{"id":9995,"date":"2015-07-07T18:18:16","date_gmt":"2015-07-07T18:18:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=9995"},"modified":"2015-07-07T18:18:16","modified_gmt":"2015-07-07T18:18:16","slug":"exclusive-in-conversation-with-jose-gonzalez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2015\/07\/07\/exclusive-in-conversation-with-jose-gonzalez\/","title":{"rendered":"ONLINE EXCLUSIVE :: In Conversation with Jos\u00e9 Gonz\u00e1lez"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo by Malin Johansson<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Harrison Samphir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Since the release of his debut album, Veneer<\/i>, 12 years ago, Jos\u00e9 Gonz\u00e1lez has remained an enduring indie-folk figure, crafting mellow yet affecting compositions on his classical guitar. Born in Gothenburg, Sweden, the 37 year-old has since released three full length solo records \u2013 his latest, Vestiges and Claws<\/i>, dropped in February \u2013 several extended plays, and various other works with the Scandinavian band Junip, and London\u2019s trip hop ensemble Zero 7.<\/p>\n

Some might recall Gonz\u00e1lez for his ultra-popular covers of famous songs like The Knife\u2019s \u201cHeartbeats,\u201d Joy Division\u2019s \u201cLove Will Tear Us Apart,\u201d or his more recent rendition of TLC\u2019s \u201cWaterfalls,\u201d performed live on Sweden\u2019s most popular television quiz show P\u00e5 sp\u00e5ret<\/i>. Whatever the case, his vast array of successful work continues to garner critical acclaim and open the door to new creative opportunities. He wrote three original songs for the soundtrack of the film The Secret Life of Walter Mitty<\/i>, lent a track to a massively popular 2010 video game, and participated in experimental collaborations with orchestras from Europe to North America.<\/p>\n

Stylus Magazine <\/i>spoke to Gonz\u00e1lez from his home in Gothenburg about his new record, creative inspirations, and the underlying meaning of his most personal songwriting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Stylus: Thanks for speaking with me today,<\/b> Jos\u00e9<\/b>. Are you looking forward to playing the Winnipeg Folk Festival? I can tell you from experience, the atmosphere will most certainly suit your playing style.<\/b><\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Gonz\u00e1lez: Yeah! It\u2019s going to be great. We just rehearsed a bit. Compared to other shows where we have five people, at the Winnipeg and then Newport Folk Festivals, we\u2019ll be doing a dual set, so it\u2019ll be two guitars and two vocals. It feels really good. We will be playing almost exclusively solo songs from my albums.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Tell me about your upbringing in Sweden after your parents fled Argentina during the military junta of the late-1970s. Do you have a strong sense of a dual identity, one part Latin American, the other European?<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: I feel definitely more Swedish than anything else, because of the language and because I\u2019ve lived in Gothenburg all my life. But then I have a strong sense of global citizenship because of all the touring, and because I use English so much, I read a lot in English, and then of course with Spanish, I feel even more of an international citizen. I never lived in Argentina, and the culture that I\u2019ve inherited from there is maybe language and knowing to drink mate<\/i> (Laughs<\/i>).<\/p>\n

My parents came over with my sister; she was two years-old. I was born here [in Sweden] and my younger brother was born here. We\u2019ve always spoken Spanish at home, and we still do, but we speak better Swedish! My accent is a Western Argentinean accent.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Tell me about the title of your latest record, <\/b>Vestiges & Claws<\/i><\/b>. There are many personal, introspective songs on this album \u2014 much like your others \u2014 but tracks like \u201cOpen Book,\u201d for example, seem particularly intimate. Is the songwriting informed by some recent experiences in your life?<\/b><\/p>\n

Listen to “Open Book”<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

JG: I decided to use the title after I had written most of the lyrics. Vestige is a concept I\u2019ve thought about many times, and I think it\u2019s useful to think about in global times, cultures hinging or intermixing and also ideas that become part of ideologies. To me it\u2019s an interesting word I enjoyed having as the title because then I get to talk about it (Laughs<\/i>)! It\u2019s from the song \u201cWhat Will\u201d where I\u2019m asking \u2018what will it be?\u2019 thinking about global issues and humanity and how to move forward in very interesting times. That\u2019s one of the lyrics where I\u2019m thinking about broader issues. Then I have songs that are more personal, or more relationship-oriented, and \u201cOpen Book\u201d is one of those. It\u2019s a song that came about when I was trying to write in a more classical way, using chord progressions that are more traditionally folk, and lyrics that are more personal or at least sound more personal. I was writing in a first-person perspective, not only thinking about myself and my own events but also other people\u2019s events and how I can write about the difficult issues when you have a breakup, unintentionally or someone leaving you. So it\u2019s only partly informed by my own experiences.<\/p>\n

Stylus: I\u2019ve heard you describe it as a self-help song.<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: Yeah! (Laughs) <\/i>I\u2019ve come to realize that my music is being used like self-help for many people, partly because of the sound, being very soothing and comforting. A song like \u201cCrosses<\/a>\u201d [from Veneer<\/i>], I know that a lot of people enjoyed it in that sense. They used it to go to sleep, or to put their babies to sleep, or to just have on in the background when they are studying or painting. I\u2019ve become aware of it, and with my lyrics I\u2019ve thought about it. A song like \u201cOpen Book\u201d can be a tool for people to go through difficult experiences.<\/p>\n

Stylus: I have to ask you about the video for \u201cOpen Book,\u201d which portrays a grotesque, slimy creature of some bizarre sort, following you as you carry your guitar between hotel rooms. Tell me about the imagery there.<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: It was directed by Mikel Cee Karlsson, who\u2019s been doing my videos for a while long, first together with Andreas Nilsson for \u201cDown the Line\u201d and then also for Junip and some other works. We talked about doing videos pretty early, when my album was done, and we came up with the idea for the Sunday assembly for [the video for] \u201cLeaf Off\/The Cave<\/a>,\u201d and already he was talking about this mechanical worm that could move around. He thought of the idea of vestiges and playing around with the imagery of this thing that was attached to me and that I carried around. I felt it was a good opportunity to use it, especially on \u201cOpen Book\u201d since the song is so sweet and harmless; it was nice to stir things up.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s mainly because of Mikel, he and his brother came up with the visual ideas and, actually, this mechanical worm didn\u2019t have the face when we were first talking about it \u2013 when I showed up for the video shoot and I saw the face I thought \u2018Okay, nobody will watch this video twice!\u2019 It\u2019s a bit disturbing, but if you enjoy talking about ethical issues, then this could be a discussion-opener: what do you do if you have this other thing <\/i>that\u2019s attached to you and dependent on you, but you have to take care of it? It takes the relationship part of the song to a new level. Mikel also did a video recently for Calexico\u2019s \u201cFalling from the Sky.\u201d For me it\u2019s one of their best songs ever. I have to say I\u2019m a bit sorry for them because I\u2019m not sure they got the attention they deserved for that video.<\/p>\n

Stylus: You\u2019ve done some producing lately, working on a motion picture soundtrack (<\/b>The Secret Life of Walter Mitty<\/i><\/b>) and mixing songs from scratch. Tell me about that experience, and the track you contributed to the <\/b>Red Hot + Arthur Russell Compilation <\/i><\/b>for HIV\/AIDS awareness last year.<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: It was a new experience. I had been mixing a bit with Junip but very seldom doing the mixes from scratch and taking them the whole way. So I was excited to learn more. For the movie I started doing demos to come up with ideas, and then also when I was asked to be part of the Arthur Russell collaboration, I experimented with different productions styles. Through those experiences I felt more comfortable with mixing and producing my own album. I do feel like other people do it better, but it is fun to have creative control and the ability to keep things a certain way without someone feeling like one should add something or change something. That\u2019s part of me being stubborn but also enjoying learning about all the plug-ins that are out there.<\/p>\n

Stylus: You also wrote a song \u2013 \u201cFar Away\u201d \u2013 for the video game <\/b>Red Dead Redemption <\/i><\/b>in 2010.<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: [Red Dead Redemption]<\/em>\u00a0got the 2010 VGX Award for Game of the Year. It was also part of a trend of video games becoming more like interactive stories. I\u2019m happy I got the opportunity to be a part of that. It\u2019s always nice to do other things that aren\u2019t just albums, too bad in this case it\u2019s all related to violence! (Laughs<\/i>)<\/p>\n

Stylus: What is your relationship with nature? Many of your original songs touch on naturalistic themes, referencing the wild environment surrounding us. Do you consider yourself an environmentalist?<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: Only partly. I haven\u2019t been out in woods too much. I enjoy the sea, but I don\u2019t sail. I\u2019m more of a city person, but I really enjoy going out in parks when I go to cities that have them. I\u2019m interested in environmental issues, but I don\u2019t think I\u2019m in the camp of those who want to conserve the environment at every cost. I\u2019m more in the camp of making sure sentient beings get to live a good life. And part of that good life is having biodiversity and access to nature. But it is one of the main topics of our time, and I\u2019m super interested in it. Yesterday I was actually looking at videos from a conference in Stockholm called EAT, led by Johan Rockstr\u00f6m, a professor talking about global issues and the environment. I can also really recommend the article series in National Geographic <\/i>on the Future of Food that\u2019s in the upcoming issue.<\/p>\n

Stylus: What about spirituality? Though the topic might be considered clich\u00e9, it has profound meaning to many. What about you? I know you\u2019ve been influenced by some atheist texts.<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: Yes. I\u2019ve been interested in the word spirituality because I think many times, people are talking about the same thing but using different words. I like to start things off by saying that I\u2019m spiritual but without ghosts or goblins, and I see a point in talking about meditation, or when someone takes a hallucinogenic drug or dances all night \u2013 these are experiences that are important and are very powerful. The word spirituality comes in there as one way to describe these feelings and experiences. I think one can talk about them without believing in God, or Gods, or spirits. I can really recommend \u201cWaking Up: A Guide to Spirituality without Religion\u201d by Sam Harris, it\u2019s one of the books that addresses this issue of how one can talk about spirituality without believing in God.<\/p>\n

Stylus: Who influenced you when you were first learning to play classical guitar? <\/b><\/p>\n

JG: I was very interested in learning, and not so much listening. I started playing classical guitar with a private teacher and started learning old Spanish tunes. It was mainly through one album, John Williams Spanish Guitar Music<\/i>, that had a big influence. Later I learned \u201cAsturias\u201d [Leyenda], \u201cCanarios\u201d [Sanz], and a Japanese folk song \u201cSakura\u201d [Yocoh].<\/p>\n

Stylus: What are you working on currently?<\/b><\/p>\n

JG: With this show at the Winnipeg Folk Festival I\u2019m starting my dual and solo shows with the new album. I\u2019ve been rehearsing solo versions of songs like \u201cLeaf Off\/The Cave\u201d and \u201cLet It Carry You.\u201d Later I\u2019ll be touring and recording with yMusic, an ensemble from New York. We\u2019re trying to set up shows with an orchestra I toured with a while ago, The G\u00f6teborg String Theory, and that will happen next year.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t mis<\/i>s Jos\u00e9 Gonz\u00e1lez at the Winnipeg Folk Festival<\/a>. He will play the Main Stage on Saturday, July 11 at 9:30 pm CST.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Harrison Samphir Since the release of his debut album, Veneer, 12 years ago, Jos\u00e9 Gonz\u00e1lez has remained an enduring indie-folk figure, crafting mellow yet affecting compositions on his classical guitar. Born in Gothenburg, Sweden, the 37 year-old has since released three full length solo records \u2013 his latest, Vestiges and Claws, dropped in February […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[360,497,1095,1106],"class_list":["post-9995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-features","tag-folk","tag-jose-gonzalez","tag-wff2015","tag-winnipeg-folk-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9995\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}