Getting buzzed on Gin Wigmore

Despite her attempts to deny it, the New Zealander was born into rock ‘n’ roll.

By Erin Lyndal Martin
Published: April 8th, 2010 | 1:30pm

Though Gin Wigmore studied religious studies and psychology in college before getting her teaching certificate, music was clearly in her blood. Or in her throat, rather. The petite New Zealander is dwarfed by her big, expressive voice. She worked in record studios at a young age and won the International Songwriting Contest at 16. But Wigmore still expected her life to be different.

"I always wanted to be a primary school teacher—and try to be a normal person and have a normal little existence in New Zealand. But it's all changed and I'm on quite a different road at the moment," Wigmore says excitedly. "People ask, 'Where are you going to be next week?' And I really don't know. I've got all my stuff in a car in Sydney and a backpack and two guitars with me. And it'll probably be that way for the next twenty years."

Judging by the fairytale kismet that has guided Wigmore's career so far, she's right about that. Her performances have been so impressive that her backing band is now the Cardinals (Ryan Adams' former band) and her album, Holy Smoke (Universal Motown), was produced and co-written by Mike Elizondo. It was also recorded at the legendary Capitol Studios.

Wigmore is matter-of-fact about most of this, though she sounds thrilled to already be garnering such a star-studded career. Her A&R representative, Michael Taylor, passed along Wigmore's EP to his friend, Cardinals' guitarist Jon Graboff, who then shared it with the band. Impressed, they agreed to record with Wigmore and six weeks later, Holy Smoke was under way. "Now we're very close. It's quite a beautiful friendship, [and] they’re phenomenal musicians as well. It's like sitting in a big, comfy chair," Wigmore says.

Finding a producer was somewhat harder and Wigmore found herself being introduced to a slew of possibilities. "I thought [it] was kind of pointless because I felt that 'I know who I want.' But then I met Mike Elizondo who came to a showcase I did for Motown at the Viper Room. We did three songs in three days, demoed them out fully, and they made the record. It was amazing and we had an awesome connection."

Asked how Elizondo helped shape her songwriting, Wigmore says he encouraged simplicity: "He adds the commercial element into things. When you come in from left field, as I tend to do, you need [to be] aware of what elements of a song you want to hear. The simplest way of doing this is often the best. And that applies to a lot of things in life."

Though she has already found great success in her native New Zealand—even reaching number one on the charts—Wigmore is perfectly happy to start off as a relative unknown in America at events like this year's SXSW. "It's a bit like speed-dating. You get ten minutes to show that you're awesome and then try and get money so that you can be set up for the rest of your life."

Gin Wigmore Official site

Gin Wigmore MySpace page

Universal Motown