Gin Wigmore, the black sheep

KATE PREECE

There's nothing quite like a shot of Gin Wigmore.

Her music is loaded with kick, her characteristic sound is addictive and her personality full of flavour.

This month, the Kiwi songstress will be roaming vineyards nationwide on the 2012 Classic Hits Winery Tour, which includes one Waipara show.

The distinctive tone that rings through Gin's chart-topping songs and has her compared with Amy Winehouse, Adele and Macy Gray is the key to her rocketing career - although her upbeat attitude and saucy looks must help.

Gin's debut album, Holy Smoke (2009), went platinum four times and was named best pop album, album of the year and highest-selling album at the 2010 New Zealand Music Awards. It's an impressive start to a career and this musician's only 25.

Gin broke on to the music scene at 16, when she won the International Songwriting Competition with Hallelujah. Her composition outshone 11,000 other entries and made Gin the youngest and only unsigned artist to win the title in the history of the American-based competition.

Since then, her songs have commandeered the airwaves - and the airlines. Fans were impatient to hear Gin's raspy voice to pump out the chorus of Smashproof's Brother (2009), while Air New Zealand travellers in 2009 had their toes tapping as body-painted flight attendants ran through safety instructions to Gin's own song Under My Skin (2008).

"It's quite bizarre that I'm still doing music," Gin says. "I'm surprised at myself, just purely out of my attention span being that of a one-year-old, so it's quite surprising. It's really cool."

Chatting with Gin is like catching up with a long-lost friend. Laughter spills over comment after outlandish comment and her language is colourful but inoffensive. Her skin is enriched by vivid tattoos, and she seems an open book, pouring out secrets while making fun of her own crazy self. Bursting with excitement, Gin says she has decided to head to France, after watching Woody Allen's film Midnight in Paris.

"I'm going to go in June. I'm just going to do it. I just want to do it. I think it'll be really cool to live there, be a local for a bit and just, you know, drink wine and eat cheese and write music and write in a journal." She has no knowledge of the French language, but thinks a month there will be sublime. "I want to buy a bicycle and just cruise around, and not do very much, but be in Paris."

While management company Direct Management (whose clients include Katy Perry and KD Laing) might be exasperated by Gin's impulsiveness, it wouldn't be easy to tame this wild spirit. She comes across as the type happiest when following her heart. For the time being, her heart is based in Sydney, where she owns a house, a husky and kicks around with rock-star boyfriend Andy Cook, of The Snowdroppers, when not on tour.

For six months last year, Gin left this all behind to cruise the United States by herself, on a rocking and rolling, rhythm and soul-searching mission. Her stops included Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama, and Memphis, where she learnt a few tricks from The King. Although she has no intentions of adding rhinestones to her stage outfits, spending time in Elvis's hometown drilled home the importance of showmanship.

"It's such a respectful job [being a singer], you've got to put on a show. Your fans deserve that and they pay good money to see you. They want something f***ing great. I want to try and give that to them, like Elvis did."

It's Gin's fans who keep her hitting all the right notes.

"It's good to have the constant support and love from very adoring and loyal fans, which is really what keeps me going. I love being patted on the back. I'm such that person. So long as I'm getting some good feedback, I'll keep doing it."

The stories, the people and the music Gin experienced while traversing the Deep South inspired her latest album, Gravel & Wine, released in November. The songs reflect her own musical journal, spiced up and influenced by film noir, Quentin Tarantino films, pure 1950s rock 'n' roll and a romance with the drums. "Mash it all together and you get Gravel & Wine".

Through the album's incredibly catchy song Black Sheep, Gin tells it like it is. Resounding lyrics such as "Everybody's doing it so why the hell should I" encapsulate this singer's free spirit. The lines are delivered with intensity, which has been amped up since her US trip taught her the value of conviction.

"The biggest thing is to do everything with honesty and real passion, and if you're going to sing something about something, sing it because you really believe it or feel strongly about that, even if it's made up."

The album title is found within Black Sheep's lyrics - "Making my own road out of gravel and some wine" - but was by no means an easy discovery.

"You write all the songs and you think: 'Good, I'm done, I'm done. I've done what I need to do'. Then someone goes: 'And, album title?'
... Then you've got to find one bloody word, or two words, to sum up the whole thing!"

Gin's latest adventure will follow many gravel roads to wine around New Zealand as she joins The Mutton Birds and Avalanche City on the Classic Hits Winery Tour.

"I don't know why they put me on it; it's a stupid decision. Oh my god, I'm such a sucker for wine. If I can contain the sauvignon blancs to at least two a day it's going to be fine," she says through spurts of infectious laughter.  

Gin's very excited about the tour. She can't wait to ditch the dishes and the housework, escape normality, and spend a month surrounded by fellow musicians.

"When you wave goodbye to your loved ones and go off on tour, I love that feeling. When you just go, and your whole purpose is just about music, and live in music, it's the best feeling," she says passionately. Gin voted for the groups to stay together for the whole tour, rather than breaking away between gigs, as "then you become such a family".  

The tour stops in Waipara for one show, on February 18, at The Mud House Winery & Café. Auckland-born Gin is looking forward to her time in the South Island, as much of her family is here. Her mother grew up alongside the Avon River and she has cousins who still call Christchurch home. "I really love the south" - so much so that she lived in Queenstown for a while, too.

While it's the sixth year the event has been held, it's Gin's first winery circuit, and there's no doubting this star will bring her own je ne sais quoi to the 2012 tour.

"I want people to just get up and dance and go home going 'oh, my god, we've just seen three great acts, and we've danced, we've sung our hearts out, come home with a raspy voice'. No sleeping on the grass. No, none of that. There'll be lots of dancing and having a great time," the giggly songstress says.

"Otherwise, I will personally go through the crowd and make sure everyone drinks their wine, so I get something happening out there!"

 

- (Live Matches)