What are they putting in the water in Sweden? No longer content to pump out mediocre pop acts such as Ace of Base and Roxette, Sweden has been responsible for some of the more interesting albums of late. Bands such as The Hives, The (International) Noise Conspiracy, The Knife and Jens Lenkman are rewriting the Swedish canon of music, and an Argentinian immigrant who goes by the name of José Gonzalez is busy with the latest chapter.
Gonzalez grew up in the workingclass port city of Gothenburg, the setting of the infamous riots that took place during the protests against the 2001 European Union summit.
The riots were immortalised in a song by compatriot Jens Lenkman in Do You Remember the Riots?. “I’m not a political fighter/and I don’t even have a cigarette lighter/but I wanna see that fire/I just wanna see that fire/I just wanted to see that fire,” sings Lenkman.
It was a strange time and place for the residents of Gothenburg, as Gonzalez will attest. “It was really mental, a policeman shooting a protester, that happens anywhere else, but not in Sweden,” says Gonzalez. “It was just down the road from my home and I was watching TV and there was fire everywhere and all these kids were throwing stones and then the police shot one of my friends, the bullet came through here,” he says, pointing at the left hand side of his stomach.
When I ask him about the Lenkman song he smiles, “yeah I like that song,” he says. “We actually went to the same kindergarten, we have played a number of shows together and have played live on stage together too.”
Gonzalez was recently in South Africa for a promotional tour of his debut album, Veneer. It is a dark, brooding album that for the most part features Gonzalez on a classical acoustic guitar with slight minimalist backing.
Although the similarities to British folk pioneer Nick Drake are clichéd, it would be misleading not to mention them. However, a few hours spent in the company of this startling debut will kick up a number of other comparisons such as Tim Buckley, Elliot Smith and Paul Simon. Repetitive guitar licks and meandering vocals lull the listener into a false sense of comfort that makes unsettling lyrics such as, “Poke the body with a stick roll it down / Ignore the moaning as it tumbles to the ground” even more effective.
When I tell Gonzalez that his album has an eerie, haunting element that is hard to put your finger on, he smiles. “I like putting forward dark themes. I like enigmatic music and I don’t like it when you can package a song straight away in your mind,” he says. “So that is a compliment.”
I ask about his musical influences — a question he is hesitant to answer. “I started playing acoustic guitar when I was 14 and then I started playing bass in a punk band called Back Against the Wall, we were very black flag influenced. I liked the directness of punk and I think my music has a similar directness. My music is very different to punk in sound but maybe my approach is influenced by punk.”
On stage Gonzalez is anything but punk — a shy performer who barely acknowledges the crowd. It is almost as if his tightly clutched guitar is the buffer between him and the public eye.
The incredible response to his debut album, recorded mostly in his bedroom, looks to have caught the young Swede unawares. “I thought it was just a Swedish phenomenon but then it happened in the United Kingdom and Ireland,” he says.
Gonzalez is looking forward to returning home and dedicating some serious time to writing the next album. “I can’t write on the road,” he says. He says if everything goes to plan, he’ll be back on our shores early next year for a full tour in support of his new album. We can only hope that everything falls into place.