Gin Wigmore on motherhood, new music and finding freedom

Gin Wigmore has been living in lockdown in LA for almost two months. Photo / Supplied

"Let's find the hardest and worst f***ing route and then choose that one," Gin Wigmore cackles, "That's my life in a nutshell."

It is, to be honest, a fair assessment. She's on the phone at home in Los Angeles, where she's been living in lockdown for almost two months and has just finished detailing the chaotic circumstances surrounding the birth of her new music, which coincided with the birth of her second child and the State's strictly enforced lockdown due to the global Covid-19 pandemic.

"It was my plan to release music this year but it kind of came all at once. Literally all the songs I'm about to release this year I was doing vocals for, four days to giving birth. I was fully pregnant and having to take breaks. I was sitting down because I was going through contractions. It was gnarly," she winces.

She says the baby was supposed to come a little later, which would have allowed more time for the vocals. But that's just not how these things work.

"I had the baby the day we went into lockdown," she laughs. "It's a strange time to have a baby but releasing music is no biggie, if I can get a baby out."

It's also a strange time to be releasing music, I say.

"At least I've got a captive audience," she quips, before getting more serious.

"It does feel like a very sombre time to be releasing music but at the same time, you can't live like that, right. You can't live in a depressed state. It's nice to be releasing music and that brings about feelings and joy and all that stuff, which is great. But it's definitely an odd time to release music."

Odd times call for odd measures. And to that end, Wigmore has ripped up the rule book on how musicians should release their new songs. Her new song, Hangover Halo, comes out tomorrow. Typically this would lead to the release of a new album a few weeks later. But you'd never accuse the exuberant Wigmore of being anything but typical. Instead, six weeks from tomorrow she'll release a second new song and then six weeks after that a third. This release schedule continues until all six of her new songs are out. You'll notice I didn't say until the album is out or the EP is released.

Gin Wigmore is approaching things differently now she's an independent artist. Photo / Supplied

"It's a nice little batch of songs. It doesn't need to be called anything. That's why I haven't even called it an EP. It's not a full album. It's just music," she explains. "I don't know... I'm sick of labelling everything in life. I've been put in boxes through being with a major label for so long that it's nice to have no rules on anything."

You could say she's busted out of her box and ripped up all the rules, as Wigmore, our chart-topping, award-winning, internationally successful wild child, is now a fully independent musician.

"I signed to Universal Records when I was 19 or 20, so it's been a long time in that system. It's a strict formula and that's what you have to adhere to. And if you have too much opinion about it then it can become really tricky," she says. "It can become, 'Okay cool, you're annoying. I'm not gonna release your music this year.' That's kind of f***ed and I didn't want to do that."

She flip flops a little when asked if it was an amicable split, saying 'kind of, kind of not really', before elaborating.

"I've been trying to leave my label for the past four to five years. I do well in terms of putting my music in movies and TV and all that kind of stuff so there was no real need for the label to let me go. I was still bringing in a bit of something every month," she says.
"Finally there was a breakdown to the point where we just never spoke anymore and it was this really sad relationship that existed."

She says eventually her misery got the better of them, and perhaps her recent year-long absence to try her hand running a little boutique hotel "up in the desert", that convinced them to let her be free.

Gin Wigmore won Best Female Solo Artist at the 2015 Vodafone NZ Music Awards. Photo / Jason Oxenham

"I would never have got to this point without my label so I'm very grateful for the life that it's given me," she says. "I was very young. I knew nothing. And I had this label that believed in me. They told me that I had something. I didn't know that I had shit. I wanted to be a teacher. I didn't think I could do music, I wasn't 'music woman'. But they really made a good case as to why I should believe them."

The Herald has sought comment from Universal Music.

During our interview Wigmore's had been a lot of fun to talk with; gregarious and outgoing and super chatty, giving the conversation the feel and rhythm of catching up with an old friend. But things sobered up during this part of our talk and she'd paused, reflecting, on that last sentence. When she started speaking again there was a strength and purpose behind her words.

"And I kept believing them for the last 10 years. And then I had the belief in myself. It was totally necessary and I needed them. And now I don't."

As she talks, I can almost hear the weight of that major label burden lifting.

"And it's beautiful," she says floating. "It's cool."

LOWDOWN
Who: Gin Wigmore
What: Her new song Hangover Halo which kick starts a schedule of regular releases every six weeks.
When: Out tomorrow.