playing a role.” 

In this day and age, privacy has become a novelty. It’s why the singer has learned to be okay with separating her musical identity from her private self, much as she loves her craft. 

“Everyone is wearing their life in public, and not all of it is real. Hardly any of it’s real, actually. Everyone’s going through that same weirdness, I suppose.” 

Still, Bic believes she’s the same person wherever she goes — her music serving as a reflection of that. 

“I still like singing my old songs, and finding who I used to be in those old songs. I still think of that as the same person. It’s quite fun to sing something that you wrote when you were so much younger. You realize that that was always you,” she mused. 

Thirty years down the line, it’s why Bic thinks being a musician is the greatest job on earth. While she admits the industry side of things can get difficult to navigate, music, for Bic, is the purest pastime out there. That’s what’s kept her going all these years — and that’s why she’s here to stay. – Rappler.com