started studying at university and I felt that I didn’t
have enough time to spend on this hobby,” he says.
“We did the recordings, but not that much happened.
But with my solo music, it was different. I kept on
recording once in a while, usually on cassettes and
also on a 7" I put out on my friend’s label. That 7" got
picked up by a label in Stockholm and that was when
I switched from biochemistry to music full-time.”
2003 was the year he endeared himself to the
Pitchfork crowd. He released Veneer, an album
cherished as much for its quietude as its spine-
tingling cover of Heartbeats, an electro-pop song
by out-there Swedish band The Knife. He was
the soft-spoken answer to the eccentric Devendra
Banhart: an acoustic guitarist dressed in corduroy
and brown instead of Banhart’s glitter and gold.
“It was fun to make a cover while [The Knife’s]
version was still on the radio, on TV,” González
explains of his decision to take on songs from bands
that sound wildly different from his own. Trip-hop
group Massive Attack’s Teardrop is another electronic
track he has reworked. “I was inspired by how in
Jamaica, if you have a hit, then everybody does it and
you have five versions going on at the same time. So
in that spirit, I felt it was fun to cover their version.
Since it was different, I was also inspired by Johnny
Cash and his albums, just taking different popular
songs and making them your own.”ON THE SILVER SCREEN
Veneer found a second wind a few years after its
release, when songs from the album were used in teen
soaps – Crosses featured on The OC and Heartbeats
on One Tree Hill. González followed up with the
intimate albums In Our Nature and Vestiges & Claws,
but a years-long touring partnership with The String
Theory brought out a more cinematic approach.
“The String Theory is an orchestra/collective based
in Berlin and Gothenburg,” he explains. “They invited
me as one of many artists to do one song each with
them in Gothenburg in 2008, I think. And I liked it
so much, I invited them to do a full show a couple
of years later. Then, we started touring together as a
22-piece orchestra around Europe and the States. It’s
a very eclectic but very talented collective. They did
arrangements for all my songs; some are very classic
and harmonic, some are more experimental.”
Fast-forward to 2013, and González made his
silver-screen soundtrack debut with a collection of
grander tunes for The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty.
“It was the first time I worked on a film that big.
I’d done a TV series in Sweden, but when I started
working on the film, it felt like a big thing for me,”
he says. “So I was like, I can’t say no to this and said
yes, even though I felt like I didn’t have the time.
It was very nice to collaborate with Ben Stiller and
[film composer] Teddy Shapiro, who’s done so many
films and comedies.”of Tropicália and bossa nova – in particular Mercedes
Sosa, João Gilberto, Silvio Rodríguez and Caetano
Veloso – formed the bedrock of his guitar style.
“My father used to sing in an Argentinian folk
band. So basically, harmonies and bomba drums, two
or three guitars. That sound is something that I think
I assimilated. My father and his band would sing The
Beatles and bossa nova. I grew up with João Gilberto
and was always inspired by that simplicity and that
style of singing, which was always calm. Similar to
Chet Baker, singers who don’t really shout – very soft
and close to the mic,” he recalls.
But it didn’t begin that way. In the 90s, González
played in hardcore bands before forming the indie-
rock trio Junip with two childhood friends. Only in
the University Of Gothenburg, with the pressure of
pursuing a life in academia, did he come full circle to
the sounds of Latin America. “With each year, I had
less and less interest with my hardcore band and I“I GREW UP WITH JOÃO GILBERTO
AND WAS ALWAYS INSPIRED
BY THAT SIMPLICITY
AND THAT STYLE OF SINGING,
WHICH WAS ALWAYS CALM”
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JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ
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