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CartGin Wigmore Talks "Gravel & Wine"
Tue, 13 Nov 2012 07:51:29
"You have all of these great influences, but you don't want to make a retro record," Gin Wigmore reveals one of her many secrets.
Now, that's the wonderful thing about Gravel & Wine, Wigmore's latest offering. It sounds timeless, but there's nothing "retro" about it. She's certainly got soul, and she delivers each one of these gems with bluesy panache and seductive style. It's an intoxicatingly irresistible collective to say the least…
In this exclusive interview with ARTISTdirect.com editor in chief Rick Florino, Gin Wigmore talks Gravel & Wine, influences, and so much more.
Did you approach Gravel & Wine with one vision or vibe and mind?
A little bit…I let it unfold and do its thing as well. The main thing for me about making record is to make sure every song has its own identity. You want every song to be strong and not like a watered-down version of anything else on the record. It's completely its own thing. That was all I was trying to do. Hopefully, it's done that. That's my approach.
Is it important for you to tell stories with the songs?
Totally, storytelling makes it so much more fun when you perform the song live. That's how I write. I try to write in a way that would be fun to play live as well. If you've got this character, you can go on stage and be this forceful woman who's ruined her ex-lover and put him in the ground or whatever. Or, she's drank herself to death because he was a bastard or something like that. You can keep evoking those characters on stage to make your live shows really fun, interesting, and different.
What's the story behind "Singin' My Soul"?
I was up in the Blue Mountains of Australia very much in solitude. I wanted to write a sweet song. I write so many songs that end badly or in mayhem. They can be quite morbid. I wanted to write this song to sing someone's soul. I like that idea. When you see each other when the timing is right, until then, you'll try to whistle them. Having the album finish on a mellow note, it's different for me. It's nice. It leaves you something to think about.
Where did "Man Like That" come from?
Well, I've had my fair share of dick boyfriends, and he was one of them. It's a warning for any future lovers he might get telling the woman that he's a bit of a dick and it's not really worth it.
"Man Like That" and "Singin' My Soul" definitely come from different places. Did you aim to encapsulate this whole spectrum of emotions?
The thing that's nice about getting older is learning how to articulate all of those emotions. You get better at it with age because you experience those emotions more and more. You experience other emotions you haven't experienced in the past or they get richer, especially love. Falling out of love hurts so much more, but you learn how to write about it. I'm learning how to write those emotions down better and being more comfortable telling those stories.
Where did you get the title Gravel & Wine?
It's a lyric in "Black Sheep". It was during the final hours, and everyone was like, "Gin, you need a title for your bloody album!" It was a cool lyric that popped out. As much as Gravel & Wine is a weird partnership, it's fitting for the record because there's a duality. You can have the roughness when you think of gravel. When you think of wine, it's soft, sentimental, passionate, and romantic and it puts you in a lounge room. The title is two worlds apart like "Man Like That" and "Singin' My Soul".
If you were to compare Gravel & Wine to a movie or a combination of movies, what would you compare it to?
I'd say anything done by Quentin Tarantino. I'd like it to be Pulp Fiction mixed with A Fistful of Dollars or something like that. It's a dirty old Spaghetti Western with Clint Eastwood, and Pulp Fiction knocks on the door.
What's your favorite song from the album right now?
It always changes. Right now, I'm really digging "Kill of the Night". It's such a mean song. I like mean songs. We've been playing a wicked version of it live. It's such a sexy song. I like sexy songs! You can see it in the crowd when we perform it. The men start shimmying and the girls start grooving. It's cool to see music does that to people.
What artists shaped you?
I still go back to Edith Piaf. I still go back to Simon & Garfunkel. I love Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley, Janis Joplin, and Emma Thomas. I'm right back in the past.
—Rick Florino
11.13.12
Have you heard Gin Wigmore yet?
