José González is trying to figure out what it is about his music that particularly endears him to Irish audiences.
“I dunno what it is,” muses the Swedish troubadour in a voice that’s softly-spoken, but not half as hushed as his music is. “When I released my first album in Sweden, I thought it was a typical Swedish thing – the moody singer-songwriter. I’ve noticed that it works pretty well in other parts of the world, too, and it’s been particularly good in Ireland. It’s really hard for me to tell you what’s good about my music. I guess people just like it.”

Since the amiable guitarist licensed his cover of The Knife’s ‘Heartbeats’ to Sony for their famous BRAVIA ad, González has found himself more in-demand than ever before. Yet, surprisingly, he doesn’t recoil at the mere mention of those colourful ping-pong balls – instead accepting that it’s a topic he’ll probably always be quizzed on.
“I try not to be negative about things,” he says diplomatically. “I feel like it was a tasteful ad, and really boosted my record sales in the UK, Ireland and Australia. I still don’t like commercials in general, but it was a very powerful tool and reached out to many people. Would I do it again? I think it depends on the advert, on the company, those type of things. I don’t feel like I need to at the moment, I’m pretty comfortable at the level I’m on now.”
Born to Argentinean parents in Gothenburg in 1978, the young José didn’t always harbour ambitions to become an internationally successful singer-songwriter; he explains that the González household was ‘more intellectual’ than musical, that he didn’t pick up a guitar until he was 14, and even studied Biochemistry at university.
“I felt like I hit my (guitar-playing) peak when I was, I dunno, 19, 20 years old,” he chuckles. “Now I’m 29 and I haven’t learned anything new since then! I was able to play some classical pieces that were difficult and sounded good, but I wasn’t anywhere near a flamenco guitarist’s standard. Where I’m playing is somewhere in-between, I think – somewhere between a singer-songwriter and a classical guitarist.”
His second album, last year’s In Our Nature, was thematically about “the darker side of human nature.” I ask him whether he set out to write an album with a moral conscience.
“Well, I write the songs and then later try to find a theme,” he avers. “It was fun with this album, just writing about stuff that has to do with tribalism and religion. I’m interested in researching these topics and trying to write about them in a simplistic way.”
There’s undoubtedly a simplicity to González’s style, which although compared to the likes of Nick Drake and Elliott Smith, is more influenced by “old-timers like Joao Gilberto and (Cuban guitarist) Sylvio Rodriguez.” Still, he names albums by White Williams, Vampire Weekend and Little Dragon as current favourites.
“I always listen to other music to get ideas, to find other rhythms and harmonies. So it’s a mixture of keeping my own style,” he impishly jokes, “and stealing from my favourite ones!”