Songbird

Choosing a nomadic life over domesticity, singer/songwriter Boh Runga has built a temporary nest in Los Angeles.

Words: Yvonne van Dongen  Photographs: Lisa Thompson

ISN’T THAT ALWAYS THE WAY? You leave home for distant shores to get away from familial and fraternal and any amount of friendly distractions (aka your mates) and what do you find? New Zealanders by the truckload. Or perhaps that should read by the Hummerfull since we’re talking about Los Angeles. Boh Runga came to Los Angeles a year ago to focus, to work, to temporarily absent herself from her own much-loved social scene. “Yes, I could do that at home but even if I went to a tree hut there I’d take some friends with me.” And for the most part her cunning getaway plan has worked. But it seems she’s not the only one to have discovered the energizing appeal of a big, dirty, crazy American city. “New Zealanders? My goodness, it’s absolutely incredible. [Younger sister] Bic has been doing gigs here and every New Zealander will come to see another New Zealander play. When Bret and Jemaine [Flight of the Conchords] got up to sing with Bic, Bret looked around and said ‘So here we all are. Who’s in New Zealand?’”

Bic has recently moved nearby and like Boh plans to stay a while. How long? “As long as I like,” says Boh. How long that will be is yet to be determined. Perhaps she will return home for the summer. Perhaps not. At 38, the eldest of the three musically talented Runga sisters still revels in a peripatetic existence. Not for her the binds of babies and the burbs (although she adores Bic’s son, Joseph). She is a natural nomad. “I’m so happy to be out doing stuff, seeing new places, doing new things. I love being told things. I love how people can flit in and out of other people’s lives. I like it here for how different it is. It always feels like there’s an opportunity out there.”

She and husband Campbell Smith, who also manages Bic, have ripped up the road visiting San Francisco, Big Sur and Death Valley in his 1970 Mustang. The not-a-car-person Boh tootles around the must-have-car city in a “shitty” Ford though she admits she had been looking covetously at Mustangs until Campbell bought one. Fortunately she has chosen to live in an area where you can walk. Really? In LA? “Absolutely. Silverlake has a streety vibe but it’s not scary. You can walk everywhere. Mind you, the footpaths could do with a bit of work.” She can get fantastic coffee up the road, eat great Mexican, frock up in vintage shops and frequent iconic bars in Silverlake, the suburb she describes as a little bit boho, a little bit gentrified and a whole lot like Grey Lynn where her husband is still largely based. He does his share of flitting in and out of Los Angeles too but the absence of a husband does wonders for a songbird’s output.

Boh, who is paid a retainer by a music publishing company, says she feels incredibly lucky to be paid to write music. And write she has. Her first single, called Starfish, will be released next month while her first solo album is due out early next year. The biggest difference from her previous work is that she is no longer surrounded by musical mates from the band stellar* who released their third album Something Like Strangers two years ago. “It will be different rhythmically from work I’ve done before. It’s a learning process for me as well since I have to decide what I really want.”

She continues to design jewellery to add to her Birdland collection which captures native New Zealand birds in gold and silver charms, necklaces and bracelets. Boh’s latest jewellery range will sashay down the catwalk with Juliette Hogan’s clothing at this month’s Air New Zealand Fashion Week. But what Boh would really like to do now is design a handbag. Especially a handbag that could also hold a laptop. Boh writes music on hers and says she’d love to design something more functional and attractive for women who want to carry more than a laptop.

The upstairs apartment in the duplex she rents in Los Angeles is distinctly not designer. While it is garnished with bric-a-brac she has picked up, it is basically a homage to IKEA where Boh bought most of the furniture. Her favourite stuff is back in New Zealand. She’s here to work, see, and doesn’t have time for the luxury of hunting and collecting.

Surprisingly, she says she doesn’t have much time to listen to music either. She goes to concerts (Prince, a must for anyone within airline reach of the man, Tom Petty, terrific, and U2), listens to songs friends pick out for her and invariably gets one stuck in her head for weeks, if not months. But what she does have time for in this seemingly monastic schedule is eating. Boh laughs. “I love eating and although I eat organic I don’t always look after myself as much as I should. The Chinese love to eat.  I come from a culture of food. My mother loves to cook and eat. And my father was Maori and they like to eat too.”

As for American friends – yes, she does have some. They are so gregarious and friendly and in-your-face it’s hard not to though they do struggle with the Kiwi twang and with its speed and clipped delivery. Just as well really, otherwise Boh would have even more friends and then where would she go?

To see Boh’s jewellery, visit www.nzmintjewelry.com/boh-runga

For Boh's current favourite CDs, click here.