A Conversation with José González – HuffPost 10.6.10
Mike Ragogna: Hello, Jose. Where are you right now?
José González: : I’m home in Gothenburg, Sweden. I’m just about to go on tour.
MR: How long will the tour be and where is it taking you?
JG: It’s going to be around one month in Europe, then a short break, then off to the U.S. for three or four weeks.
MR: Nice. In the European leg of the tour, of course, you’re going to every country, right?
JG: Yeah, I think so. Almost (laughs).
MR: Every last one, not leaving one European stone unturned. This new album, Fields, by the group, Junip, features you and has some of your best performances. Can you go into how Junip was formed?
JG: The Drummer, Elias Araya, and I have known each other since we were seven, and when we were about fourteen, we started playing together. I was playing bass, he was playing drums, and it was mainly hardcore. So, we did that for a couple of years, and through that music, we met Tobias Winterkorn, who used to sing in a hardcore band, but all of us were interested in other types of music. So, around ’98, we started to play together as a trio–guitar, drums, and keyboards–and that’s how we started.
MR: Nice. You are known, not by your albums alone, but also from your music being featured in The O.C., One Tree Hill, and other shows. Have you ever seen how some of your music is used in the U.S., and how have you felt about some of those uses?
JG: I actually haven’t seen them being used, but it feels good to hear people that are into the shows say the music sets the scene really well. It’s a good way to use music, I think, because usually people are in an emotional state.
MR: You really should check out some of the uses of your music. It’s usually a turning point in an episode or when there’s some emotional development. All of a sudden, hey, there’s a Jose Gonzalez song.
JG: (laughs) That’s cool.
MR: You were talking about how Junip got together, and you’ve already released a couple of projects together. You had an EP back in–was it ’05?
JG: Yeah, exactly. I went on tour with my solo stuff around ’03. At that point, we weren’t an active band. We were all doing different stuff–I had been at the University studying chemistry, Elias was studying art, and Tobias was working as a teacher. So, I went on tour, then when I got back, we decided to give it a try, and that’s when we recorded the Black Refuge EP. It was supposed to be an album, but my songs started to get a lot of attention, so I decided I would follow up on that attention and go out on tour.
MR: When you had your hardcore band, was that while you were studying for your Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University Of Gothenburg?
JG: Let’s see, I started microbiology in ’97, so yeah, I was still in the hardcore band for like two more years. It was less and less with the hardcore band, and more with Junip and my solo stuff. But when the studying got harder and took more time, I sort of let go of my ambitions to live for music.
MR: What changed your mind and got you back?
JG: Well, I did the recording with Junip, and a year later, a seven-inch with my solo stuff. Two guys from Stockholm found that seven-inch and decided they wanted to release my stuff. So, I wasn’t doing any music around ’03, when I started recording for the album. It got released, and it got so much attention in Sweden that I just jumped off of the Ph.D.
MR: There are many people who have come so close to getting a diploma, then all of a sudden, decide it’s not what they wanted after all, especially if they’re a musician or artist.
JG: Yeah.
MR: Now, Junip and Jose Gonzalez music is very different from your hardcore stuff. Were you just having some fun with the guys?
JG: Yeah, but we were pretty serious. We were doing a lot of recordings, we released a seven-inch, and we were doing a lot of shows around Gothenburg. I think the problem was that we didn’t get that much attention. We didn’t get a record deal and we didn’t want to release it ourselves, so not much happened even though we took it seriously, actually.
MR: Well, the shift in music is amazing. Obviously, you were influenced and practicing because you’ve got this classical-meets-folk…actually, an amalgam of all sorts of wonderful musics. Who influenced you as a guitarist?
JG: Well, when I started playing guitar, I learned all the chords by playing Bossa Nova and Beatles. I had all these sheets of music and I would go through all the tabs. So, João Gilberto was an inspiration, and I wouldn’t say the Beatles because I sort of just played the chords from Beatles songs, it wasn’t like actually playing Beatles songs. Apart from them, I usually mention Silvio Rodríguez because he’s most similar to my style when I was starting to play. He’s a Cuban folk musician, and he used to do all this intricate stuff, and his lyrics were very poetic.
MR: When you look at music in the world, how do you see yourself fitting into that? For instance, we have Jack Johnson here, and Jack Johnson doesn’t do anything like what you do. But for whatever reason, we would place you both in the same category or the same genre.
JG: Whenever I’m doing music, whether it’s solo or with Junip, it’s with the idea of trying to do something that isn’t out there. It might be inspired by stuff, so it might be similar, but I’m still trying to do something that, in some way, is unique. For people that might not be into folk music, they might think that it sounds very similar to a lot of stuff. So, I guess it’s all about the details. I feel like I’m inspired by various different styles of music and I draw inspiration, rhythmically, from different styles; and then, sound-wise I’m inspired by the ’60s, but then I use computer. I guess it’s a mixture of everything. With Junip, I didn’t want to use electric guitar, for example. When we’re playing live and we have a decent PA, we can play pretty loud. But I like the fact that we use nylon string guitar and analog synthesizer. We’re trying to get a slightly different sound than what we hear people using.
MR: There’s a group out there from a neighboring country called The Kings Of Convenience.
JG: Yeah.
MR: They’re a blend of folk, samba and Bossa Nova which is almost counter to the bombastic pop we’re listening to in the States. And there’s Junip with your own amalgam of very musical influences. Are we Americans missing something maybe in our upbringing with our appreciation of music?
JG: I don’t know, but it is interesting. It feels like the bands from Scandinavia are good at finding inspiration and using that inspiration to make similar music, but in a good way, I think. But the styles can be extremely varied, as you mentioned. Gothenburg is known for its death metal, for example. That’s like At The Gates. I don’t know about upbringing because I think, as a teenager, you have access to a lot of stuff. Now, everybody has it because of the Internet. But before, it was easy to go to the library and borrow some CDs that weren’t just classical music–they had all kinds of stuff there. Also, the record shops had a lot of music, so I think it was easy to get into different styles of music.
MR: Speaking of variety of music, you also appear on albums by Zero 7.
JG: Yeah.
MR: How did that come about?
JG: Henry and Sam were working on their third album and they decided they wanted other singers. So, they just phoned me, I met up with them in London, and we got together and wrote some songs. It was great. We did some touring, also.
MR: As far as Junip and your solo career go, does is look like you’re going to be doing both simultaneously or are you going to focus on one more than the other over the next few years?
JG: I think, in writing, I want to do both. But in touring, I’ll put more effort in Junip, especially this year when we release the album until next summer when we’ll be out touring quite a lot, actually. Since I’ve started writing with Junip, I’ve gotten a musical boost or an inspirational boost, so I’ve been writing more stuff than ever, and hopefully, it won’t take too long before another Jose album and another Junip album.
MR: Do you have any advice for new artists that want to make music their life?
JG: I think the DIY approach is always good to have as a starting musician. First of all, just do the music that you love yourself and not trying to please someone else, but do something that you would buy or listen to. As for more practical stuff, it’s good to learn micing techniques, and mixing yourself. There’s so much you can do with computers nowadays that you don’t have to rely on getting a record label contract. You can do pretty advanced demos and not even call them demos nowadays. So, put effort into getting good at recording and mixing–it’s one thing that I think can help emerging artists.
Transcribed by Ryan Gaffney