Jose Gonzalez Quotes

I am me, whatever that means. I am conscious.

People often expect me to be very serious, but it’s not like my record company told me not to smile in photographs, because I was like that anyway.

I guess I am actually quite shy, and I’ve always felt very self-conscious during interviews.

I let the music set the tone of the lyrics.I allowed myself to write more about relationships and emotions, in a girly way almost.

I love entertaining Korean people with traditional songs from Ecuador . It has been an exceptional, new experience for me to perform in Korea and I enjoyed so much.

If you’re not critical about your history, that can be a problem because there are religious leaders, politicians and all kinds of powerful people who can take advantage of a population that isn’t really thinking.

Live, love, wonder, and be nice!

I think Sweden is known for people being a bit more quiet than other cultures, and I guess it’s a mixture: shyness and leaving room for other people to talk. Of course, when people get drunk, all of that disappears.

Ever since I released my first album, I’ve tried not to use minor chords as the main element in songs. The way I sing is too melancholic.

I like mixing or combining hobby and pleasure with work and have-tos.

I’m a very slow reader – I read maybe three or four books a year – so I listen to podcasts and the occasional audiobook, and I watch TED talks.

I listened to all the Misfits albums growing up and Red Hot Chili Peppers, too.

I always start with the music and then try to figure out what I want to write about lyrically.

Love is just chemicals.

It was a big surprise when I started to get attention in Sweden, going from biochemistry studies to touring and living from music only. There were a couple of years while I went to university when I was OK with thinking of music as just a nice recreation.

I think I’ve become more aware of aging in the last couple of years because of friends dying of cancer or friends’ parents dying and myself – I’m still healthy, but I’m aging, and that’s something that I think about more, even though I shouldn’t be too concerned.

I speak Swedish, it’s my first language. Of course, growing up with Latin American parents from Argentina, I also have some other influences from other cultures. But Sweden is where I feel the most at home.

Democracy, like life, is hard to learn and doesn’t have a teacher.

I started playing the guitar when I was 14. I’m not superstitious about guitars, but I do need strings to be old because that’s part of my sound, and I don’t like steel strings.

I can change, I can grow.

I aim for weekly routines with clear goals but make sure I do some stuff that I think I’ll value in the long run.

My show is an anti-show and the audience have to want to listen. I’m sitting down, there’s only one of me, I don’t talk much to the audience and it is very quiet. I wouldn’t be able to do that kind of show if people didn’t know me and my material.

We always get back to old soul singers like Nina Simone, and how her recordings sound. Also new music like Tobacco, or people that use a mixture of analog and electronic music.

I can live for my music, but I don’t need to be recognized everywhere.

It can be a bit frustrating to always get the soft-rock stamp.

When your hair is rising, that’s when you know it’s a good song – that’s happened to me with some artists and some songs, John Lennon songs or when Nina Simone sings. It’s great to make those moments yourself.

Swords and knives make me feel vulnerable.

Postpartum depression is very, very common but a lot of people just don’t recognize that they have it. A lot of physicians also don’t ask (patients) about it, so it’s a problem from both sides.

The music that I’m known for is quiet and gentle, although when I was growing up and as a teenager, I was playing the opposite – I was screaming and playing bass and those loud electric guitars.

They really don’t know where the future lies. If developers decide to build a high-rise where the McCormick building is, they’d have nowhere to go.

We always had a guitar at home, but it wasn’t until I was 14 when I picked it up myself when my father handed me these sheets of music of the Beatles and some other classics. That’s where I learned all the chords and learned how to play and sing at the same time.

I grew up with a strong Spanish influence. I tried to learn flamenco when I was younger. But it’s like my teacher said: ‘It takes a lifetime to learn flamenco.’