Jose Gonzalez Quotes

#1. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

#2. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

#3. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

#4. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

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

Jose Gonzalez

#6. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

#7. I don't want to be too harsh, but there's very little evidence for 'intelligent design' or any sort of creator.

Jose Gonzalez

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

Jose Gonzalez

#9. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

#10. Democracy, like life, is hard to learn and doesn't have a teacher,

Jose Gonzalez

#11. 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.'

Jose Gonzalez

#12. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

#13. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

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

Jose Gonzalez

#15. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

#16. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

#17. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

#18. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

#19. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

#20. 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,

Jose Gonzalez

#21. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

#22. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

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

Jose Gonzalez

#24. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

#25. 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.

Jose Gonzalez

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

Jose Gonzalez