STACK NZ Jul #64

FEATURE

MUSIC

of organic, old school live sound”. “With Charlie it was basically a co-writing session,” she continues. “I think it was probably a bit odd for Charlie because he doesn’t do much of that and people that he writes with, Alt-J, he’s grown up with. So, I think it was quite odd to have this little Kiwi lass want to spend a few days of soul searching and writing. But, it was cool, it turned out really well." As for the wraith-like and enigmatic Gibbons, Wigmore is a big fan of her group Portishead. “She is got a set of pipes, that’s for sure,” she enthuses. “It’s haunting how she uses her voice; it’s spooky and creepy. I love their whole vibe of what she’s about.” If Blood to Bone has a unifying factor, it’s a sense of hard, unbidden truths. The dark Black Parade was recorded after "a showdown of a fight" between Wigmore and her partner (the track's vocal is a first take). In May, the clip for New Rush was posted online to public consternation: it depicts a bleeding Wigmore with an arrow in her guts struggling through a desolate landscape. Think The Hunger Games shot by Anton Corbijn. “It’s quite a harrowing video, which involves me throwing myself off cliffs and standing in ice-cold water,” she reflects. “I have a whole new respect for actors! There’s kind of a lot of unanswered questions at the end of it, on how that happened: do I survive? Do I go on and live? I’m not sure. “It was interesting, this one, because this whole album’s been quite visual for me. I’ve almost seen it before I’ve heard it, which was cool. It’s a nice way to make music.”

Gin Wigmore has moved to Los Angeles and reinvented herself along the way. She tells Jonathan Alley about her new album Blood to Bone . G in Wigmore has always known what she’s about. But that’s not to say things don’t evolve in fascinating

ways: her 2009 debut Holy Smoke was vaguely rooted in contemporary alt-country and recorded with Ryan Adams’ band The Cardinals. Fast forward to 2015, and Wigmore’s living in LA with her new husband Jason Butler of the band Let Live, looking every part the modern rocker resplendent in tattoos and black leather, and working with Alt J’s producer and a cult photographer. Her new album Blood to Bone, is her first since 2011’s Gravel and Wine . But despite slinking into the seductive jaws of the City of Angels, her feet remain well and truly on the ground. “You can dream

big. But, you have to be decisive, have to have the whole picture painted and then use LA to fill in the colour.“ she tells STACK . “But there’s a lot of people ready to put their spin on your life: that can take you down all sorts of dark rabbit holes in LA.” With all manner of new musical references informing Blood to Bone , from Alt-J to Portishead’s Beth Gibbons, Wigmore is soaking up influence from

everywhere. New Rush , the first single from the album was co-written with Alt J collaborator Charlie Andrew, a process Wigmore describes as “straddling those two worlds of electronic and this kind

Blood to Bone by Gin Wigmore is out now

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