November 26, 2025 • 10 mins
One of the country’s most famous singer-songwriters is back with an entirely new album.
It’s a new chapter for Bic Runga, who’s sixth studio album, ‘Red Sunset’, is releasing in February next year, with a tour following in March.
It’s her first album in 15 years to feature all-original material.
“It’s a bit of a reinvention,” Runga told Mike Hosking.
“That’s never easy to do, but it’s either reinvent or just repeat yourself, so, y’know, I really kind of wanted to try something else.”
The album was recorded in an Airbnb in Paris earlier this year, where Runga and her family were holidaying.
“We rented a house with a piano, and really knocked the record out.”
“I wanted it to have some of that vibe and just remembering my life before, y’know, the kids and stuff,” she told Hosking.
“It was just sort of a nostalgic trip, I suppose.”
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good news for some of Beckronger's back. Her sixth studio
album is called Red Sunset. There's a two coming as well.
First album, first original album in some fifteen years, which
I find hard to believe. Anyway, Beck Wrong is up
early ish for us in Sydney. Good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning. How are you.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
I'm very well, indeed lovely to catch up with you.
What are you doing in Sydney?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well, I'm just here for business, you know, I've got
my aperate board role and I've got like I'm meeting
my record label and publisher. Yeah, just getting to get
in to work, just doing some work. I don't live here,
so you know, I'm avantasically.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Now is that fifteen years? The first album?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
So?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Is this first original material, completely original material in fifteen years?
Is that right? It is right?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, I mean I made a covers album maybe eight
or ten years ago. But you know, yeah, I've actually
had all these songs kicking round in different forms, but
you know, I haven't really had a chance to properly
focus on a new release. But yeah, it's a good time. Now.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Are you excited by it? Nervous?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'm really excited. Yeah, I'm nervous about it, but it's
called to hear that track that you just played, because
that's one of the songs and I haven't. It's funny
having it out in the world because yeah, and it's
a bit of a reinvention some of it, so you know,
that's never easy to do, but it's either reinvent or
just repeat yourself. So you know, I really kind of
wanted to try something else.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Did something happen specifically, did you go I must do
an album or did someone go, hey, how come you
haven't done an album?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
To be honest, it's actually because I mean I think
I've said to you before and interviews that you know,
I just really got really busy with family and now
one of my kids is moving out and next year
going to university in Wellington. So I was just like, whoa,
this is this is new. I might have to actually
get a life, and so I really made a concerted
(01:51):
effort to kind of go, oh, no, I'm going to
I'm going to I'm going to hurt next year, so
I really need to. Yeah, so I've been actively trying
to get back it.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well, okay, so let me talk to you about this
as a parent then and here's my take on it,
because I've had kids move out too, and I hear
you're you're in the majority, right, so you go, I'm
going to miss them. Oh it's really going to hurt.
I'm the opposite. I love giving them out. Wow, I
love No, I love seeing them in the world, really
doing doing their own thing. They're they're they're evolving and doing.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
The Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah, I hear you. Yeah,
that's all really exciting. Yeah, I'm loving that watching that.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
The French thing with this whole thing was recorded in
the winter. When I say the winter, I'm taking what's
that January February of this year.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, it was, yeah, and what were you doing now?
Well again, it was like trying to book in those
parent years because you know, I used to live in
Paris and I you know, that was like the dream
of my life to live there, and then when I
had my family, I was just like, nah, maybe I'm
never going to go back there at all, you know.
So it was about taking the kids there and like
(02:59):
sort of as a last trip to show them Paris,
and then we we just rented a house with a
piano and really knocked the record out. It was just
like just made an effort to finish it. And yeah,
so and just I wanted it to have some of
that vibe and just remembering my life before, you know,
the kids said, I don't know, it was just the
(03:19):
sort of nostalgia.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Trip was it was it fantastic, It was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
It was to get a vibe, you know, into the music, Yeah,
rather than just the sort of mundane of domestic stuff. Then.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yeah, and what when you say you rented a house
with a piano, is that where the piano and the
song comes from? The old piano, the eighteen oh seven piano.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yes, yes, there was this amazing grand piano. And I
didn't know this, but there's a thing where you know,
you can I seldom use airbnb, but you know there's
these I was just like, wow, there's pools the piano.
You know. I was just like, come on, we're gonna
do this. It was kind of like, sort of seems
crazy not to actually record while we was there.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
And so so you you literally written so you airedb
and your holiday and so you literally recorded the album
in the house while you're on holiday.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yes, correct, Yeah, wow, yeah, and yeah, because some of
these songs, some of the fragments of this were from
twenty five years ago. There's unfinished songs from the second
record that that didn't make the second record, and then
they've been you know, have been finished. And okay, yeah that's.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Cool because here's the other thing, because this just makes
me soundly old. But the albums? Am I right in
saying the album's not out yet, but you've done this.
Three singles are already out.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it's not out till February thirteenth,
but the first three songs are out. And yeah, we
just we just announced the tour, the Olden date and
the tour dates.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Well, I'll come to the tour in just a couple
of moments. So the three songs that are that are out.
So I listened to all of those yesterday, so they're
all great. What's it feel like to have that bit
out with more to come?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Oh, it's excited. It's really exciting. But you know, I
do really appreciate you talking to me this moment because
but but because what it feels like is it's a
really different landscape. It's like there's no there's not a
lot of music media, there's not a lot of people
reviewing albums and you know, the last time it made
a record, there's quite a lot more media and so
(05:20):
it's a really different landscape.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, there used to be a lot. There's used to
be a lot more media. Bag that is true.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, he's crazy.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
You mentioned opera. Does opra still work? Is that still
a thing for artists and the money flows and the envelopes?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Oh, yes, it does still work. And so it's the
Australasian Performing Rights Association and you know, it's a three
quarter of a billion dollar business and just in those
regions and I'm on the board, and you know, it's
every year we were doing better and better and it's
about getting songwriting royalties back to songwriters exactly. It works
(05:56):
really well.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Do you battle with the streamers in terms of what
they pay?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
We negotiate prices with them and then you know, no,
we don't battle with them. We you know, it's they
know we partner with them.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
There we go. There's the board member talk. It's just
every time we had Page in the other day. She's
a young artist, a lot of talent, all of that
sort of stuff, and I'm always i always ask them
about revenue streams and you know, where they get their
money from and how it works and stuff. And I
just worry, and this makes me sound old again that
(06:32):
I worry that they're not surrounded by people who are
giving them the sort of advice that that this is
a model, this is a business, that this is your living,
that you know you need to take care of it,
because they're all sort of loving the creativity.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, I don't know an artist that hasn't had to
learn the hard way. You know, you go into it
with like, you know, eyes wide open and all you
want to do is make music. But yeah, no, it's
a it's a bit of a dirty business really, like
if you're not careful, definitely, But I didn't need recently,
and I just I loved how she knew deep down
what was going on, and I think that I think
(07:06):
a lot of musicians actually do. But you sort of
have to have blinkers on to just to get through
it because it's actually it's it is full of skullduggery.
And you know, the music industry is not a great Yeah,
it's not great environmental exactly?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Is this all cream on the cake for you these days?
Did you get to a point that you've been so
successful that everything's just a bonus and the gold medal.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Oh no, I kind of always committed to being a musician,
you know, right from an early age, from eleven, I
knew I wanted to be a musician. So I was
always in it for the long haul, even when it
just felt like it was going badly. You know, you
never lose that sense of yourself as a musician. I
couldn't retire because I know, I feel like I'd lost
my sense of self. So yeah, it's good. Yeah, I've
(07:47):
got no choice but to keep going.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
When did it go badly? It's never gone badly for you.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Well, you know, it's one of those things where you
you know, you can't stay on top all the time.
And you know I had hits early, so you know,
there's a lot of like, you know, just noodling around
the house and thinking, am I ever going to do
this again? But yeah, but you know I'm here. I'm
still here.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Noodling around the house. So what was So what are
your expectations on this album?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Then?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Do you have expectations and hits or what?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I love it? Yeah. No, That's the thing with being
where I'm at is I learned how to manage expectations,
and that's that's the healthiest way to go about it.
So I'm really you know, I've really I'm happy with
myself that I finally made new music and and every
time someone really connects with the music, I realize that's
the that's the thing that matters. And yeah, so so
(08:40):
it's problem, it's probably not going to be there's no
hits anymore. It's really real and it's hard, so you know, yeah,
it's I'm just happy with where I'm at it.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
What about the road, what about the tours? What about
the concerts? And is that still a thrill?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
I still love that? And that's the bit that I
spent decades trying to get better at. So that's the
thing that you know, I feel that I can control
and I really you know, that's the good part for me.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Good. You've got to show on Wellington I note with
the Nzso is that being recorded? Yes?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, we just did one with the APO as well,
and yeah, I loved it. So we you know, once
you build a show like that and you commission all
the arrangements, you know you could do that forever and
it's it was really exciting. It was just such an
efficient practice and you know, you just show up and
you sing and you just nail every song with the conductor.
And then then then mvso approached us to do one.
So that was you know, like I could do this forever.
(09:34):
This is so fun. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Well, well, I've got your schedule. I'll give them people
the details in just a moment. It's all happening in March.
What are you doing for the holidays. You're going away
for Christmas, You're relaxing, you.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
I've got we're starting to get going outside of the
you know, we're going to the Philippines and we're going
to Thailand and for work, you know, so that's really exciting.
Those are big markets for me because you're streaming markets
for me. Some good going and playing bear and having
meetings here. So I'll take the family to that.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, fantastic. Maybe the piano.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, but my mum's in Malaysia, so we will all
go there as well.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
I love you mum.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Oh yeah, my mom loves you too.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
I love it and I love you too. Listen lovely
to Lovely to catch up with you. Have a great holiday,
and good luck with the oldum and all the concerts
and stuff. Nice to talk, take care, thanks for having us.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Cheers.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
I mean, is she the world's most lovely person or what?
For more from the Mi Casking Breakfast Listen live to
news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
Good news for some of Beckronger's back. Her sixth studio
album is called Red Sunset. There's a two coming as well.
First album, first original album in some fifteen years, which
I find hard to believe. Anyway, Beck Wrong is up
early ish for us in Sydney. Good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning. How are you.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
I'm very well, indeed lovely to catch up with you.
What are you doing in Sydney?
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Well, I'm just here for business, you know, I've got
my aperate board role and I've got like I'm meeting
my record label and publisher. Yeah, just getting to get
in to work, just doing some work. I don't live here,
so you know, I'm avantasically.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Now is that fifteen years? The first album?
Speaker 2 (00:36):
So?
Speaker 1 (00:36):
Is this first original material, completely original material in fifteen years?
Is that right? It is right?
Speaker 2 (00:41):
Yeah, I mean I made a covers album maybe eight
or ten years ago. But you know, yeah, I've actually
had all these songs kicking round in different forms, but
you know, I haven't really had a chance to properly
focus on a new release. But yeah, it's a good time. Now.
Speaker 1 (00:58):
Are you excited by it? Nervous?
Speaker 2 (01:00):
I'm really excited. Yeah, I'm nervous about it, but it's
called to hear that track that you just played, because
that's one of the songs and I haven't. It's funny
having it out in the world because yeah, and it's
a bit of a reinvention some of it, so you know,
that's never easy to do, but it's either reinvent or
just repeat yourself. So you know, I really kind of
wanted to try something else.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Did something happen specifically, did you go I must do
an album or did someone go, hey, how come you
haven't done an album?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
To be honest, it's actually because I mean I think
I've said to you before and interviews that you know,
I just really got really busy with family and now
one of my kids is moving out and next year
going to university in Wellington. So I was just like, whoa,
this is this is new. I might have to actually
get a life, and so I really made a concerted
(01:51):
effort to kind of go, oh, no, I'm going to
I'm going to I'm going to hurt next year, so
I really need to. Yeah, so I've been actively trying
to get back it.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Well, okay, so let me talk to you about this
as a parent then and here's my take on it,
because I've had kids move out too, and I hear
you're you're in the majority, right, so you go, I'm
going to miss them. Oh it's really going to hurt.
I'm the opposite. I love giving them out. Wow, I
love No, I love seeing them in the world, really
doing doing their own thing. They're they're they're evolving and doing.
Speaker 2 (02:23):
The Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah, I hear you. Yeah,
that's all really exciting. Yeah, I'm loving that watching that.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
The French thing with this whole thing was recorded in
the winter. When I say the winter, I'm taking what's
that January February of this year.
Speaker 2 (02:39):
Yeah, it was, yeah, and what were you doing now?
Well again, it was like trying to book in those
parent years because you know, I used to live in
Paris and I you know, that was like the dream
of my life to live there, and then when I
had my family, I was just like, nah, maybe I'm
never going to go back there at all, you know.
So it was about taking the kids there and like
(02:59):
sort of as a last trip to show them Paris,
and then we we just rented a house with a
piano and really knocked the record out. It was just
like just made an effort to finish it. And yeah,
so and just I wanted it to have some of
that vibe and just remembering my life before, you know,
the kids said, I don't know, it was just the
(03:19):
sort of nostalgia.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Trip was it was it fantastic, It was fantastic.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
It was to get a vibe, you know, into the music, Yeah,
rather than just the sort of mundane of domestic stuff. Then.
Speaker 1 (03:30):
Yeah, and what when you say you rented a house
with a piano, is that where the piano and the
song comes from? The old piano, the eighteen oh seven piano.
Speaker 2 (03:40):
Yes, yes, there was this amazing grand piano. And I
didn't know this, but there's a thing where you know,
you can I seldom use airbnb, but you know there's
these I was just like, wow, there's pools the piano.
You know. I was just like, come on, we're gonna
do this. It was kind of like, sort of seems
crazy not to actually record while we was there.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
And so so you you literally written so you airedb
and your holiday and so you literally recorded the album
in the house while you're on holiday.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yes, correct, Yeah, wow, yeah, and yeah, because some of
these songs, some of the fragments of this were from
twenty five years ago. There's unfinished songs from the second
record that that didn't make the second record, and then
they've been you know, have been finished. And okay, yeah that's.
Speaker 1 (04:24):
Cool because here's the other thing, because this just makes
me soundly old. But the albums? Am I right in
saying the album's not out yet, but you've done this.
Three singles are already out.
Speaker 2 (04:36):
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it's not out till February thirteenth,
but the first three songs are out. And yeah, we
just we just announced the tour, the Olden date and
the tour dates.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Well, I'll come to the tour in just a couple
of moments. So the three songs that are that are out.
So I listened to all of those yesterday, so they're
all great. What's it feel like to have that bit
out with more to come?
Speaker 2 (04:59):
Oh, it's excited. It's really exciting. But you know, I
do really appreciate you talking to me this moment because
but but because what it feels like is it's a
really different landscape. It's like there's no there's not a
lot of music media, there's not a lot of people
reviewing albums and you know, the last time it made
a record, there's quite a lot more media and so
(05:20):
it's a really different landscape.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Yeah, there used to be a lot. There's used to
be a lot more media. Bag that is true.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
Yeah, he's crazy.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
You mentioned opera. Does opra still work? Is that still
a thing for artists and the money flows and the envelopes?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Oh, yes, it does still work. And so it's the
Australasian Performing Rights Association and you know, it's a three
quarter of a billion dollar business and just in those
regions and I'm on the board, and you know, it's
every year we were doing better and better and it's
about getting songwriting royalties back to songwriters exactly. It works
(05:56):
really well.
Speaker 1 (05:57):
Do you battle with the streamers in terms of what
they pay?
Speaker 2 (06:02):
We negotiate prices with them and then you know, no,
we don't battle with them. We you know, it's they
know we partner with them.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
There we go. There's the board member talk. It's just
every time we had Page in the other day. She's
a young artist, a lot of talent, all of that
sort of stuff, and I'm always i always ask them
about revenue streams and you know, where they get their
money from and how it works and stuff. And I
just worry, and this makes me sound old again that
(06:32):
I worry that they're not surrounded by people who are
giving them the sort of advice that that this is
a model, this is a business, that this is your living,
that you know you need to take care of it,
because they're all sort of loving the creativity.
Speaker 2 (06:45):
Yeah, I don't know an artist that hasn't had to
learn the hard way. You know, you go into it
with like, you know, eyes wide open and all you
want to do is make music. But yeah, no, it's
a it's a bit of a dirty business really, like
if you're not careful, definitely, But I didn't need recently,
and I just I loved how she knew deep down
what was going on, and I think that I think
(07:06):
a lot of musicians actually do. But you sort of
have to have blinkers on to just to get through
it because it's actually it's it is full of skullduggery.
And you know, the music industry is not a great Yeah,
it's not great environmental exactly?
Speaker 1 (07:17):
Is this all cream on the cake for you these days?
Did you get to a point that you've been so
successful that everything's just a bonus and the gold medal.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Oh no, I kind of always committed to being a musician,
you know, right from an early age, from eleven, I
knew I wanted to be a musician. So I was
always in it for the long haul, even when it
just felt like it was going badly. You know, you
never lose that sense of yourself as a musician. I
couldn't retire because I know, I feel like I'd lost
my sense of self. So yeah, it's good. Yeah, I've
(07:47):
got no choice but to keep going.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
When did it go badly? It's never gone badly for you.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
Well, you know, it's one of those things where you
you know, you can't stay on top all the time.
And you know I had hits early, so you know,
there's a lot of like, you know, just noodling around
the house and thinking, am I ever going to do
this again? But yeah, but you know I'm here. I'm
still here.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Noodling around the house. So what was So what are
your expectations on this album?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Then?
Speaker 1 (08:16):
Do you have expectations and hits or what?
Speaker 2 (08:20):
I love it? Yeah. No, That's the thing with being
where I'm at is I learned how to manage expectations,
and that's that's the healthiest way to go about it.
So I'm really you know, I've really I'm happy with
myself that I finally made new music and and every
time someone really connects with the music, I realize that's
the that's the thing that matters. And yeah, so so
(08:40):
it's problem, it's probably not going to be there's no
hits anymore. It's really real and it's hard, so you know, yeah,
it's I'm just happy with where I'm at it.
Speaker 1 (08:50):
What about the road, what about the tours? What about
the concerts? And is that still a thrill?
Speaker 2 (08:55):
I still love that? And that's the bit that I
spent decades trying to get better at. So that's the
thing that you know, I feel that I can control
and I really you know, that's the good part for me.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
Good. You've got to show on Wellington I note with
the Nzso is that being recorded? Yes?
Speaker 2 (09:12):
Yeah, we just did one with the APO as well,
and yeah, I loved it. So we you know, once
you build a show like that and you commission all
the arrangements, you know you could do that forever and
it's it was really exciting. It was just such an
efficient practice and you know, you just show up and
you sing and you just nail every song with the conductor.
And then then then mvso approached us to do one.
So that was you know, like I could do this forever.
(09:34):
This is so fun. Yeah, I love it.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Well, well, I've got your schedule. I'll give them people
the details in just a moment. It's all happening in March.
What are you doing for the holidays. You're going away
for Christmas, You're relaxing, you.
Speaker 2 (09:46):
I've got we're starting to get going outside of the
you know, we're going to the Philippines and we're going
to Thailand and for work, you know, so that's really exciting.
Those are big markets for me because you're streaming markets
for me. Some good going and playing bear and having
meetings here. So I'll take the family to that.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
Yeah, fantastic. Maybe the piano.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Yeah, but my mum's in Malaysia, so we will all
go there as well.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
I love you mum.
Speaker 2 (10:13):
Oh yeah, my mom loves you too.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
I love it and I love you too. Listen lovely
to Lovely to catch up with you. Have a great holiday,
and good luck with the oldum and all the concerts
and stuff. Nice to talk, take care, thanks for having us.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Cheers.
Speaker 1 (10:25):
I mean, is she the world's most lovely person or what?
For more from the Mi Casking Breakfast Listen live to
news talks. It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio
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Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.