Made in Hollywood

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Boh Runga has just bought a Chrysler. "I look like a gangster in it," she says on the line from Los Angeles where she's been living for the past two years. Still, it's more practical than her first run-around, a brown Mustang with an olive interior. "I didn't want a run-of-the-mill, normal car.

A Mustang is a bit rebellious. It's sexy. They have their own temperament, quirks, and my goodness, I love the sound it makes." For the singer, who describes herself as "impatient and wild" on her new album, it sounds every bit as rebellious that Runga ditched a successful career in New Zealand for a shot at a music and muscle car lifestyle in LA.

But she has not only established herself there as a professional songwriter, she has finally branched out and recorded a solo album, Right Here - much to her own surprise, it seems. "I've been in bands since I was 14. Back then I never thought about fronting a band or going solo. I'd always wanted to be at the back. I went to see Leonard Cohen the other night and I was watching the backing singers, thinking, 'That's the job I wanted!"'

Her belated OE came about just as Runga's time fronting pop-rock chart-toppers stellar* was coming to a natural end (although they haven't officially disbanded). Runga is fiercely proud of her achievements: stellar*'s rise up the charts 10 years ago with Mix, the Sony album that spawned a raft of hits including Violent, Every Girl and What You Do, and launched them as the country's best-selling act at the time. Magic Line followed in 2001 with hits All it Takes and Star.

Then came a stint in Australia and another in LA, working with pop aficionados who've written for the likes of Christina Aguilera, Prince and Meatloaf. But after Something Like Strangers was released five years later in 2006, Runga was beginning to feel restless. She couldn't imagine making another record with the band.

The girl with the choppy, dyed red hair, the rock'n' roll yin to sister Bic's more subdued musical yang, was in a transition period. She'd even started designing jewellery. Her Birdland collection, inspired by native New Zealand birds such as the tui, kiwi and fantail, a collaboration with New Zealand Mint, had a favourable reception when it was launched last year.

By then, Runga had been offered a publishing deal promising a comfortable existence in LA. "I love New Zealand, the beauty of it, the people, but I'd been working with the same people for a period. It was nice to pick up and leave. You don't know what you'll find. The hope was that I'd meet new people who might inspire me to work in a different way."

That didn't make it any easier saying goodbye. She knew she'd gone a bit loopy when she opened her suitcase in LA and discovered she'd only packed three pairs of shoes. "I was apprehensive, a bit upset and I'd panic-packed. It was ludicrous. When my girlfriend moved to New York she took a suitcase full of shoes. I wasn't thinking straight. I was thinking, 'Crikey, I'm going over there to live by myself. Oh my goodness, where am I going to live? I'm leaving, what about my mum?"

After a few days at a friends' house, she eventually found her own place, a Spanish-style duplex with a big garden in Silver Lake, east Hollywood, an arty community in a gated complex where everyone, except Runga the frequent traveller, owned a dog.

Being Hollywood, there have been a few incidents, such as the time her neighbour called the police to a gang-fight outside her bedroom window. But it's a nice area, she insists.

Inspiration is never far away, either. She frequents the rock venue Troubadour and recently went to rock festival Coachella, where she got to see her idol Prince perform; the other night she saw a band play in a cemetery. "I'm not a sun worshipper but [LA] is a happy environment. No offence to Auckland, but the winter weather? I have more energy in LA. There's always something going on."

Runga soon found her creative juices flowing again - but the songs on Right Here resonate with themes of longing and homesickness rather than California dreaming. Home, about a drug-addicted friend who fell off the radar, was inspired by an LA experience but elsewhere she sings of being apart from a former lover (Starfish), of waiting on a new one (Dark Horse), of having everything yet still feeling disappointed (Cautionary Tale).

On the title track she sings, "I've been talking myself around, you can't hear because you're not in this town". Yet ask her if there's anything missing in her life, anything that's not quite turning out as planned in LA and she insists she's content - her songs are more about trying on different characters.

Evelyn, for instance, was written from the perspective of a lovelorn man. So what of the "temporary permanent plans" she sings of on Names in the Sand? Runga says she hopes to spend another year songwriting in LA before returning to New Zealand but is trying to keep an open mind. "I'm totally impromptu. I'm a terrible, terrible planner. It's been wonderful working over here because I have all these people who have faith in me and have helped me."

They include US songwriters Pam Shayne (who has written for Christina Aguilera and Jessica Simpson), drum 'n' bass producer Photek and Swedish songwriter Pelle Hilstrom. "I really enjoy co-writing," says Runga. "It's a funny thing to be in a room with people you don't know at all and exciting not to know what's going to come out of it." She also recorded Right Here with a grab-bag of impressive musicians who have played with everyone from Robbie Williams and John Mayer to Morrissey and Jane's Addiction.

As part of her publishing deal with Chrysalis, her songs are also pitched to US TV shows, films and commercials, although she has yet to strike it big. "Playing in bands is tough, especially now. It's so hard to make a living. I'm lucky. I get the feeling they know that something good will happen. I really count myself incredibly lucky." Even with a bunch of new songs, the recording process got off to a difficult start.

Runga had "intense disagreements" with her first producer, with whom she says she experienced a major artistic and personality clash. That was when she was introduced to talent executive, producer and writer Marshall Altman, who had produced Brooke Fraser's Albertine.

This time, the working relationship was a breeze. "It's funny because you come out of the studio when you're finished and go back to normal life and you find you miss each other. They become such a fixture in your life."

So is Runga bossy in the studio? Not at all, says System of a Down's Serj Tankian, a friend of Runga's for the past four years who sings backing vocals on her song Be Careful. "She's understanding, malleable, loving, a really cool person," he says. "Not cool in a stand-offish kind of way. She's more chilled. She's very easy to get along with, she's very nurturing towards her friends."

The collaboration might seem artistically odd, despite Tankian's broad involvement with the New Zealand music scene since he bought property here a few years ago. But he's not the only metal god to turn up on her album. She also worked on songs with Mike Daly, a metal and country fan who has worked with Ryan Adams and Smashing Pumpkins' James Iha.

Ultimately, Right Here is a departure from the uptempo punchiness of stellar* and reveals a songwriter keen to tap into her darker, moodier side; a singer keen to play with her vocals a lot more. There are moments when she sounds more like Tori Amos than Boh Runga. "It's about becoming a different character. I hadn't done that before. On the very first stellar* album I was so caught up with singing in tune, I forgot to just sing."

Right Here is also, undoubtedly, a radio-friendly, international-sounding album with touches of nostalgia - the influence of Fleetwood Mac on Names in the Sand, the Johnny Cash-inspired Be Careful and the Sade chill-out of Airwave. This is the grown-up, sophisticated Runga. "I'm not a really melancholy person but I like love songs. My mother and father loved them.

My father [who died in 2005] always said it's love songs that mean the most to people, which is why they get played at weddings and funerals, they're a soundtrack to life." It's hard not to wonder how many of them are directed at husband Campbell Smith.

Her move to LA has meant being away from Smith, whose commitments in New Zealand - as chief executive of the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand, Big Day Out promoter and artist manager, looking after Scribe, Brooke Fraser and Runga's sister Bic - mean he is only able to join his wife in LA for half the year. "He really likes his own company and I like my own company," says Runga. "That's a big discovery. It also means that when we are together it's better. He really likes travelling, so when we're together we see new things, experience things together.

"It's hard, because he's so involved in the music industry and I'm a musician, our lives are completely about that. But I think [being apart] is good for us. Lots of people should do it." She laughs and adds, "This is my first marriage." It's also hard being away from family. Bic has a 2-year-old son, Joseph, and middle sister Pearl is about to have a baby. Boh has no plans to have a family just yet, although she has applied to adopt a dog.

"Things happen that I'm not a part of ... That's weird because you're so insular, just doing your own thing, creating your own environment. Even though I'm ludicrously busy when I get home, I like to spend lots of time with my family and friends, especially my mother. My father passed away a few years ago and it's strange to think one day I won't have her. Days just go by in a blink of an eye."

With the new direction her career has taken, it's tempting to wonder if Runga had been watching her younger sister Bic and wondering when it would be her turn. "I know what it was like for her. She was always driven in that respect. I think in some ways she was envious of the whole band situation I had, the camaraderie."

Runga has been dealing with the newfound pressure of a solo career in her own, chilled way and says she was surprised at the generous reception to her music at a recent LA showcase. "I was really nervous but [the crowd] was so happy when I came on." She's also surprised at the success of her jewellery line, which is available from selected stockists and online. She's now working on a new range - Messenger Stories - a spin-off from Birdland. "I see it as a long- term thing. I'm not putting all my money on the horse to win but it's definitely doing well. I'd always wanted to make jewellery."

Strangely, for someone celebrated for her style, Runga doesn't think of herself as stylish. Even now, at 39, she says she's still searching for her own personal style. At the moment she fancies wearing a man's suit to "feel stronger". "I have a tendency towards odd things. I love a good dress but I'm searching for something. I'm looking for a leather jacket and it's really irritating because I can't find one. I used to wear them when I was on the back of motorbikes. I often check out the cc of people's bikes."

So she's a petrol-head? "No, I'm not, but I understand the obsession people have with engines and motors. Have you seen the new Dodge Charger?" she asks excitedly. "It's quite sexy. I have this fascination with them." Watch out, Chrysler.

* Boh Runga's new album, Right Here, was released today.