José González is a Swedish indie folk singer-songwriter of Argentine descent.
Biography
González was born in a suburb near Gothenburg, Sweden. He commented; "It's a very small town. It has about a half-million people living there. It's a pretty good music city by the ocean. It rains a lot there, but it's beautiful in the summertime." [1] His parents moved from Argentina to Sweden in 1976. González grew up listening to Latin folk and pop music, and has named Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez as a favourite artist.[2] He said the first concert he went to was "The Wailers. I got their autographs and everything. I was about 12 or so. At the time my favourite music was Bob Marley and Michael Jackson." [3]
The first band he played in was Back Against the Wall, a Gothenburg hardcore punk band influenced by Black Flag, The Misfits and the Dead Kennedys.[4] He later played bass guitar in another hardcore band, Renascence, between 1993–1998.[5]. Between 1997-1998 José played guitar with rock band Only if You Call Me Jonathan.
In 2003, he released his debut album, Veneer, in Europe. The album was subsequently released in the UK on 25 April 2005, and in the United States on 6 September 2005. The album was made while González was studying for a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Gothenburg, which he has not completed due to a lack of time since his musical career has taken off.[6]
His trademark sound is solo classical guitar with soft vocal melody. His work, although mostly original, also includes acoustic covers of such hits as "Heartbeats" by his fellow Swedes The Knife, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division, "Born in the U.S.A." and "The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen, "Hand on Your Heart" by Kylie Minogue, "Smalltown Boy" by Bronski Beat, "Teardrop" by Massive Attack and "Last Snowstorm of the Year" by Low.
His second album, In Our Nature, was released internationally on 22 September 2007. The album's lyrical content was in part influenced by his reading of books like The God Delusion by evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins and Practical Ethics by ethicist Peter Singer.[4][7]
Gonzalez is currently dating fellow Swede Yukimi Nagano.[8]
Television appearances
José González performing at O2 Shepherds Bush Empire in London, UK, April 2008
González has performed on several television programs, including Late Night with Conan O'Brien (September 28, 2007 and March 29, 2006), Jimmy Kimmel Live (October 12, 2007), the BBC's Later... with Jools Holland (June 9, 2006), Last Call with Carson Daly (June 21, 2006), Seven Network's Sunrise (August 15, 2007) and Canada's MTV Live December 5, 2007).
The song "Crosses", from González's Crosses EP and the Veneer album, appeared on the finale of the second season of the popular American television comedy-drama The O.C., as well as on a trailer for a BBC Four programme. Also taken from the Veneer album, "Stay in the Shade" was used in the The O.C., midway through season three, in the episode The Pot Stirrer. His music has also been used in the Friday Night Lights TV series (December 12, 2006).
His cover of The Knife's "Heartbeats" was used in a Sony BRAVIA commercial featuring 250,000 coloured bouncing balls in San Francisco,[9][10] and was also heard in episode 409 of the CW's One Tree Hill as well as episode 2 in the 7th season of Scrubs. The song was also heard in episode 21 of the 1st season of Brothers & Sisters, and Bones episode 17 of season 4, "Salt in the Wounds." Most recently the song was in an episode of the British tv show; Sun, Sea and A+E, in the episode featuring the man with the cracked foot bone.
Gone, a 2007 film directed by Ringan Ledwidge, features the track "Lovestain", from the Veneer album.
Music from González' latest album has also been used in television shows. On May 19, 2008, his version of Massive Attack's "Teardrop" was used in the fourth season finale of House entitled "Wilson's Heart" (the Massive Attack version is used as the show's theme music). On April 24, "Teardrop" was again used in the fifth season episode of Numb3rs entitled, "The Fifth Man". The song can also be heard at the end of Friday Night Lights Season 4 Epsiode 'A Sort of Homecoming' when Matt Saracen learns about the death of his father.
Collaborations
González plays in the band Junip with Tobias Winterkorn and Elias Araya. To date, Junip has released a sole EP, Black Refuge.
He has collaborated with UK downtempo duo Zero 7 on their 2006 album, The Garden, where he provides guest vocals on the album's tracks, along with Zero 7 regular Sia Furler. This album features four songs with González on vocals, namely "Futures", "Left Behind", "Today" and "Crosses".
González collaborated with Finnish house DJ Jori Hulkkonen on the track "Blinded By The Numbers" from Hulkkonen's album Dualizm, released in 2005, and his song 'Crosses' was sampled by British hiphop artist Plan B for the song "Cast a Light" which appears on the Paint It Blacker EP. He has also collaborated with the Swedish hip hop DJ and producer Embee on the track "Send Someone Away", the album mixed by Soundism received a Grammis[11]. González's song "Crosses" was remixed in 2006 by popular Dutch DJ Tiësto. González can also be heard in the song "I want you Back" by the Swedish indie-rock group Niccokick.
González recently collaborated with The Books on Red Hot Organization's Dark Was the Night compilation album, fundraising for HIV and AIDS awareness, which was released in February, 2009.[12]
Discography
Albums
EPs
- Crosses EP (June 2003)
- 7" single (limited to 500 copies): "Crosses" / "Storm"
- CD EP: "Crosses" / "Hints" / "Deadweight on Velveteen" / "Storm"
- José González & Jens Lekman Split Tour Single (December 2003)
- 7" single (limited to 330 copies): "If You Ever Need a Stranger to Sing at Your Wedding" (Lekman) / "Hand on Your Heart" (González)
- Remain EP (January 2004)
- 7" single (limited to 300 copies): "Remain" / "Lovestain"
- CD EP: "Remain" / "Lovestain" / "Love Will Tear Us Apart" / "Suggestions"
- Stay in the Shade EP (June 2004 - Sweden; August 2005 - UK; January 2006 - US)
- 7" single (limited to 220 copies): "Down the Hillside" / "Sensing Owls"
- CD EP: "Stay in the Shade" / "Down the Hillside" / "Sensing Owls" / "Hand on Your Heart" / "Instr."
- Australian Tour EP (November 2005 - Australia & New Zealand)
- CD collection of 8 Veneer era B-sides
- B-Sides Collected EP (November 2006 - South Africa)
- 3 EP Collection (September 2007 - Taiwan)
- 3 CD collection featuring Crosses EP, Remain EP and Stay in the Shade EP
- José González & Promise and the Monster Split Tour Single (December 2007)
- 7" single (limited to 500 copies): "How Low" (González) / "Sheets" (Promise and the Monster)
Singles
- "Heartbeats (cover)" (January 9, 2006) #9 UK, #66 AUS
- "Crosses" (April 10, 2006) #107 UK
- "Hand on Your Heart" (July 3, 2006) #29 UK, #88 AUS
- b/w: "Down the Hillside" / "Sensing Owls"
- "Down the Line" (September 10, 2007 - UK) #140 UK, #12 UK Indie
- "Killing for Love" (September 19, 2007 - Sweden)
- "Teardrop" (November 12, 2007)
- "Down the Line" (February 20, 2008 - Sweden)
- "Killing for Love" (January 14, 2008 - digital download; April 7, 2008 - 7" vinyl - UK)
- "Cycling Trivialities" (March 2, 2009 - digital download - UK)
Other contributions
References
External links
