You have probably heard her name being whispered excitedly among music lovers of late. Bic Runga.

It is a name which sticks, purely because it so unusual. But who is the mysterious Bic Runga? And where does she come from?

New Zealander Bic (pronounced "Bec") is the daughter of a Chinese cabaret artist mother and Maori father. "I had one of those insect-catching childhoods," she says, in some ways explaining the stillness and subtlety of her music, steeped as it is in fertile imagery.

"It was very beautiful where I grew up, but because you don't have any point of reference, you don't realise until you leave how beautiful it is. When you do, you sort of think, Wow!

The world is actually kind of ugly'." She laughs her tinkly, hiccup laugh.

Bic has been a household name in her own country since 1996 after walking into Sony Records and demanding a record deal on the strength of just a demo.

Her subsequent debut Drive went on to become the biggest-selling album by a New Zealander in New Zealand in history and, having achieved what she set out to do at home, she has begun building a name for herself in the UK. "And besides," she adds modestly, "I had to leave - I didn't want people to get sick of me."

Now "she has gone back a level". "The level of touring I'm at over here is not as high as it was in New Zealand," she says.

"It's pretty real and I quite like how the audience is building, word of mouth. This was the way I started in New Zealand but then you reach a certain level and the marketing machine kicks in and your music sort of ceases being yours."

Currently staying with friends in Hackney, she is getting a taste of "the street" and hardly misses the trappings of fame she has become accustomed to. "I enjoy living somewhere that's not gentrified at all," she says.

"I'm very spoiled back home, I mean people give me cars and stuff like that - it's crazy. It's not really me. I'm a bit more reclusive. So it's a bit of a catch 22 with fame. I really like music and playing live and it has to be selfsustaining but it does get to a point where it just gets weird."

A powerfully compelling performer, Bic combines great skill as a musician (she plays guitars, keyboards, bass and drums and has just won the Producer Of The Year Award at the New Zealand Music Awards) with a beautifully pure and versatile voice.

Her third and most recent album, Birds, a poignant collection of love letters in song, written in the aftermath of her father's death, was released in November last year.

Pushed to describe her music, Bic says, "I think it's a little soporific, and I think it's brave in how sparse it is. It's a wee bit anachronistic in a way, it's hardly going to be Top 40. It doesn't necessarily sound like now' either. The record company is sort of appalled by Birds because it's about death," she jokes.

"Good on you, you've made a death album.

How are we supposed to sell that?' I think the next record definitely has to have a bit more life. Being a career artist, you just have to make the art which comes up at the time and Birds was the death album with the black cover."

She laughs. "That's the album I had to make, for better or for worse commercially, it's what happened."

Loneliness and heartache have been her "schtick" for a while. She describes touring as "really lonely - the loneliest".

She adds: "There are definitely times in my life when I thrive on solitude but sometimes it wears thin, and you get kind of a bit desperate.

"My only solace is the whole thing is absurd, you know? That you get up on stage at all, let alone by yourself. And you sing these really sad songs and then the whole things feels kind of silly."

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