THE SECRET LIFE OF JOSÉ GONZÁLEZ
José González slinks into our interview with furtive steps and stolen glances. He greets us in hushed tones, carefully choosing his words, as though aware that he shouldn’t betray the autumnal indie-folk persona he’s grown to inhabit over the course of his career.
Three solo studio albums, each a study in late-night introspection, have earned him that reputation. But this isn’t a performance. Secrecy is, in person and song, his medium.
The singer-songwriter, born to Argentine immigrant parents in Sweden, is an enigma waiting to be solved. He isn’t a technical virtuoso in the traditional sense, but his nylon-string fingerwork is unassumingly deft and agile. He’s often pigeonholed with Bon Iver and Iron & Wine, yet the depth of his influences extends far beyond rock, indie and Americana. He had embarked on a PhD in biochemistry, yet his music is more at home in a library than a laboratory.
The 2013 film , which his tunes
