In Our Element With Jose Gonzalez

Jose Gonzalez is just how you would imagine him to be: polite, sensitive, softly-spoken, and very calm; almost spiritual. And it is this latter description which Gonzalez has definitely focussed on for his new album, as you can note by its very name: 'In Our Nature'. Unlike his popular debut album, 'Veneer', which contained a whole host of light melodic tracks covering a common ground of love and  goes much, much deeper; as you can hear in the current single 'Down The Line'.

Jose explains, “There are lyrics there about similar topics to those in 'Veneer'… but I have also looked at philosophy and human nature… [and] all the common things found in all animals.” Even the broad and often taboo topic of religion was covered by Jose in track six of his new album, 'Abram'. Gonzalez had been influenced by a lot the English language media to write this second album, and even Richard Dawkin’s bestseller, God Delusion had an affect upon his lyrics. “When I started to write songs for the new album, I wanted to brush up on my English, so I read books and articles, I listened to podcasts, I watched films and these topics ended up infiltrating my lyrics.”

Following the commercial success of 'Veneer', Gigwise wondered what the Gothenburg-born singer was expecting to achieve with 'In Our Nature'.  “I probably have lower sales expectations… with the last album I saw how the commercial helped it achieve popularity.” Does this mean that Jose will be turning down any further ad offers? Jose laughs, “Ha Ha! No-one has asked me yet! ... I’m not desperate, if something comes along which I am interested in then maybe, but the default answer is no!” However, Jose does point out that, “The power of the media is a useful tool and it can dictate your record sales, without this it will definitely sell less.”

Up until meeting Jose, Gigwise had never heard such shrewd sales sense, but we still had to disagree, Jose probably would have still achieved some form of success and coverage because he is such a talent and it is this that shines through in the end, not sound-tracking Sony Bravia ads.