José González: The Rebel With a Song

IT’S DIFFICULT TO imagine a world where José González liked ‘hardcore’. And yet, there was a time when the soft-spoken songwriter was a part of a hardcore punk band. Growing up in Sweden in the 90s, José looked for meaning in the noise. He believed there were philosophical ideas behind all the screaming. He spent days with hardcore bands trying to understand what they stood for, which led him to ask himself what he stood for. He chose to explore this question by writing his own music. And we all remain grateful for that.

From his debut in 2003 with the album Veneer, González made a name for himself with his soft rock and alternative folk style of music. But what grabs one’s attention are his sharp observations about the human condition. Whether it’s the quiet conversations with society in songs like What Will and Leaf Off/The Cave or the unravelling of the human mind in In Our Nature, González’s lyrics unfold like rhetorical question marks. They leave little doubt that he is a thinking man’s musician.

“I want to make people think,” he admits. “I’ve always wondered how am I contributing to make the world a better place. My music is a constant exploration of this question, in engagement with the world.”

His roots play an important role in shaping his social sensitivity. Born to Argentinean parents who fled the country during the coup d’état of 1976, González spent a lot of his early life listening to protest musicians. He considers Latin American singers Mercedes Sosa and Silvio Rodriguez major influences. Apart from sensitising him to the aesthetics of sound, protest music helped him define his own style. This is ironic because they could not be more different from each other. While protest music sang openly about collapsing social structures and the state of the world, González whispered its cures softly into midnight fires.

He says, “The messages in protest music are very clear. They direct you towards clear actions. I was quite inspired by them. But I wanted to make messages more relatable and make similar subjects easy to listen to.” This comes out especially in his second album, In Our Nature. In a way, he was hiding his messages in plain sight. While protest music revealed what was wrong with the world, he talked about what we can do to make it better.

If you conclude that he falls into the category of flower-power songwriters screaming from moonlit rooftops about how love will save the world, you couldn’t be more mistaken. His words are powerful, his tones earnest, as he refutes utopian solutions on his nylon strings. He explains, “It doesn’t take much to drown in impossible expectations of love and ‘living without rules’, but they don’t pan out in the real world. I don’t think anyone entirely buys what’s being said.”

While protest music sang openly about collapsing social structures and the state of the world, González whispered its cures softly into midnight fires

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This might appear to be pessimism, but to González, it’s an essential part of trying to see things for how they really are. This line of thought stretches to his relationship with Indian philosophy and concepts. “The ideas of karma, soul and reincarnation are poetic and can help people through hard times. My issue with superstitious beliefs like these is that once in a while they collide with the world we actually live in, creating more conflict than the harmony they promise.”

But it’s not just the romanticism of mystical notions that he remains vocally against. The hypocrisy found in religions today also tests his otherwise calm composure. He hints at his stance against casteism in the song, Every Age, where he sings:

We don’t choose where we come from
We don’t choose in what pocket or form.

“People mean well, but because of misled world views, they’re doing bad things,” he says. “In many parts of the world, when a woman gets raped, she is forced to keep the child because her religion prohibits her from doing otherwise. To me, that’s obviously very wrong.”

He looks content sitting quietly backstage at The Humming Tree’s Backdoors festival in Bengaluru where he performed recently. He’s been invited to India several times since 2006, but fate had better plans and he headlined this year’s NHh7 Weekender in Pune and Hyderabad. He was surprised to find an audience for his music here in India.

Apart from unearthing the mystery behind the quintessential Indian head nod, González is on a mission to learn how people deal with food and energy in India. He adds, “I’m interested in understanding how people make it work here. How they find order in the chaos. These are topics crucial to our time.”

Indian music, of course, is his primary area of interest. He sneaked a peek into the contemporary music scene while here. However, the Indian music community isn’t alien to him. González is quite taken by late musician Charanjit Singh’s synth project 10 Ragas to a Disco Beat, and particularly by Raag Bhupaali.

González is set to once again collaborate with The String Theory. Post that, he’s ready to work on a third album for his Swedish folk rock and dark indie folk outfit Junip, which he formed with drummer Elias Araya, and organ and synth player Tobias Winterkorn.

Perhaps Junip’s up-tempo cadence is a result of attempts to stay away from his comfort zone. Sometimes, his work with Junip spills into his solo albums, as was reflected in Vestiges & Claws. He admits that he was inspired by Junip, but wanted to go back to his old style. On a closer listen, his album sounds like a combination of staying in his comfort zone of round, warm notes, and trying to find out what else he’s good with.

The intensity of his songwriting makes one wonder if the band members he works with for his solo albums align themselves with his flow of thought. “The simple answer is ‘no’,” says José. “One of the reasons I made the albums on my own from start to finish, except for the mastering, was because I felt like I was exploring my own worldview and ideology from a musical standpoint. It would have been time consuming to find common ground on subjects with fellow musicians and producers.”

His casual humility takes centre-stage when he reminisces about a time when he would sit with a dictionary to pick out English words to write about. Having grown up speaking Spanish and Swedish, English became a second language after he studied Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. This branch of science also led his interest in animal suffering and how morality and ethics are tied to consciousness. He continues to explore his relationship with the latter through his songs, 13 years into his musical journey.

In a world and industry where making noise and making a point are widely seen as the same thing, José González stands on quiet ground as a voice of reason and kindness. Isn’t it wonderful that the voice also sounds as beautiful as it does?

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Shruti Sunderraman