‘It feels like home now’: Why family and friends mean that Gin Wigmore’s an LA woman
After 11 years based in Los Angeles, Auckland-born rocker Gin Wigmore can’t see herself moving back to New Zealand.
“It’s a lot more crass,” she says of Aotearoa. “We’re a lot more harsh with our approach and tone… I hear it back through my kids now, and some of the things they say I’m like, ‘Whoa, chill out that's so full on!’”
Wigmore’s raising sons Pascal, 6 next week, and Izaiah, 3, with her punk musician husband Jason Butler, who she says is “so live and die in LA that it’s like moving a f…ing boulder. He loves New Zealand, but it’s such a culture shock to grow up in LA and move to Auckland… And I feel like this is our spot now, we’ve got our family and friends and this is it, this feels like home now.”
She’s still a regular visitor, however. Following a sell-out regional tour in
March, she’ll next be seen on home shores headlining Gisborne’s New Year’s festival Rhythm & Vines.
I WISH, 10 YEARS AGO, I HAD KNOWN…
Not to sweat the small stuff - and that applies to basically everything.
It feels like more and more as I get older that there’s so much time and energy spent on things that are really the minutiae that really don’t matter in the grand scheme of life, and you really don’t remember, looking back, what those things were and why they caused such great arguments or such great divide. Me and my husband had all kinds of epic arguments in the beginning and I feel like it was just immaturity, not knowing this isn’t worth it, this doesn’t matter.
I WISH I COULD SWAP LIVES WITH…
My dog. He is the ultimate chiller. He’s got such a good life and I’m like man, you get to sit out here, watch the world go by bark at a few squirrels, get fed f…ing sprinkles on your food because you don’t eat normal biscuits - he’s living his best life. I'd totally switch lives with Boogie.
Not any dog, I’m talking about my dog in particular, what a cruiser.
I WISH, EVERY DAY I COULD EAT…
Carbonara pasta from Pure Vita. It’s this vegan restaurant in LA, in West Hollywood, and it’s just like - oh my god! Heaven. It’s so rich and delicious. Followed by this chocolate fudge cake that they have. But I’d be extremely unwell if I had that every day.
I WISH I COULD LIVE IN…
I wish I could live under the sea. I wouldn’t want to live by the shore though, because that’s a bit grimy these days, I’d want to be deep ocean, out by the whales.
Maybe off the coast of the Caribbean or something. Warm, and then cold, and peaceful, and then the rocking of the waves. I mean I love the water. Simple and chill and watery, awesome.
THE PERSON I WISH WAS ON A BANKNOTE IS…
Malala Yousafzai. She’s f…ing rad and doing so much for children and education and just women in general.
She’s such a badass too, taking a bullet and risking her life every day to do what she does. So many people wouldn’t even put themselves close to the position that she lives in every day for the betterment of the world, and women, and children to have an education.
I WISH I COULD SPEND A SUNDAY WITH…
Edith Piaf. Or Billie Holiday. Or actually both. I think we would just drink so much red wine and smoke so many cigarettes and play music on old gramophones, and probably just be wearing really cool old lace dresses and just talking shit about men or something.
I WISH NEW ZEALAND WAS MORE…
Dog-friendly in terms of being able to fly with your dog on an plane. That would be awesome. And had more vegan restaurants and stricter animal cruelty laws.