Beneath The Surface: Jose Gonzalez

Thanks to a certain, beautifully filmed TV advert of bouncing balls going down a San Francisco street, Jose Gonzalez has firmly burst into the music world’s psyche. Until recently more of a cult figure and only really accustomed to notoriety in his home land of Sweden, suddenly with his poignant rendition of ‘Heartbeats’ lent to that commercial, Mr Gonzalez is a very hot ticket. Everyone from Top of the Pops to daytime Radio 1 are grappling to plug the now revered solo artist. Gigwise caught up with the unfeasibly polite Jose on the week ‘Heartbeats’ got its UK release and as hysteria reaches boiling point…

Of course, those electro-pop connoisseurs amongst you will already know that ‘Heartbeats’ is originally by Jose’s quite fantastic fellow Swedes The Knife. A highlight of the duo’s juggernaut of a debut album ‘Deep Cuts’, surely it was a bit of a risk taking it on, why did you do it Jose?  “It was one of my favourite albums when it came out in Sweden in 2003, it seemed like fun to take on a new song that was still getting a lot of attention so I picked that.â€� Explaining what he hoped to achieve with the cover, he adds: “I’ve done covers before and it’s always been my aim to try and reduce them to just guitars and verses and make them special.â€� We think you’ve done that Jose.

Now caught in a media whirlwind, the very quiet and sedate 27-year-old is naturally a bit overawed by the attention, he splutters: “I’m overwhelmed by it all, I’ve had a similar reaction in Sweden when veneer came out, but this is a different culture and a totally different place so it’s great. I was in Australia a month ago and got an unbelievable reaction there too which was a bit strange.�

Naturally, moving on to the advert that fuelled all this commotion and Jose reveals that lending the song was not a decision he took too lightly. He elucidates: “The people doing the advert had heard the album before and it was them who wanted to use the song and approached me. I was very cautious about doing it, but I saw the video of the bouncing balls and really liked the footage and decided to go ahead. So the fact that they had made the video before I agreed to the song helped my decision.� Fortunately for Jose, he explains that he came off quite well financially out things, “We split it half and half between me and The Knife, that’s the way things work.� Not in some places Jose.

As a man of values, Mr Gonzalez is very cagey about the idea of becoming the next Moby and selling his whole soul to the corporate devil, “I think I wouldn’t let my tracks be used any more. It is a very tricky situation. It’s important to know how to present yourself and if you over do it you’re standing on loose ground. People don’t like you to have too big a corporate name, you can be too greedy.� How true, Jose.

Similarly, Jose is slightly worried about the stigma of being known as a ‘covers artist’. Having also interpreted Kylie Minogue’s Stock/Aitkin/Waterman penned ‘Hand on my Heart’ – a track he fell in love with because of its “very touching lyrics� – Jose feels it may be time to throw in the towel with cover versions, “There’s been so much attention on my two covers that I doubt I will do another one.� However, he’s still extremely pleased with the results: “I’m proud of the songs and proud of the covers. I try to make the songs my own and not copy the original too much. It’s like Johnny Cash covering Nine Inch Nails; most people remember his song now.�