As Gin Wigmore looks to a new chapter, the Kiwi musician has released ‘Country Diamond’, the lead track from her soon-to-be-announced project, reflecting on her past and the “what if’s” that could have been
“Honestly, Jim, I’m not trying to appeal to anyone,” she tells Sunday Morning. “I'm just trying to appeal to what is in my soul that I need to get out. It's a very cathartic exercise for me, at this point in time. I've gone through so much life in the last five years.”
Speaking about her divorce from punk musician Jason Butler, Wigmore says she’s never been one to place an emphasis on permanence.
“I think we gave it a really good shot and we were kids when we met, really.
“Two lead singers. It's a tough thing to have sustainable. But I think we gave it our best for what we could do for each other, and we got two beautiful children out of it.
“And I think there's sort of peace at this point to it all, which is a nice place to be, because it was messy for a minute.
“I think my ex will always be my soul mate, but just we need to have another lifetime to figure it out, maybe.”
Wigmore was flourishing in the States, writing music for TV shows and branding companies, running a hotel at the beachfront in Santa Monica, and renovating and interior designing for fancy houses.
“When you’ve got two boys, your priority shifts into wanting to have like a clean park and a clean ocean to swim in and like not having to always be on 10 with your nervous system.
“I started to become sort of like very tense in my body, being a parent, and I didn't want to live like that anymore.
“New Zealand provides a really peaceful sort of place for your spirit to exist.”
Wigmore believes LA has lost some of its spark for other artists.
“The fact is, artists, musicians, bohemians, people that make that place magic and creative and vibrant, can't afford to live there. And so everyone's moving out and then what are you left with? You're left with finances, finance people and Google and that's just not as cool.”
Carving out her path in the States in her mid-20s – when she says she was coming into independence and speaking her mind – she felt she didn’t fit the “pop mould” that some in her label were trying to put her in.
“I was getting way more down into this rock'n'roll sort of track that felt authentic to what I was kind of - I was getting tattooed, I was staying up late, I was like out with bands, I was going on a Vans Warped tour - I was in this very sort of destructive but rebellious phase of my music, which didn't really align with the mould that was being created for me at the labels in the States.
“So I think that all was the perfect storm for things to just sort of crumble a little bit in terms of where our visions aligned.”
Then when she had children, her focus shifted to her children – by choice, she says.
“I feel I don't have regrets. I don't live with regrets. I live with what I choose to do … as I said earlier, I'm 100 percent in or out. And I wanted to be 100 percent in when I had my babies.
“And then you couple that with being not just a yes person. It's like, ‘oh God, this chick is a f---ing nightmare’.
“But I think now, we all know what it is and Universal's on board and it feels really good having that team around me.”
After 13 years, Wigmore has packed the shipping containers to come back to New Zealand “for a while” and opened up a deli in Auckland’s Kingsland suburb.
“I think people try and play it very cool sometimes, like, ‘oh my God, it's Gin’ [in the shop]. But some people have no idea who I am, which is great too. It's a mixed bag, but I love it. I mean, I think it's a great opportunity to chat to people and what better way to do it [than] over food.”
-By RNZ