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Biography
other usesInfobox musical artist| name = José González| image = José González 2008.jpg| caption = José González performing at the Danish Museum of Art, November 2008| image_size =| background = solo_singer| origin = Gothenburg , Sweden | instrument = Classical Guitar , Vocals , Bass Guitar | genre = Indie folk | occupation = Singer-songwriter | years_active = 2003–present| label = Imperial Recordings|Imperial , Parasol Records|Parasol , Mute Records|Mute , Peacefrog Records|Peacefrog | associated_acts = Junip , Zero 7 | website = http://www.jose-gonzalez.com/ www.jose-gonzalez.com| notable_instruments = José González (born 1978) is a Swedish-Argentine indie folk singer-songwriter and guitarist from Gothenburg , Sweden . González is also a member of Swedish band Junip , along with Elias Araya and Tobias Winterkorn.
Biography
González' parents moved from Argentina to Sweden in 1976. He was born in 1978, two years after his psychology academic father, mother and older sister, then an infant, fled Argentina after a military junta seized power in March 1976 at the beginning of the " dirty war ".cite web|url= http://www.theage.com.au/news/music/a-new-way-for-jose/2007/09/20/1189881687722.html|title=A new way for Jose|work= The Age |date=23 September 2007|accessdate=13 May 2011 González was born in a suburb of 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."cite web|url= http://www.musicsnobbery.com/2006/07/jose_gonzalez_t.html|title=Jose Gonzalez: The MusicSnobbery.com Interview|work=MusicSnobbery.com|date=3 July 2006|accessdate=12 August 2011 González grew up listening to Latin folk and pop music, and has named Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez as a favourite artist. 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."cite web|url= http://www.timeout.com/london/music/features/235.html|title=Jose Gonzalez: Interview|first=Chris|last=Parkin|work= Time Out (company)|Time Out |date=13 April 2006|accessdate=12 August 2011
The first band he played in was Back Against the Wall, a Gothenburg hardcore punk band influenced by Black Flag (band)|Black Flag , Misfits (band)|The Misfits and the Dead Kennedys .cite web|url= http://www.exclaim.ca/articles/points.aspx? csid1=116|title=José González Is Quietly Hardcore|last=Rajagopalan|first=Pras|work= Exclaim! |year=2007|accessdate=31 October 2007 He later played bass guitar in another hardcore band, Renascence, between 1993–1998. http://www.grapevine.is/undirflokkar.aspx? id=1116 José González interview with the Reykjavik Grapevine Between 1997 and 1998 José played guitar with rock band Only if You Call Me Jonathan.
In June 2003 González released his debut solo release, a two-track 7" single. The single was discovered by Joakim Gävert, co-founder of the then fledgling label Imperial Records who then signed González as their first official artist.cite web|url= http://www.hitquarters.com/index.php3? page=intrview/opar/intrview_Magnus_Bohman_Interview.html|title=Interview with Magnus Bohman|first=Lukasz |last=Polowczyk|work= HitQuarters |date=25 June 2006|accessdate=10 December 2010 In October he released his debut album, Veneer (album)|Veneer , in Europe. The album was subsequently released in the United Kingdom|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.cite web|url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/guerilla/jose/|title=Sweety Gonzalez: Jose has a quiet word with Guerilla|work= BBC Radio 1 |accessdate=31 July 2008
González' trademark sound is solo classical guitar with soft vocal melody. His work, although mostly original, also includes acoustic covers of such hits as " Heartbeats (song)|Heartbeats " by his fellow Swedes The Knife , " Love Will Tear Us Apart " by Joy Division , " Born in the U.S.A. (song)|Born in the U.S.A. " and " The Ghost of Tom Joad (song)|The Ghost of Tom Joad " by Bruce Springsteen , " Hand on Your Heart " by Kylie Minogue , " Smalltown Boy " by Bronski Beat , " Teardrop (song)|Teardrop " by Massive Attack and "Last Snowstorm of the Year" by Low (band)|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 . http://www.groundcontrolmag.com/detail/1/547/ Jose Gonzalez interview with Mark Ziemke for GroundControlMag.com, 4 September 2007 González is an atheism|atheist .cite web|url= http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment/2008/09/jos_gonzlez_on_learning_portug.html|title=José González on Learning Portuguese and the Likelihood of Hearing ‘Kumbaya’ at His Concert This Weekend|last=Salazar|first=Lauren|work= New York (magazine)|New York |date=26 September 2008|accessdate=9 September 2010
Television appearances
González has performed on several television programs, including '' Late Night with Conan O'Brien (29 March 2006 and 28 September 2007), Jimmy Kimmel Live '' (12 October 2007), the BBC's Later with Jools Holland|Later... with Jools Holland (9 June 2006), Last Call with Carson Daly (21 June 2006), Seven Network 's Sunrise (television program)|Sunrise (15 August 2007) and Canada 's MTV Live (Canada)|MTV Live (5 December 2007).
The song "Crosses", from González's Crosses Extended play|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.Which? |date=August 2011 Also taken from the Veneer album, "Stay in the Shade" was used in 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)|Friday Night Lights TV series (12 December 2006).
His cover of The Knife 's " Heartbeats (song)|Heartbeats " has been used many times. It featured in a Sony BRAVIA commercial featuring 250,000 coloured bouncing balls in San Francisco ; http://blogotheque.net/article.php3? id_article=1541 "José González: sparking heartbeats in the charts", 22 January 2006 interview with La Blogothčque http://www.bravia-advert.com/balls/ Sony Bravia "bouncing ball" advert in episode 409 and 505 of the CW's One Tree Hill (TV series)|One Tree Hill and is included on the album The Road Mix: One Tree Hill Volume 3 ; it featured in season 7, episode 2 of Scrubs (TV Series)|Scrubs ; in season 1, episode 21 of Brothers & Sisters (2006 TV series)|Brothers & Sisters ; in season 4, episode 16 of Bones (TV series)|Bones ; in Stargate Universe ; in 90210 (TV series)|90210 ; in season 1, episode 21 of Whitney_(TV_series)|Whitney ; and in an episode of the British TV show; Sun, Sea and A+E . Gone (2007 film)|Gone , a 2007 film directed by Ringan Ledwidge, features the track "Lovestain", from the Veneer (album)|Veneer album.
Music from González' latest album has also been used in other television shows. His version of Massive Attack 's " Teardrop (song)|Teardrop " was used in the fourth season finale of House (TV series)|House entitled "Wilson's Heart" (the Massive Attack version is used as the show's theme music). It features in the fifth season episode of Numb3rs entitled "The Fifth Man". The song can be heard at the end of Friday Night Lights (TV series)| Friday Night Lights , Season 4 Episode "A Sort of Homecoming".
González performed his original song "Far Away" at the Spike Video Game Awards , where it won "Best Song" for its featured appearance in Rockstar Games ' video game Red Dead Redemption , which also took home the award for "Game of the Year".
Collaborations
González plays in the band Junip with Tobias Winterkorn and Elias Araya. To date Junip have released two EPs; Black Refuge EP|Black Refuge and the free internet release Rope and Summit , along with a full-length album, Fields (Junip album)|Fields .
He collaborated with UK downtempo duo Zero 7 on their 2006 album, The Garden (Zero 7 album)|The Garden , providing guest vocals on the album's tracks, along with Zero 7 regular Sia Furler . González performs vocals on four songs: "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 (singer)|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 . http://www.soundism.com/ soundism.com 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 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.cite web|last=Hall|first=Tara|title=Jose Gonzalez maps North American jaunt | url= http://www.livedaily.com/news/19193.html|work=Livedaily|date=27 May 2009|accessdate=24 June 2009 In 2011, he contributed to the organization's follow-up album "Red Hot+Rio 2" with the song "Um Girassol Da Cor Do Seu Cabelo," recorded with Mia Doi Todd .
González participated in The_göteborg_string_theory|The Göteborg String Theory project in 2009–2011, an experimental music and art project that involved artists from Göteborg ( Göteborg|Gothenburg ), Sweden and classical composers from Berlin , Germany . A new sound piece of his song "Cycling Trivialities" was arranged by composer Nackt for a classcial orchestra. It was recorded and performed together with González, and finally released on the album The Göteborg String Theory (Kning Disk) in April 2010. González continued his collaboration with The Göteborg String Theory in 2011. Nackt wrote 11 new arrangement for González' songs, and in spring 2011 José González and The Göteborg String Theory went on a European tour in 19 cites.
Equipment and tunings
Guitars: González plays an Alhambra classical guitar onstage and Alhambra, Esteve, and Córdoba classicals while recording.
Amps: for live performances, a Fishman Prefix Pro Blend in the Alhambra. When performing solo, he also plays into whatever condenser mic the venue supplies.
Strings: La Bella polished nylon, high tension.
Capo: Shubb C7B partial.
Picks: González plays only with his fingernails, reinforced with a nail strengthener.cite web|url= http://www.acguitar.com/article/default.aspx? articleid=26091|title=José González/Junip|first=Derk|last=Richardson|work= Acoustic Guitar (magazine)|Acoustic Guitar |date=February 2011|accessdate=12 August 2011
González consistently uses 'altered' guitar tunings in his tunes, de-tuning the 6th (E) string down to D for all his songs, with the 3rd (G) string altered between F#, G and A from tune to tune (e.g. A in his cover of Hand on Your Heart and F# in Heartbeats (song)|Heartbeats .) He does the retuning himself during live performances rather than use 3 different guitars on stage.
Discography
Albums
Veneer (album)|Veneer (October 2003) #7 UK, #86 AUS
In Our Nature (September 2007)
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" / "Love Will Tear Us Apart"
* 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)
* CD collection of 7 Veneer era B-sides see Australian Tour EP
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 (song)|Heartbeats ( The Knife cover)" (January 9, 2006) #9 UK, #66 AUS
* b/w: "Suggestions"
"Crosses" (April 10, 2006) #107 UK
* b/w: "Storm"
"Hand on Your Heart" (July 3, 2006) #29 UK, #88 AUS
* b/w: "Down the Hillside" / "Sensing Owls"
" Down the Line (José González song)|Down the Line " (September 10, 2007 – UK) #140 UK, #12 UK Indie
Record (2010, Zero 7) – "Futures – Feat. Jose Gonzalez"
The Göteborg String Theory Album – Cycling Trivialities
References
Reflist|2
External links
Commons category
http://www.jose-gonzalez.com/ Official website
Junip Persondata | NAME = González, José | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = Swedish-Argentine singer-songwriter | DATE OF BIRTH = 1978 | PLACE OF BIRTH = Gothenburg , Sweden | DATE OF DEATH = | PLACE OF DEATH = DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez, Jose Category:1978 births Category:Living people Category:People from Gothenburg Category:Swedish folk musicians Category:Swedish singer-songwriters Category:Swedish atheists Category:Swedish indie rock musicians Category:Swedish people of Argentine descent Category:University of Gothenburg alumni
