Modern Mavens: José González

Written and Designed by Nathan Evans

The ‘Modern Mavens’ series is a guide to some of contemporary music’s most definitive artists, going through their catalogues and deciphering their greatest qualities. These artists may not be accepted into the pantheon of the legends yet, but this series makes the case for why they should already be or definitely will be. First up, Sweden’s acoustic star.

To get the gushing out of the way, José González is simply one of the best songwriters of his generation. Constantly inward and outward-looking on each of his albums, González addresses so much with so little, that he could fill anyone’s need for melancholia on guitar. Listening to his work is like a spa day under headphones, leaving your body numb and heart tender, your eyes buried shut. Nevertheless, his background has mutated the typical Western ideal of folk and acoustic music, and there are engrossing reasons as to why.

Born in Sweden and of Argentine descent, José possesses certain Latin qualities that peek through in the tone of his voice and guitar. The buoyant sounds of bossa nova most clearly heard on ‘Remain’ and ‘In Our Nature’ is the Chemical X that subconsciously seeps its way into his frosty, Scandinavian songwriting. Gifted on the guitar, he sits in the middle of the beachside flair of classic guitar-slinging from Brazil and Cuba (artists like Milton Nascimento and his all-time, Silvio Rodriguez) with the minimalist folk of Nick Drake. Songs like ‘Lovestain’ and the majority of his second record, In Our Nature, have such a pace to them despite only being aided by quiet handclaps. He jumps up and down the strings and gives it drama and rhythm, setting him squarely apart from the dime-a-dozen folksters out there. Spectating the relationship between him and his guitar, one can observe it either causing friction against him (‘Time to Send Someone Away’), bringing ballast to a solemn subject (‘Neon Lights’), or going it alone for a beautiful afterword (‘Four Forks Ache’). Almost every track sees his guitar spending half a minute setting the instrumental scene to tee up for José to come in with his soft conviction. He needn’t raise his voice to be heard, maintaining a homespun intimacy that many have copied, but few master.

That’s another thing, the complete mastery of his aesthetic despite its apparent scarcity is flooring; the fact that, to most casual listeners, he is defined by his revisions of songs written by other artists shows the clarity in his sound. Seemingly purposefully picking songs from the libraries of synthetic pop and electronica, all have had some degree of success. His iconic rendition of The Knife’s ‘Heartbeats’ was more popular than the already-voguish original; he gave longevity to Bronski Beat’s ‘Smalltown Boy’ and Kylie’s ‘Hands on Your Heart’, and he has given some old anthems the acoustic treatment with Joy Division’s ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ and Massive Attack’s ‘Teardrop’. Each demonstrates how he trims away all excess weight to unlock the natural beauty of these songs, and have become important touchstones in his catalogue.

His own songwriting is just as minimalistic, not only in that it’s him and his sidepiece, but in the cryptic and oft-iterative way that he writes - the exclusion of characters and setting can be a way for listeners to carve a song for their purpose. Many writers use this style to create their art, though given José’s shy demeanour in performance and conversation, as well as that Latin flavour unfamiliar to most Western folk listeners, one starts to piece their own story outside of personal experience, in human kind’s naturally curious and imaginative way. The mood is thus more contemplative than melodramatic, but José’s emotions aren’t projected any less as a result.

Never be fooled by the initial simplicity of his words however, as this is a man who can take two weeks to record songs that took three years to write, evidently more of a perfectionist than what is led on to be. Academically intelligent, González would have become a molecular biologist had his music not taken off, and that close dissection of human nature informs how his songwriting can be so penetrative. ‘All You Deliver’ shows a level of foresight that few others have on their debut record, forecasting an emotional take on the reaction to success, “On the verge of success, it’s all white and fluffy / Horizons are blurred, horizons are blurred / By the time you reach your goal, tongues will be twisted / to the point where you lose track of your soul”.

Here, González lets us peek at a more foreboding attitude, one that is staring at the world’s evils and finding ways to dodge them. Though still light on the ears, these darker cuts are weighty on the shoulders. Tucked in his songbooks are fables on the horrors of isolation (‘Stay in the Shade’) and unnamed demons described as substanceless and deceitful. Equally, ‘The Nest’ chronicles a tale of humans sheltering themselves away from others and building factions by inflicting their paranoia onto their people. As one might imagine with such an eerily detailed storyline, this track ties into his historical past.

Before his infancy, José’s family fled from Argentina to escape the genocidal ‘Dirty War’ that hunted down socialists (these actions received backing from the United States, as it happens), and this knowledge impacts the listener’s perception of some of his lyrics. The opening quadrant of In Our Nature tackles the figureheads who profited off the war, lambasting them for their selfish and short-sighted actions. Such is the open-ended style of his writing, it could easily be translated into the world of unchecked capitalism we find ourselves in today, but either way, the final track of the suite, ‘In Our Nature’, gives the people some reasoning: the structure of the world encourages the worst traits in human nature.

Despite operating usually on a two-minute runtime, there’s a world to unlock with every cut. Gonzales’ calmness lends this to be perfect nighttime listening, when the bombast of life dies away before its inevitable rebirth. A complete rejection of modern recording philosophies, the finest of José’s discography is comprised of songs that are recorded but very rarely produced. His first record Veneer best exemplifies this stripped-back approach, and came at the perfect time for music fans back in 2003. As the internet became more crucial to the promotion and discovery of independent music, people desired for music that the major labels weren’t willing to take a chance on. González’s home-recorded atmosphere was a breath of fresh air for many who weren’t around before the electronic boom of the 80s, or weren’t able to scope out the outsider art of songwriters like R. Stevie Moore and Daniel Johnston. Leader of a renaissance, José even took the indie revolution to the charts, with remarkable feats like ‘Heartbeats’ reaching number 9 on the UK singles chart.

The final factor in the magic of José González’s music is the shortage of it. Though he has worked extensively with the likes of Zero 7 and DJ Koze, as well as his own (admittedly unexciting) side project Junip, José drops as and when he pleases. He spent four years in between his first and second record, and a further eight on his third. While contemporaries like Devendra Banhart and Iron & Wine have been much more prolific, José’s album drops are much more clinical, and that scarcity means his three humble records have had additional time to be fawned over. In short, the enigmatic quality of the man also defines his work. For answers on whether he will add another chapter, one can always come back to a standout line on ‘Fold’ - “I promise one day I’ll be coming round, from my cloud to see what it’s all about.”

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