José González interview
José González
Smiling OnThe Inside
Having touched down in New York for a one-off performance in advance of his new CD, In Our Nature, Argentinean-by-way-of-Sweden singer-songwriter/acoustic-guitar virtuoso José González walks into his American record company’s game room. It presents a completely different image from the one projected during the 2006 U.S. performances in support of his phenomenal (and now three-year-old) debut, Veneer (Mute). Back then, the closely cropped, clean-faced, and earnest González looked more akin to the biochemist PhD candidate personae he’d only recently shed than performer. By contrast, the shaggy-haired and bearded visage presented today — and to an intimate, rapt crowd the previous evening — seems much more suitable, if not more comfortable, to his status of, dare one say it, troubadour for the next generation?
Appearing: October 4th at Park West in Chicago.
“Yeah, maybe,” González somewhat acknowledges, “but it’s kind of strange.
“I haven’t heard that before. I feel like I’ve been wearing the same clothes all these years and I don’t feel I’ve changed that much,” he concludes with a laugh.
Indeed, much like its predecessor, González’s new CD offers up a collection of mostly short original songs and covers set against his impeccable guitar playing, with only minimal dual tracked vocals, sparse percussion, and other effects added. That said, In Our Nature reflects an artistic point of view that’s far more skeptical.
“I think on Veneer I was trying to write about dark stuff and especially about personal stuff. And [this time] I didn’t think I wanted to write about myself,” González pauses, then continues. “But yeah, I feel like on the new record I’ve been — I notice afterwards now that I read through the lyrics — that I’ve been thinking about stuff like human nature, and trying to write about stuff that’s universal that doesn’t have to be especially about me. Or about love. And so, yeah, I think I ended up, like, questioning.”
What’s perhaps most interesting about González and his music is, as much as he is a singer-songwriter capable of penning original material as compelling as any musician’s, he has perhaps received greatest recognition from the songs he covers. His yearning rendition of fellow Swedish electro pop band The Knife’s “Heartbeats” on Veneer not only made top-10 lists, but also landed in a Sony commercial. His follow-up EP reassembled a fluffy Kylie Minogue pop song, and the forthcoming In Our Nature successfully takes on Massive Attack’s “Teardrop” — making it evocative of Neil Young in the process. But be it a cover or original, on recording or in performance, it is the sense and presence of melody that is the ultimate driver of González’s music. It’s a topic he warms to.
“Yeah, yeah. When I do covers I try to keep as much as possible to the melodies. Because what I like doing is playing the music. The lyrics are really important, too — but not to get in the way of that initial intuitive that ‘you like something.'”
— David C. Eldredge
To learn more of a González’s intuition, find the October issue of Illinois Entertainer, available free throughout Chicagoland.
