Chris Schulz: Gin Wigmore - Beautiful Mess

A tale told in two halves, Gin Wigmore’s new album deals with the duality of life. 

‘Beautiful Mess’ delves into the past decade of her life and the way she navigated love, loss, divorce, parenthood, and the complex nature of rebuilding herself. 

Chris Schulz joined Jack Tame to share his thoughts on the album. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast
from News Talks at b SO.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
That is Jin Wigmore. The song is Strange Love. It's
from her brand new album Beautiful Mess, which of course
dropped yesterday. Where the hell of a backstory? Listening in
as our music reviewer Chris Sultz, who's here with us
this morning morning.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
Good morning Jack, strap yourself phone for that backstory writer, Yes,
something to behold. It all started back in twenty eighteen,
when she'd sort of stopped making music she was She
went and bought a hotel on a whim, as you
do in Desert Springs on Boxing Day and created the
Sayalist Resort, and then found it was too much for
her because everyone was coming out there and partying, and

(01:23):
she was pregnant with her second child. So she gave
that away, moved back to LA and then she got
divorced and she moved back to New Zealand. Then she
bought a deli in Kingsland, also on a whim. This
woman lives life at a pace I cannot fathom, but
she's so much fun to be around. I went and
hung out and heard all of this in her deli
for an hour and it might be the most fun

(01:44):
interview I've ever done. She was like making sandwiches and
setting up coffees, and customers were banging on the door,
like let me in, and they all wanted to see
and experience jin Wigmore. She's got a lot of fans
I think who all just wanted to kind of come
and experience.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
That she's like she is. I mean, I've known her
for many years now and just just you know, from
around the traps, and she is all always had that
kind of it's just like it's it sounds like wishy
washy when you say this, but she's she's got an
amazing energy, Like she's got a real energy to her,
you know. And and obviously that is how she has

(02:18):
attacked this album, having gone through all of that crazy
life stuff.

Speaker 3 (02:21):
Yeah, so it's an album of two halves. Beautiful mess
sort of sums up the kind of like different different
moods on this album. The first half was made a
little longer ago. It was a batch of songs she
made that are more melancholy, more folky, a little more country,
very personal, introspective, more probably related to how we know
Jim Wigmore, you know, as this kind of like, you know,

(02:44):
gravelly voiced soul, Indie pops sort of singer. She's got
that beautiful like grit to a voice, such.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
A unique voice. Yeah, yeah, Instantly.

Speaker 3 (02:56):
From the first song she ever did it was like
that smash proof brother the number one hit for eleven weeks.
That set her career off, and then obviously all the
awards followed.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
I like the.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Second half of this album better. This is the half
where it came. Later, she went off into the desert
for a week and just had some fun with a
bunch of friends and came back with a set of
songs that sounds more like Queens of the Stone Age
or the White Strikes. Like there's a blues rock vibe.
You could hear it in that song We're just Played.
There's almost a punk rock spirit to it. I think

(03:27):
that's where she should be heading in the future, and
I wonder if that's why the album sort of separate
out passed in the present and possibly a nod to
the future. Those songs are full on, they've got hooks,
they've got choruses, they sound awesome, loud, and it suits
her voice, you know, like again that that kind of
gravelly voice with with now these these personal stories that

(03:51):
she's folding into her music. It really suits her.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Yeah, it's amazing, had Jin like she's really over the years,
she's kind of had these hits that they they have
a real tendency like pop up in interesting places like
international advertising.

Speaker 3 (04:04):
Campaigns to the TV shows.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (04:05):
Yeah, like she said, there's there's really something. There's a
kind of sound that she's like a quality to her
voice that makes it kind of, you know, really attractive
in that sense. And did you get from especially from
the second half of that album, did you get a
sense that there are kind of hits of that quality
in there.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
Yeah, The title track to me sounds like how I'd
imagine Amy Winehouse to sound like if she was still
with us. There's a real quality there, there's a real depth.
And you know that's the thing. They don't feel like
tossed off songs. They feel like because of these personal
stories in them, and she's got this connection to them. Yeah,

(04:42):
I think they can they can stick around for sure.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
What did you have at the Deli?

Speaker 3 (04:47):
I can't even say the name. They've all got these
risk names. And one of the delightful things is hearing
people come in and trying to pronounce them.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Like riskue as in rude okay, right, as opposed to like,
oh it's an Italian name that you can't pronounce that
comes on? Ye?

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Yeah, and she has she loves making people say them
like she's like, you've got to give it some snacks.

Speaker 2 (05:08):
What was in your sandwich?

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Can I ask that brescietto sun dried tomatoes, some pisto? Yeah? No,
good sandwiches, very good sandwiches. And if you wanted a
little taste of the gin wordmore experience, that's you're gonna
get it there. Like she's she's exactly as she sounds
and interviews and on this record.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
A good touring album as well, do you reckon?

Speaker 3 (05:31):
Yeah? I think there's a tour in the works. I
don't think it's been announced just yet. I think there's
a bunch of overseas dates as well. It will depend
I guess on her deally and her two kids.

Speaker 2 (05:39):
So yeah, yeah, all of that stuff. Yeah, okay, Yeah, Well,
I mean she's fantastic live, so I hope that's the case.
Very good. What did you give? A beautiful mess?

Speaker 3 (05:49):
I'm going to give it three and a half. I
would love more of that second half. In the future.
Definitely cool. Okay, we're gonna have a bit more of
a listen in a couple of minutes. We'll pick out
a good track from that and play it to you
very shortly.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Chris Schultz. There's a music review you can hear more
from Chris, of course on his sub stack. It's called
boiler Room.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
More from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live to
news Talks at b from nine am Saturday, or follow
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