Chickfactor: Interview with Gilmore Tamny

In 1996, Gilmore Tamny of The Yips conducted an interview with Chickfactor zine to discuss the band, her zine Widget and more. Here is some of that:

chickfactor: when did you first publish wiglet and why?
gilmore tamny: started it in november of ’90 after I’d moved to cleveland. I’d been writing stories in college and giving the whole trying-to-get-published thing a whirl, which, ugh, was seeming pretty miserable. my boyfriend showed me some zines — they were a complete revelation — and I knew that’s what I wanted to do. 

cf: what sort of things were in wiglet?
gilmore: interviews, comics, a confessional or two, essays, short stories. 

cf: what thing in wiglet were you most proud of?
gilmore: ah, I think it had a really specific feel to it. 

cf: why did you stop wiglet?
gilmore: I’m glad you asked me that. I’ve felt bad I’ve never written back to the people who’ve asked for issues of why I stopped putting it out. it was a convergence of miseries, really. I was having problems which I didn’t feel comfortable writing about, it didn’t fit into the wiglet idea, but couldn’t really talk about anything else, either. so I just sort of shut down and played guitar all the time. also, the person who had been the inspiration for wiglet had gone crazy a few years before and was going in and out of jail and institutions, which was just depressing as hell and I kinda needed to put an end to that era of my life. that’s all kind of grim, but I don’t know, it worked out for the best, I think I was getting ready to do something else anyway. 

cf: what is so great about columbus [ohio]? do you find it funny that people are moving there cause of the scene?
gilmore: there’s a good chance at having a reasonable sort of life here — it’s cheap, there’s lots of interesting people, good stuff going on, good places to hang out, no distracting panorama either (that last bit of snideness is affectionate really — it is awful flat though. actually I’ve found myself wondering how people stay focused in stimulating landscapes — mountains, oceans, large urban decay, so on. columbus isn’t ugly by an means but it’s mor e reassuring than inspiring). I hope more bands move here! it’s exciting, that new blood.