José Gonzalez 'Veneer' album

27 year-old José González is a rising star in Scandinavia, with the world at his feet. Adored by legions of critics and punters alike, José‘s full debut single shot straight into the Swedish Top Ten. Now he’s being widely tipped as the ‘next big thing’ to emerge from Gothenburg in the wake of Soundtrack (Of Our Lives) - though José‘s music is a starkly intimate contrast to Sweden’s more gregarious rock exports.

Relying simply on his own masterfully eloquent classical guitar and a voice that marries mature assuredness with poignant delicacy, José creates an inimitable sonic world whose allure is all but irresistible. His achingly emotional melodies and thought-provoking lyrics - all sung in perfect, crystalline English - combine in a manner at once familiar (think Nick Drake, Tim Buckley, Will Oldham) and exotic (shades of Brazilian Tropicalia, flamenco, even the odd vestigial trace of Pampas tango). From these disparate sources José has conjured a unique and bewitching signature that is all his own.

Born in 1978, José was brought up in a house that teemed with all kinds of music. His father, is also a singer whose natural taste for Latin American music competed happily with American and UK pop classics; the eclecticism immediately rubbing off on his young son, “We had a guitar at home that I toyed with”, José recalls. “One summer dad gave me a thick yellow book filled with Beatles’ chords, and another with bossa nova classics. I spent the entire summer picking out songs. That’s how I got the basics”.

After these fledgling dalliances, José followed his own path, initially playing bass in Black Flag inspired punk combo Back Against A Wall, before flirting with hardcore in Gothenburg’s Renascence and dipping into indie rock with the unlikely sounding Only If You Call Me Jonathon… But these rites of passage only led him back to the classical guitar, and, after a series of lessons in flamenco playing, the beginnings of a very personal style. “I want (the guitar) to be more than an instrument,” he reveals, “I’ve played classical music for some time, as well as flamenco. The flamenco is special in its touch and rhythm, often with a monotonous feel to it. My guitar playing is a mix of all that: bossanova, Beatles, flamenco and classical.

Vocally, José admits to the influence of some appropriately intimate-toned forebears: Chet Baker, Eliot Smith, Geoff Farina and Songs:Ohia’s Jason Molina among them. He’s also happy to point out the positive effect on his music instilled by listening to such disparate artists as Cat Power, Tortoise and Joy Division.

Although he had a (now highly collectable) limited edition solo single out as long ago as 2001 (and another that year as part of the Gothenburg group Junip) , José’s recording career only really began in earnest in 2003 with the aforementioned success of ‘Crosses’. That opening gambit is about to be introduced to the UK via the AGENDA label, with a full album to follow in early 2005.

It might sound like hyperbole to say José González stands poised to seduce the ears of the world, but, as we all know, Swedish musical exports have a habit of doing just that...

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José Gonzalez - Veneer