Having won international attention for her early work, Auckland singer-songwriter Gin Wigmore is on her way to bigger things. She talks to Joanna Hunkin.
Gin Wigmore is in a very good mood. After months of coveting the guitar of her dreams - a Emmylou Harris-model Gibson - and investigating dubious ways to ship one over from America, the official dealer has finally said she can have one, offering the young songwriter a special deal on the hefty $6000 price tag.This is excellent news, Gin explains, her giddiness spilling down the phone from Sydney, where the 21-year-old set up camp last July.Speaking to the young songwriter, originally from Auckland's North Shore, it's hard to imagine her not in a good mood. Her voice radiates enthusiasm as she happily chats about anything and everything.By Gin's own admission, if she is not enthusiastic about something, she is not one to stick it out.Like the time she headed to South America on an exchange programme, to discover she had been enrolled at an all girls school run by nuns."That was not what I bargained for," laughs Gin, who promptly pulled out of the programme and pursued her own Argentinian experience.
"I worked in a bilingual school and went to a music college. I went snowboarding down south in Buenos Aires and really experienced Argentina." All this, at just 16 years old.A couple of years later, back at home, Gin moved to Wellington to try her hand at uni. With plans to attend teachers college, she made a last minute decision to major in religious studies, drawn to the paper "Chants, ecstasy and prayer"."After about six months of being at university, I was like 'this is a bit boring, I don't think this is really me, trying to go to school each day,' so I called Mum and said, 'I'm moving to Taranaki to live with my boyfriend who you've never met'."Safe to say, Gin is a law unto herself."I think that's why I'm doing music because it's the only thing that I haven't gotten sick of yet. Usually I've got an expiration of about six months on things."Gin's fascination with music began when she was 13, when she picked up her Dad's electric guitar and taught herself to play, following an old book of guitar tabs."Dad got given this guitar and a deckchair for Christmas one year, from Mum ... He used the deckchair relentlessly for years and ditched the guitar. I picked it up and just taught myself."Her father's cast-offs also helped shape Gin's vocal skills, as she sang along to his Les Miserables and Phantom of the Opera soundtracks.Within a year, she was playing live showcases at The Temple on Queen St, drawing enthusiastic crowds with her unique voice.It's a vocal style that defies simple description and makes her stand apart from the soft hum-and-strum melodies of fellow Kiwi songbirds Anika, Bic and Brooke.
