José González

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José González

Background information
Born 1978 in Sweden
Genre(s) Indie, folk
Occupation(s) Singer-songwriter
Instrument(s) Classical guitar
Years active 2003 - present
Label(s) Imperial Recordings, Parasol Records
Associated
acts		 Junip
Website Official website
For other uses, see José González (disambiguation).

José González is a Swedish indie/folk singer-songwriter.

Contents

[edit] Biography

González was born in Sweden to Argentine parents in 1978. In 2003, he released his debut album, Veneer, in Europe. The album has since been released in the UK, on 25 April 2005, and on 6 September 2005 in the United States.

His trademark sound is solo classical guitar with soft melody. His work, although mostly original, does include acoustic covers of such hits as "Heartbeats" by his fellow Swedes The Knife, "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division, "Born in the U.S.A." and "The Ghost of Tom Joad" by Bruce Springsteen, "Hand On Your Heart" by Kylie Minogue, "Smalltown Boy" by Bronski Beat and "Teardrop" by Massive Attack.

[edit] Television appearances

Gonzalez has performed on several television programs, including Late Night with Conan O'Brien (March 29, 2006), the BBC's Later...with Jools Holland (June 9, 2006), and Last Call with Carson Daly (June 21, 2006).

The song "Crosses", from González's Crosses EP and the Veneer album, appeared on the finale of the second season of the popular American television comedy-drama The O.C., as well as on a trailer for a BBC 4 programme. Also taken from the Veneer album, Stay in the Shade was used in the The O.C., midway through season three, in the episode The Pot Stirrer. His cover of The Knife's "Heartbeats" was used in a Sony BRAVIA TV commercial featuring 250,000 coloured bouncing balls in San Francisco as well as in episode 409 of the CW's "One Tree Hill". His music has also been used in the Friday Night Lights TV series (December 12, 2006).

[edit] Collaborations

González also plays in the band Junip with Tobias Winterkorn and Elias Araya. To date, Junip has released a sole EP, Black Refuge. Recently, he has collaborated with UK downtempo duo Zero 7 on their new album, The Garden, where he provides guest vocals on the album's tracks, along with Zero 7 regular Sia Furler. This album features four songs with González on vocals, namely "Futures", "Left Behind", "Today" and "Crosses", which is a cover of his own song "Crosses" from his album Veneer. In addition, Gonzáles collaborated with Finnish house DJ Jori Hulkkonen on the track "Blinded By The Numbers" from Hulkkonen's album Dualizm, released in 2005.


He has also collaborated with the Swedish hip hop DJ and producer Embee on the track "Send Someone Away."

[edit] Discography

[edit] Albums

[edit] EPs

[edit] Singles

  • "Heartbeats" (2006) #9 UK, #66 AUS
  • "Crosses" (2006) #? UK
  • "Hand On Your Heart" (2006) #29 UK, #88 AUS

[edit] External links

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