This May, The Breeze is celebrating NZ Music Month with a Sunday night show where Mike Puru chats to some iconic Kiwi artists, and first up is Boh Runga and Julia Deans.
Boh Runga is best known as the lead singer and guitarist of New Zealand rock band ‘Stellar’, though nowadays through her life-long love of accessories, she also has a hand in the world of jewellery.
After coming to the forefront as the lead singer of rock band Fur Patrol, Julia Deans has had a fulfilling musical career of solo albums, award nominations and collaborations with The Adults, Neil Finn and more.
Nowadays, Julia says she has noticed a change in the New Zealand music scene.
“There are a lot more women in it and I’m here for it,” she expressed.
“The internet [also] wasn’t such a big thing back then,” Boh added.
“It’s just a different way. People listen to music differently, people create music differently, I mean you can do so much more with yourself.”
“[But] there’s pros and cons,” Boh said.
“It’s great to get your music out there, I just don’t think there’s that appreciation maybe for the value of music, because you’ve got access to music immediately and the value of your work isn’t as appreciated as much monetary wise.”
Julia says the quality of the New Zealand music scene today is looking extremely healthy.
“There’s a wonderful, really great, eclectic and strong bunch of artists out there from all kinds of genres.”
“It’s harder because we are a small country and for people to be able to tour and sustain a live kind of presence [...] we just don’t have the population,” Julia noted.
“But I think the high quality of music and the caliber of musicianship and performance is fantastic and I highly recommend not saving up all your pennies to go and see some big international artist and instead, maybe once a month going out and seeing a local band.”
Both Julia and Boh are involved in this year’s Atomic 2.0, a concert celebrating the women who have shaped and pushed boundaries in the rock genre.
