So exactly how did this young Kiwi find herself in Hollywood’s most famous recording studio, sitting on Frank Sinatra’s old leopard skin chair and putting down tracks for her debut album with one of the world’s best rock bands?
“It’s weird, I’ve had a really different musical upbringing,” offers Gin. “My record collection is ’50s, ’60s, ’70s – it doesn’t really go past that. I haven’t hung out with young bands, I haven’t hung out with young people. I’ve hung out with mostly 45+ [year-olds], all these people who have come into my life that are a lot older who have taught me so much. I’m only 23 but I feel a lot older than that at times. Wisdom has just been splashed on me every day for the last 10 years.”
Growing up
In fact, from the age of 12, Gin was hanging out in recording studios. As a young teenager, she also had a part-time job in the mail room of Universal Music in Auckland, the same label that years later would be set to take her music to the world (both Island and Motown are Universal imprints).
Gin’s earliest foray into making music herself came at 13 when she started helping her best friend’s dad produce some demos in his home studio. She would occasionally also help out with backing vocals at weddings and parties.
The following year, she was performing at open mic nights in a local bar. “The problem was that I won one night,” Gin laughs “and you had to give your details and your age and I was only 14. And they were like, ‘Gin – you’re underage? You can’t be in here.’ So they said, ‘Gin, you can’t play here any more.’ After that, I didn’t play any more. So it was double-edged sword. I was really stoked, but also gutted that I couldn’t play anymore.”
Personally, Gin has always felt she’s had a sort of guardian angel – or rather a team of guardian angels – guiding her through the formative years of her music career.
Songwriting contest
At 16, Gin won the US-based International Songwriting Contest with an aching acoustic ballad called ‘Hallelujah’, a song she’d penned in honour of her father who’d recently lost his fight with cancer (Holy Smoke is also dedicated to her dad). ‘Hallelujah’ was actually one of the first songs she’d ever written, but it made Gin the competition’s youngest ever winner, and also the first unsigned artist to win the major prize, beating 11,000 songwriters from 77 countries.
In late-2007, Gin signed to Island Records in Australia, the local label’s first ever signing. In 2008, she released her critically-acclaimed debut EP, Extended Play, which featured ‘Hallelujah’, as well as another epic ballad, ‘These Roses.’ The EP also showcased celebratory tracks such as ‘SOS’ and ‘Under My Skin’ – songs that left a lasting impression on anyone who heard them.
Extended Play
Extended Play went top 10 here in New Zealand and also caused a stir abroad with the New York Post saying “Make mine a Gin Wigmore … Smart songs that would work in a coffee house or an arena” while the Daily Telegraph in Sydney proclaimed the release as “one of the most stunning debut EPs ever…a star is born.”
On the back of the EP Gin was invited to play support act on Australian tours by Pete Murray and Sparkadia. Here at home she performed at Vector Arena alongside John Mellencamp and Sheryl Crow.
In August last year, Gin was signed to Universal Motown Records USA by label President Sylvia Rhone, and undertook her first US promo trip in October, performing shows in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles to rapturous media and music industry audiences. Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton got wind of our Gin and wrote “her voice is quirky and intoxicating, her tunes fun and charming.”
Following the success of her EP, Gin further cemented herself as a certified star when she provided the distinctive chorus hook on Smashproof’s ‘Brother.’ The single became a huge hit and went on to top our singles chart for a record-breaking 11 straight weeks.
It’s been quite the ride so far, and now the story continues with the release of Gin’s remarkable full length debut album, Holy Smoke.